Ego-Marketing Is Killing Your Business, So Stop It

You’ve built a business.  You’ve put in a lot of hard work, blood, sweat and tears, but now your business is built.  You are proud of your business and rightfully so.  Building a business is one of the hardest things you’ll ever have to do, and you should be proud and want to show off a bit.  But your marketing is not the place to do it.

The purpose of your marketing strategy, whether it be online or offline, is to attract new customers. Everyday, as both a consumer, and a person who works with businesses, I see people forget that, and instead focus on how awesome they are.  Expounding about how great you, or your company is, is not the same thing as demonstrating to a consumer why he should become a customer.  Focusing your marketing on you is what I call ego-marketing, and it’s more common than you think. You might be doing it yourself and not even realizing it.  Here are four ways you can spot ego-marketing.

Ads that are bigger than they need to be

In today’s evolving world of performance marketing, bigger is not always better.  The key is to look at your return on investment.  Often, smaller, better targeted and more well placed advertising will have a greater ROI than bigger, more expensive advertising.  A small ad in a trade magazine is better than a half-page ad in a mass-market glossy.  The third position for a PPC ad is better than the first.  Most of these things make sense when we evaluate them critically, so why do so many people still do them?  Because it feels better to see your ad in first place, and it feels better to see a big billboard with your brand on it.  It’s ego-stroking.

Copy that focuses on features, and not benefits

This is a cardinal sin of copy writing, but you still see it often because people either write their own copy and don’t realize it, or people hire copy writers and tie their hands.  Business owners will focus on the features of their products, as opposed to the benefits to the customer because they’re looking at it from their own perspective.  As a business owner, when you’ve got a product with cool features, you love to talk about them, because, hey, they’re cool!  Think about when you buy a new TV and your friends come over and you want to show it off to them.  What you talk about are the television’s features: this many hertz, that much resolution, this many millions of colours, etc.  You’re doing that because you’re doing it for your benefit, not for them.  Because you’re showing off your TV.  If the sales guy at the store had sold you the TV the way you bragged about it to your friends, you probably wouldn’t have bought it, though.  Bragging to your friends is fine, bragging to your customers doesn’t work so well.

Excessive use of accolades

I was browsing a website the other day, and as I scrolled down the page, all I saw were awards and achievements.  It got to the point that I got to the end of the page, and not only was I bored, but I also wasn’t sure what the company whose site I was on did exactly.  It’s an extreme example, and the use of accolades in marketing can be helpful to show value and quality, but over-doing it becomes tiresome and boring to your potential customer.  Think of your advertising as a conversation at a cocktail party.  No one wants to hang out with the guy who spends the whole evening talking about all of his achievements.  They want to hang out with the guy who is interesting, intriguing and has something to offer without having to talk about it all night long.

Ads that focus on the business, not the customer

I enjoy learning the history of the companies that I give my business to.  It helps me connect with them, and makes for a more engaging experience than simply me just handing them my money.  However, I only do this for the companies that I know I’ll be giving my money to.  Before I make that decision, I’d much rather hear what the customers of the business have to say than what the business has to say.  So, if your marketing strategy puts a long description and history of the business before customer testimonials, you’re ego-marketing.

How to recover from ego-marketing

The good news is that the best way to stop ego-marketing is to recognize that you’re doing it and stop it.  Pretty easy.

The bad news is that it’s an easy trap to fall back into.  Large companies have it easier because employees are not as invested in the company and in the product, so it’s easier to market it without that pride coming through.  Smaller companies are very closely invested in their business and rightfully so.  As I said in the beginning, they are entitled to be proud.

If you’re concerned about falling back into the trap of ego-marketing, keep in mind that you’re already sold on your own products, so you might not be the most objective person to know what it takes to sell them.  If you want that objectivity, ask others.  Ask you current customers what sold them on your product and focus on that.  Ask complete strangers (whether in the form of market research or just an informal chat) what they would need to hear to purchase your services.  Ask a marketing expert; it’s their job to know what works, and they have the distance necessary to produce convincing marketing.

What do you think?  Am I being too harsh?  Can ego-marketing actually be effective?