Embrace Spiritual Marketing
and
Your Spiritual Business will Grow
 Does the idea of Spiritual Marketing scare you off?
As a spiritual business owner, you may worry that in some way, marketing your business will compromise your
spiritual ideals. Spiritual business owners (like you) are often "allergic" to the idea of marketing. This is
because many spiritual business owners don't understand what "marketing" really involves. Not only is this way of
thinking self-destructive, but it has far-reaching negative effects on others.
Instead, think of spiritual marketing as a way of spreading "good vibes." Did you know that spiritual marketing
can really be described as "the transfer of excitement from one person to another?" When you think of it this way,
spiritual marketing sounds pretty cool, doesn't it?
The Difference Between Spiritual Marketing
and Selling
"Marketing" and "selling" are two different concepts, and both are necessary components of any business. It's
important for any spiritual business owner to understand the difference between the two.
Marketing has to do with getting your message out there. To do this, first you evaluate what you have to offer.
Then you set up a plan for advertising, figure out your pricing, and decide how you will handle the exchange of
money for your goods or services (which is also known as "selling").
As you can see, selling is only a small part of spiritual marketing. Nowadays among enlightened business owners,
selling is done in an evolved way too, by educating the potential customer throughout the sales process -
ultimately letting this person "sell him or herself." Selling doesn't have to be pushy when it's done like
this.
What is Spiritual
Marketing?
Marketing is a way to get your business known, so your target market will come to you for your services.
Spiritual marketing includes advertising, but it's really much more than that - especially in today's Web 2.0
world. Several examples of marketing include:
(1) Search Engine Marketing, which essentially uses the search engines as an advertising channel
(2) Social networking
(3) Article marketing
(4) Online press releases
(5) Website and blog development
(6) Video marketing (www.youtube.com)
(7) Marketing using online forums (e.g., Yahoo Groups, http://www.meetup.com, http://www.ryze.com).
(8) Regular newsletters or ezines
(9) Broadcasting your own podcast
(10) Linking to your website in your email signatures
Also included is traditional marketing methods like:
♦ Business cards
♦ Flyers
♦ Website
♦ Paid advertisements in magazines, newspapers, etc.
♦ Direct mail
♦ Card pack advertising (http://www.valpak.com and others)
♦ TV or radio commercials
Effective spiritual marketing increases the public's awareness of you, your service, or your product, which in
turn increases your profits - setting your spiritual business on the path to success.
An Example of Spiritual Marketing in
Action
As a spiritual business owner, you won't have to "sell your soul" in order to market your business. You can
market your spiritual business with integrity.
Julie is a great example of someone who effectively applies spiritual marketing. She's a Life Coach who truly
believes that she has something beneficial to offer her clients. Julie uses spiritual marketing to make her
business known to the public. She has an informative website about her spiritual business that (thanks to Search
Engine Optimization) receives free traffic from all of the search engines. Julie keeps in touch with her website
visitors via her monthly newsletter and her frequently-updated blog. She writes articles that demonstrate her
expertise, so people see her as a trusted advisor. Because Julie markets her business so well, she's becoming
increasingly well-known to the public, and her business is flourishing. People pick up on her good energy when they
read her newsletters and visit her blog, and this motivates them to call her for coaching sessions. She
accomplishes all of this by sharing her enthusiasm about her profession - which is essentially what spiritual
marketing is about!
Spirituality and business don't have to be like oil and water - they can work hand-in-hand to build your dream
into a solid business through the use of spiritually-minded business ethics.
Spiritual Marketing Embraces the Concept of
Money
You can unite the world of business with your desire to make the world a better place (through yoga, art
therapy, or whatever your spiritual business involves). You believe wholeheartedly in what your spiritual business
has to offer… and you deserve to earn money from your services too. Many spiritual business owners feel like money
is "tainted" and that to accept money in exchange for their goods or services in some way diminishes the purity of
what they have to offer. This is absolutely not so!
Money is an energy exchange and a healthy way to offer someone the benefit of your years of schooling and
training. In most societies worldwide, an exchange of money for services keeps the economy moving along in a
productive way. Even a leader of a spiritual practice like Reiki (Hawayo Takata 1900 - 1980) advocated the exchange
of money for services (http://www.reiki.nu/history/takata/takata.html)
A lot of spiritual business owners shy away from marketing because they don't understand what it really is. Once
spiritual business owners learn how to embrace spiritual marketing, they will experience all the benefits of
utilizing effective marketing methods - without any of the guilt.
Why You Should Embrace the
Benefits of Spiritual Marketing
Marketing is important in order to run a successful business. What happens to your business when you don't
market yourself?
David is an animal communicator, and he's very good at what he does too. He's trying to start a spiritual
business because he believes he has something meaningful to offer the people and animals he works with. David has a
natural gift for connecting with animals, and his friends are amazed at how well he communicates with their
pets.
Despite his friends' encouragement, David still fears the skepticism of the mainstream public, so his marketing
efforts are minimal. Instead he relies upon word of mouth for his business to grow. Because he doesn't market
himself well, he has trouble finding new clients. At this point, he thinks that being poor is just his lot in life,
because he has not yet come to terms with accepting money for his natural gifts.
Is it better to be poor without marketing? The benefits of earning and spending money affect many other people
too. For example, if you earn money, you'll be in a position to spend money that will in turn help others earn
their livelihood too. You can always support worthwhile causes with your income, so earning money has other
benefits as well.
If David embraces spiritual marketing like Julie does, he'll be earning enough money to sustain an ethical
lifestyle. That will spread around money (and good vibes) to those who will benefit from it as much as him.
If your goal is to help people, then your business will need to attract the people who can benefit from your
goods or services. From this perspective, marketing is actually a good thing, because it serves the purpose of
uniting your spiritual business with the very people who can benefit from it the most.
A spiritual business is still a business. Your business may be run more ethically and
compassionately than most mainstream businesses… and this is what sets you apart from the rest.
If you can identify with David's situation, perhaps some coaching will be helpful.
Everyone Can Reap the Benefits of Spiritual
Marketing
Your spiritual business is designed to help other people in some way, just like Julie who wants to help people
through her Life Coaching, or David who wants to help people understand the needs of their pets.
But without proper marketing, your spiritual business will only reach a limited number of people.
Without spiritual marketing:
♦ Your ability to support your family diminishes
♦ Your ability to support other worthwhile businesses suffers
♦ Your ability to support charities and non-profits is severely limited
♦ Without spending money, the economy suffers (for example, the worldwide recession we're living in today).
♦ Your ability to help others will be limited. If you're a healer, for example, fewer people will be served if you
don't market your services properly.
Spiritual Marketing will introduce your business to a wider audience - reaching people you've
never thought you could reach. Following spiritual marketing methods, your business may grow to its fullest
potential - benefiting you, and in some ways, the whole world!
Marketing
help is just a phone call
away!
Website Content © 2009 Jay Reiss, M.S.W.
All Rights Reserved
| 
