Why We Have to Ditch Shame Marketing Tactics – A Guide to Whole-Hearted Marketing
We’ve all fallen victim to shame marketing tactics that can make us feel awful about ourselves at times.
Even the word ‘marketing’ can sometimes get a bad rep – due to these frequently used empathy-lacking techniques.
Maybe you’re confused about how to market your business in a way that resonates with you and feels good.
You don’t want your ideal clients to feel bad about themselves when they peruse your content.
So, what can you do to inspire them, lift up their spirits and make them feel good about purchasing from you?
Rather than scare them, shame them, fearmonger them into buying from you.
Let’s unpack it.
For those of you who like to skip ahead, I see you 👀 and this table of contents is for you! ✨
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What is Shame Marketing
Shame marketing is the use of unethical tactics like fear, scarcity, and shame in the language and selling points that are being used for marketing purposes.
Weight loss companies use shame tactics extremely often because they want their customers to feel shameful about their bodies. Companies in the weight loss industry who use shame tactics in their marketing want to make their customers feel so bad about how they look that they’ll want to change it by getting the products the company is offering.
If you’re the owner of a holistic brand, you’ll probably understand that these are very low vibrational and unethical ways of marketing that perpetuate shame and insecurity in our society.
Shame marketing will induce feelings of guilt, fear, shame, scarcity, jealousy, and just a huge range of unsettling emotions that will have the targeted customer base feeling upset and insecure after perusing the content.
Alternatively, what I call heart-centred marketing, is focused on uplifting, inspiring, helping, and encouraging, which are much higher vibrational energies.
This type of marketing is aimed at aligning and resonating with your ideal clients in an authentic and ethical way.
This allows your brand to build genuine reciprocity with your target audience so that you’ll have returning customers who genuinely love your products and appreciate your holistic approach to marketing, as they feel good about themselves and inspired when they are perusing your content.
How Shame Tactics are Making Your Customers Feel
The irony of using shame or scarcity tactics in your marketing efforts is that they will make your customers feel like they can’t trust you.
They’ll remember how bad they felt when they stumbled upon your page and were body shamed into buying your products or services.
Or falsely scared into a time crunch that didn’t truly exist.
If you send a time-sensitive opportunity, and when the time is “up,” you continue to follow up with them, saying it’s their “last chance” 5 or 6 times, you’ll begin to lose their trust.
You want to focus on solving the pain points that won’t cause them to feel shameful about themselves.
And when sending a time-sensitive opportunity, stay true to the deadline.
If you were a weight loss brand that wanted to implement wholehearted marketing and ditch shame marketing, you could go about it by recognizing that people who desire weight loss aren't always focused on the cosmetic changes the weight loss will bring or what other people think.
Many people desire weight loss so they can have more energy, live longer, and be able to meet their athletic goals.
For example, maybe they desire to be able to run a certain distance, do a handstand, or hike a mountain.
These are the type of things you can highlight that will inspire others to make sustainable and realistic changes in their health rather than shaming them.
Talking about these pain points and using encouraging language will leave anyone who lands on your page something to think about. Not to feel bad about.
Because people with whom these goals do not align will not leave your website feeling bad about themselves, and the ones who do desire to do these things may leave feeling inspired to get started.
A quote I love from Maya Angelou is:
“I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”
So, although people likely won’t remember what you say in your marketing efforts, or even necessarily what you were offering, they’ll at least remember how you made them feel.
So, if you make them feel good about themselves, capable, and inspired when they come to your page.
They’ll remember that, and they’ll be more likely to come back to your page and buy from you.
– so make it your goal to make them feel great.
How to Empower Your Clients Rather Than Shame Them
You want to inspire your customers to want to buy from you because you truly have something valuable to bring to the table.
Using fear-mongering and shame tactics simply won't get this job done,
If you own a holistic health and wellness business, likely you’ve heard of the importance of alignment and high vibrational energies.
The goal of implementing these energies is both spiritual and psychological.
Spiritually –
These high vibrations will attract ideal clients to you, they will feel good about being on your page, and they will understand and resonate with what you have to offer.
Psychologically –
As Maya Angelou said, people don’t remember what you say, they remember how you made them feel.
So, if you make them feel inspired and encouraged to improve their life and their health in a way that doesn’t evoke shame but rather offers confidence and encouragement, they are much more likely to trust you and buy from you.
When what you have to offer is of genuine value, marketing in this way will be much more effective.
When you ditch shame marketing, you will also be more likely to acquire loyal repeat customers.
Customers who will bring you referrals and continue to grow your business for you while you sleep in on Monday morning (we’ve all been there).
Whole-hearted marketing is the difference in truly walking the talk of your holistic business model.
And it works.
Where to Start Implementing Whole-Hearted Marketing Strategy
If you want to start implementing a wholehearted marketing strategy but don’t know where to start,
First, I’m glad you’re here!
You can start by publishing high-quality content that your audience will find truly helpful.
If you offer them value before requiring them to purchase something, they won’t be getting the “Ick” when they get to your page.
If you continually insinuate that there is a secret….
This secret will change their life…
This secret…
Which you will only reveal after they purchase something from you.
They’re likely going to get a serious “Ick” from what you’re trying to do.
There is a lot of really useful content you can provide your potential customers/clients with before they buy from you.
You can offer them a freebie in exchange for their email, publish high-quality blogs, send out a newsletter every week, have a podcast, post YouTube videos or anything of that nature which requires no initial purchase in order to receive value.
It also shows them you’re a real person who is passionate about what you do.
Giving them value right off the bat will show them your business is genuinely trying to help them, and even if they don’t purchase from you, there are still resources available which will help them along.
And more likely than not, have them purchase from you in the future because of all the steps you’ve taken to build a truly valuable customer relationship with them.
Statistics show that 47% of consumers will view 3-5 pieces of content before speaking with a sales representative.
When your marketing aligns with what your business truly stands for, you are winning at the game of continual business growth and alignment between you and your ideal clients and customers.
I hope this article inspired you to adopt a more heart-centred approach to marketing!
One that will truly align with your holistic business.
If you’d like to get in touch with me to learn more, you can schedule a quick call using the link below.
Thanks For Reading!
– Stay Well & Be Kind 🌟
