You cannot market transformational services using traditional marketing formulae. I don’t think you can market anything effectively in that way, but it’s a mug’s game, trying to express the truths of sacred work in terms of pain points and other traditional marketing-speak.
You can, however, talk about benefits, because transformational work serves and benefits people. Those benefits may be ones that haven’t been valued, in the past, in the world of business and marketing, but most everyone understands the benefits of experiencing peace in their relationships, ease and clarity in making difficult choices, or fluency in communicating with their co-workers.
To bring your work to the attention of those folks who need what you have to offer, begin with attunement, resonanace and empathy. You already know your tribe — they are the folks who come to you because what you offer is exactly what they need. You know what they long for, what moves them, what grieves them, what they desire, what they want to create. You know the particular forms their needs and desires take, and where these intersect with your own genius, the work you do, the programs and services you offer. You know how you can serve them, and serve their souls.
Begin there. Call on the Devas of communication, simplicity and service to hold the space for you, as you begin writing or speaking to your folks. Use the World of Your Business Playbook, to help you craft a language that speaks simply and eloquently to the folks who belong in the world of your business. Anchor the universal in the particular, the sacred in the everyday world in which we all live.
Use language that is concrete, down-to-earth, rich in sensory detail. Use language that creates vivid pictures in your readers’ minds, that allows them to enter into the world you’re describing and to inhabit it so fully that they are breathing its air, and savouring its flavours.
Ask your allies — those clients and students who have benefited from your work — to talk about their experiences, and let their stories speak for you. You can do this by interviewing them, posting testimonials from them, inviting them to write guest posts for your blog, or in a variety of other ways.
And, tell true stories. Share your own stories. Share stories about folks with whom you’ve worked (with their permission, of course). Share the stories that show how the spirit of transformation works in the everyday world.
Our world has changed. Sacred teachings that at one time were available only to a chosen few, and only through arduous discipleships that often required a surrender of sovereignty to gurus and shamans, are now circulating far more freely.
In some ways, this evolution is akin to the socio-political changes wrought by the invention of the Gutenberg press. Knowledge that had been available only to elites via hand-scribed and very expensive manuscripts that only scholars could decipher, became available to anyone who could afford the price of a printed book.
There are dangers in the free dissemination of information. It can be misunderstood, misused, reduced to a cliche, or worse. But there are also incalculable benefits.
Sacred teachings were always intended to bless and serve the world. The energetic shifts that are happening on the planet now require each of us to step up into our wholeness and sovereignty, and to take responsibility for shaping a world that works for everyone. To do this, we need skills. It’s why I continue to teach transformational programs — to offer anyone who wants to learn them, a set of skills and practices with which they can be effective agents of the sacred in the world.
Think about the deep desire that impels you to do what you do. Consider how your offers serve the folks in your world. Then, speak directly to them, from your heart, without jargon, abstraction, or obfuscation. Marketing is soul art.