3 Marketing Strategies that are Perfect for an Introvert

Lots of my clients tell me they just don’t feel comfortable doing a lot of the marketing they are told they “should” do, especially if they are more introverted or sensitive.

And I get it because I’m also an introvert – in fact I’m one of the most introverted people I know, despite having a relatively public facing business

I’ve run my business for 13 years,  so despite my introverted nature I’m still reaching enough ideal clients with my marketing for my business to work.

But as an introvert there are lots of aspects of marketing that just don’t feel good to me.  Maybe you’re the same?  Yes I could push and force myself, but the truth is,  I don’t want to build a business around things I don’t enjoy and have to force myself to do every day.

In this blog and video I’m sharing 3 marketing strategies for that could be perfect if you are an introverted business owner.  And a bonus tip to help you if you don’t want to feel like you are pushing to make sales all the time.  You don’t have to “push” to get seen or to sell if you want your business to be successful – there are other ways to do it!

Watch the video below or scroll down to read the blog:

I do feel I was lucky because I figured out pretty early on in my business which marketing approaches work for me.  And by “work” I don’t just mean get results, I mean things that get results and that I feel relatively comfortable or even that I thoroughly enjoy doing!

I’m going to share the top 3 marketing strategies I use in my business including the reasons why they work so well for an introvert:

1. Speaking

If you’re an introvert and you don’t speak as part of your business already you might be thinking ‘Oh my gosh, how could you possibly suggest that. I feel absolutely terrified of being at the centre of attention at the front of the room!’.  I used to feel the same but here’s what I discovered: speaking is way more comfortable than networking!

When you are speaking you don’t have to work the room or make small talk.  Instead you are in your expertise talking about the thing you know best, and answering questions on a topic you feel confident about.

You don’t have to work hard “convince” people how great you are because you have already been positioned as an authority to the whole room by the very fact you’ve been invited to speak.

I’ve always found myself much more comfortable at the front of the room teaching my expert topic than in the middle of the room struggling to make small talk.

Also another great benefit of speaking:   You haven’t had to do all the marketing to fill that room yourself. You’ve reached a new audience, but you only had to pitch yourself to one person – the event host.

And the best news of all, the more speaking you do the more the speaking opportunities find you.
In my first 2 years of business I was speaking 1-2 times per month and I didn’t actively pitch for any of them.

2. Partnerships

Partnerships works so well because for this strategy you don’t have to do marketing that feels like “broadcasting out to big wide world” (which often feels more like broadcasting to the void!), and is the type of marketing most introverts are most uncomfortable with.

For more why this is, this see my previous video/blog on How to do Marketing as an Introvert.

Instead of broadcasting, you are building relationships one person at a time.  And as you do so, you could be getting access to much larger audiences than you can reach by broadcasting on your own channels.

To share an  example from early in my business:   I paid to go to a conference and just happened to sit next to another business owner who had a big community already.  She loved the sound of what I wanted to do and invited me to do a training for her audience.   By doing that I grew my mailing list from 300 to 800 people in a matter of days!

But you don’t have to do public trainings and masterclasses to make partnerships work.

Another example is a lady who was the Tech Expert inside my membership for the first 3.5 years.  She built a one-to-one relationship with me, and as a result of that one relationship was positioned to all our members as the “go to” person for help with their tech.   So she built a relationship with me, and then benefited from all of my marketing and sales efforts (this was a very fair exchange as I’m not great with tech and needed someone I could trust to recommend to my clients).

Or another example is a client of mine who consciously developed 121 relationships with much more outgoing people and they refer clients to her in return for a 10% fee.

One of the things I love about partnerships like this is that the opportunities that are generated are often based more around you sharing your expertise and less about you positioning, posturing, and telling the world how darn fantastic you are 5 times a day!.

So you might be invited to do a guest masterclass, webinar, or a guest blog post.  Which means that are in teaching and serving mode.  For me this is much more comfortable than “broadcasting” about myself out to the world.  Maybe you’d feel the same?

3. YouTube

I say YouTube but this could be any content platform – it could be a podcast, or blog.  Though there are specific reasons that I love YouTube most of all.  What I’m talking about here is Content Marketing rather than social media – though of course you can still share that content onto social media to have it seen by a few more people.

Again, creating content has a different “feel” to me.  It doesn’t feel like shouting into the void hoping I get noticed.  Instead I feel like I’m teaching and sharing my expertise – which is my comfortable and happy place.

I also don’t feel as exposed to the “big wide world”.  Because of the way the YouTube algorithm works, it’s more likely to show my videos to people who fit my ideal client profile – who I know are kind and caring heart-centred business owners who mostly want to make a difference to others, and get well paid for it.

When I’ve done much more public forms of marketing like Facebook Ads I’m reaching a much broader spread of people, I’ve definitely experienced some nasty comments, and this can really shake our confidence, especially when it happens near the beginning of our business before we’ve build up our resilience and self-belief.

Also, when I’m creating content, I don’t feel like I’m “marketing”.  My mindset is more that I’m “teaching”. I’m creating valuable content to serve and help the people who I know will benefit, and that feels really good to me.  Then I trust that when my ideal client comes across me if they like what I do they will subscribe – or even better – sign up to my mailing list.

Then the video will be repurposed – I turn it into a blog (you are reading one now).  I could also repurpose it into snippets for social media, though I don’t currently do that.  Instead I just share the video to a couple of social platform.

The important distinction here is that I’m not trying to get clients from social media – I’m just sharing my content on there as a way of keeping myself front of mind, and reminding people that I exist.

And eventually I launch one of my programmes, and by now the know, like and trust is built and people are more likely to buy from me than than if I showed up on their feed as a random stranger.

Bonus Tip:

How to not feel like you are selling all the time

As an introvert you are also unlikely to feel comfortable constantly in “hustle” mode trying to get people to buy from you.   This can feel grasping, self serving and can actually cause you to hold back from inviting people to find out more.

Now of course, if you come across someone who clearly needs your services you should definitely invite them to a call to find out more!

But generally, rather than spend all my time out in the world trying to sell, I prefer to speak, deliver guest trainings and masterclasses, do a podcast interview, build partnerships and create video content for YouTube.  And Every. Single. Time.  I do that I invite people to sign up for one of my Free Giveaways.

This get them onto my email list and I can then keep in touch by email, and when I have something to offer I can email them to invite them.   In other words I nurture and keep in touch with people until they are ready to buy.   This means I don’t have to spend my time in “sell” mode, I can run my business in “teach and invite” mode, and then put out offers at specific times.

How about you?  Does this article help you see that even as an introvert you can find ways to market your business that feel great for you?

If you are yet to find marketing approaches that feel REALLY good for you you might enjoy my free training:

How to Get Clients when Marketing is Making you Miserable

If you’d like to learn more from me about how to find ways to market your business that feel more in flow for you sign up for this free training full of new ideas for how to make your marketing more enjoyable, whether that’s on or off social media.
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