How I Unf*cked My Marketing: Why Social Media Has Ruined People Who Sell Services

I recently unf*cked my marketing, and I wanted to share a brief explanation.

Social media has messed up how many of us who sell services (like me) execute their marketing. One thing that helped me was to ask myself a question:

"Do people buy from me, or do they hire me?"

If someone buys from you, they're getting something more or less off the shelf, with nominal if any customization and personalization to them. The easy example is a course. It's pre-built, no customization. Maybe you add office hours on the side for buyers to get personalized support, but for the most part, there's no customization. People buy the course. They do not hire you.

1:1 or 1:company services are the most personalized. In fact, the main value IS in how you personalize what you know and what you can do for the client specifically.

So how do you market something based on personalization, not set systems and pre-recorded material?

First, get off social media, and go find densities of your ideal buyers. Then build trust with the people who built those densities. Those are your “trust personas” (vs buyer personas). As you build relationships with them, you can work down the list of high-ROI activities together: direct referrals / free calls you offer to their clients to advise on your area / private talks to small groups / public talks with open reg / appear in their existing content / collab on new content.

We tend to work backwards on that list, only valuing the last 3. Mistake.

For years, my marketing was misaligned with my model. I acted like a SaaS company or thought leader selling keynotes, since both used to be the case. But today I sell 1:1 advisory to experts and entrepreneurs. I'm their thought partner and exec. producer to develop their differentiated premise and IP, their messaging, and their signature speeches.

My content thus serves different purposes: my own fulfillment + sharpening my thinking into IP, which I take with me everywhere + engaging folks who already trust me, more deeply + (only lately) growing a 2nd offering, membership.

But I don't depend on social to sell services. Instead, I develop 1:1 relationships with the folks who lead groups of my clients or serve them with complementary offerings. Then I work through that list above.

So sure, my content fuels awareness, but not the way we're taught. My content fuels awareness because when I show up to densities of my audience elsewhere (e.g. a virtual talk to someone's mastermind group), I bring with me material that's been validated + practiced.

And yes, my content drives conversion, but not the way we're taught. My ideal clients need to spend time with me beyond seeing me speak or hearing me guest. They need to know I'm not just good at evangelizing my ideas but can in fact customize and personalize my ideas, applying them to people like them.

Social media has messed up our approach. If you sell services, it might be time to unf*ck your marketing. I wasted years learning this lesson.