As I drove by another bus shelter ad with a realtor’s giant picture on it, I had to laugh at seeing yet another example of what I call Ego Marketing. Ego Marketing is marketing done mostly for the purpose of making you feel better about yourself. Here are a few scathing examples:

Company Names

You are not Calvin Klein. You never will be. That’s a bit harsh, I don’t know you but you get the idea. By making your name the company name, you are losing every chance of Google search-ability. I mean nobody knows that Cindy Smith Designs is a bathroom remodeling designer. But if the brand name was Cindy’s Bathroom Designs, she would pop up on every frustrated housewife’s Google.

Videos

I had a client who refused to do any selling or marketing during our work together. Years after we finished our work together, she launched a series of videos. The videos were too long, low quality and not engaging (in my opinion). When the strategy of your marketing is only based around wanting to look or feel good, it’s called Ego Marketing. Most of the time, there is no ROI in Ego Marketing. Just ask business owners if they’ve gotten any business out of their videos. Most of the time, it’s a No.

Bus Shelters/Car Wraps

If you want to see your beautiful face in a large print format, your Mother might be proud and your friends envious. But it doesn’t mean that you will get more business out of it. I know for a fact that it didn’t work for my friend and trainer who had done a series of bus shelter ads in the area. When there’s no strategy (ie. specific target market and pain based messaging that makes your business unique) no amount of headshots on a car or a bus will help you. Now, having said that, I myself had my picture on the NASDAQ jumbotron recently. How did it help my business? On its own, it did nothing. Combined with my 19 media appearances and speaking at other International Conferences as well as Harvard, it got me hired as a speaker for big companies.
So I hope I’ve convinced you to stop marketing based on trying to make yourself feel better and try to make your bottom line feel better by doing more strategic marketing instead.
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