[social_warfare]
SHOW NOTES
You likely know that polarized marketing works better – but it’s still really, really hard to do (especially for the recovering people pleasers, i.e. me!).
In the increasingly saturated world of online courses + coaching programs, polarization is the only thing that works. If your message doesn’t repel some people, it doesn’t invite the die-hard fans either (and that’s what you want!).
The real kicker? YOU have to be clear about your bold message before your marketing can hit home for the right people, too. (Yes, that’s the hard part – but once you do the work, it pays off ten-fold.)
In this episode, I’m talking about my journey to creating a polarizing brand and what this means for you, too.
Here’s what you’ll learn:
- Why niching down makes polarization possible
- How your confidence in your message changes the game completely
- And HOW TO polarize your marketing – even if you’re a people-pleaser!
Tune into another short lesson in marketing – and then head over to Instagram Stories to share your thoughts! Tag @emilyhirsh so I can see, too.
Key Points:
[4:19] Here’s why polarization works.
[6:08] Yes, niching down means saying ‘no’ to some people, BUT…
[7:36] If people don’t know whether they like you or not, you’re not polarizing enough!
[8:38] Remember, every ‘yes’ is a ‘no’ somewhere else… whether you see it or not.
[10:05] And P.S. This isn’t about calling out people. It’s about your industry.
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[social_warfare]
Episode Transcripts:
Emily Hirsh: I’m Emily Hirsh, and this is The Hirsh Marketing Underground Podcast. Attention innovators, influencers, creators, and game-changing entrepreneurs: your internet domination begins right here. We are the powerhouse marketers that you’ve been looking for.
You’re already making waves in your industry, and we’re here to help amplify those waves of change by creating a connection that cuts through the noise. We take everything you’ve built inside your zone of genius and find its audience. With killer strategy and laser eye for impact, we launch multimillion dollar campaigns and skyrocket your reach online.
And now, we are doing the unheard of. We’re unveiling everything we’ve learned, taking you behind-the-scenes with the Hirsh Marketing team, and giving away the secrets to our clients’ success. Stay tuned for top converting strategy, ROI reports, and insider knowledge that you won’t find anywhere else. You’re changing the world, and we’re the team to help.
Hello everybody. I am excited for today’s episode. So today we’re talking about being polarizing in your marketing. I feel like I touch about this a lot in various episodes, because it’s something that’s a core value of mine, but I don’t think I’ve ever done an episode specifically about this.
And I feel inspired to do it, because I feel like it’s something I’ve been playing with more and more in, not just my own marketing, but when I speak… and I’ve done a lot of speaking in the last month… when I talk to people, any time I am representing Hirsh Marketing and talking about what we do and our beliefs, and trying to attract our ideal client, I’ve really been stepping into what that means, and being more polarizing when I talk about it.
And you might even notice it in the podcast content, getting more like… just trying to call out the people that I don’t believe are doing the right thing. And I know that myself, I have to go through growing to do this, and personal development, because I am a recovering people-pleaser, for sure.
And so, I feel that it’s a common issue, where we know that we should be polarizing. We know that we should stand out, call out the people that we don’t believe are doing it right… not necessarily directly calling out people, but just the industry.
What do you do differently? Like, really making yourself stand out in that way. And I think it sometimes it brings up fear doing that, because you know that you’re going to get people who don’t like you then, or don’t agree with you. And for me at least, that’s not an enjoyable feeling. But I’ve had to move past that.
And the way I’ve personally moved past it is, [I’ve] really gotten clear on who I believe that I am, and who I believe that our company is, who I believe that we work best with, what I believe we do best. All of the things that I believe, aside from anybody else, or what people say, or what I’ve heard, or feedback. What do I believe?
And so with that, you come up with like, “We’re really good at this, and we’re not good at this, and we should be doing this, and we shouldn’t be doing this based on our skills.” And if you can be firm in that, then you’re going to be able to go into being polarizing a lot more confidently.
So you just know that is the truth, and I don’t care what somebody says, that is what I’m good at, or not good at. And then actually… I heard someone talking about this, and they said they had gotten a comment on social media, and it was saying that her podcast was really scripted or something.
She got that comment, and she was talking about how she had done the work herself. Like, she asked herself, “Am I good at podcasting?” And she listed out what she thinks she’s good at and what she’s not. And so when she got this comment, she was like, “You’re right, it is too scripted. I’m working on it! Thanks for your feedback.” And so, you can just go into those things knowing like, “Yeah, they’re right,” or, “They’re wrong,” because you’re confident in it.
So that allows you to start being polarizing. And the reason I want to talk about this today is because it works. It gets attention. Especially in today’s industry, you really have to stand out. It’s getting more and more saturated… [I mean] online, online courses, digital products, brands, influencers… it’s all getting more saturated. And the more you can make yourself stand out, the better. And so what I want you guys to think about is, when you… Let’s say, first of all, do you have a very clear idea of who you’re trying to target?
And that should mean you’re being specific. I recently had a conversation with somebody in IGNITE, and she said, “I’m going to help people write books, that’s what I’m good at. I do that for a service. I want to teach people through our process. But also,” she said, “I’m really passionate about helping the Jewish community write memoirs and share their heritage, because that’s my background.”
And she went into this whole thing, and I was like, “So why are you not just targeting that audience? Why are you trying to fit in with…” And she hadn’t sold anything yet, in terms of her digital offering, so this was new. And I asked her, “Why are you trying to fit into the mold of, ‘I have to help business coaches and authors and influencers,’ and then I can also help the Jewish community that I’m really more passionate about”?
…and helping them, and specifically memoirs… and she was going to do broad books, any entrepreneur, anyone new in writing… and she was like, “Because I guess I thought I had to serve that audience, because that’s what everybody else was doing, and it’s working for them.” And so, she genuinely thought that [even though] she’s heard [on] my podcast many times, talking about focus and the importance of that. And she still was in that place.
And so, I just want to remind you guys that it’s scary to get niche. It’s scary to get specific. I understand, because it means you’re saying ‘no’ to things. But it is so much more specific and so much more successful, because you’re talking to a group of people that you’ll be able to stand out [with] and you’ll be able to get their attention better.
And so, when you go look at your website and your web copy… and let’s say you have an overall… Everyone, I believe, should have a process or something that’s branded. What is it that you do differently? Whether you have a course or a service or anything, even a software or a product, an e-commerce product… What do you do differently that other people don’t do?
And there is something there. Don’t try to tell me right now there’s not, because there is. You could even ask people, what do they think about you, to start giving you ideas, because I know it’s hard to come up with that for ourselves. But if you think about that and you ask… and document it, write it down. Do a brain dump on a blank piece of paper, just anything that comes to your mind, what makes you different?
You have to be really clear on that, in your head and with your team, before all your marketing can be clear with that. And ideally, when somebody reads your website or hears your content, and people have different extremes of this, but they should be able to… people should understand, “Oh this is not for me,” or “Heck yes, this is for me!”
And if it’s in the middle, and people don’t really know, and they’re like, “Hmm,” like they’re not passionate about [it] either way, then you’re not being polarizing enough… If you look at my website, we straight up say like things like, “We are not for these people, we are for these people,” and “We’re not a marketing agency, we’re a marketing management company.” I go into it, and in my presentation when I speak, I literally have a slide and I’m like, “Most ad agencies, the first question they’re going to ask you is, ‘What’s your ad budget?’
I’m going to tell you to do the opposite,” because I do things differently than most ads people and agencies and companies out there. And I want people to know that. And so, if somebody doesn’t agree with that, then they’re not my right fit. And that’s okay, I don’t want to attract everybody. It’s hard to get to this place, I still have work to do, to do this even better. But it’s so much more successful when you do this. And you will see, you will see that it’s more successful as soon as you start doing it, because going to start to stand out.
And you want to connect [with] the people who are like… who do you love working with? Who do you love to be your customer? And it gets you so excited, pumped up, energized. Who are those people? Because if you can be polarizing and talk to them, and kind of repel everybody else that’s not that fit… think about the people that you’ve maybe worked with or have been a customer that were like, “Oh my gosh, they were a nightmare. They caused all these problems,” or, “They were such high maintenance,” or whatever it was.
Who are those people? Who are the people that are like, “Heck yes, I love working with them! They get me so excited.” What’s the differences? And how do you talk to the people who get you really excited? Stop trying to talk to everybody. Stop trying to cater to everybody. Stop trying to say ‘yes’ to everybody, because every ‘yes’ is a ‘no’ somewhere else, whether you see it or not.
And you can’t be polarizing in your marketing and specific in your marketing until you are clear about this in your own head, until you have gone through the work and the exercise of really figuring out, “What do I do differently? What do I believe in? And what do I not believe in?
If I had to get up on a stage and literally tell everybody what I cannot stand about the industry I’m in, what would it be?” And it’s not at all calling out people individually, at all. It’s more [about] the industry and how we do things. And so, for example, one of my core, core beliefs is, you have to build your brand and your following in a way that is profitable and is not based around likes.
So all the people who are teaching, “Get likes, improve your page likes, because it gives you credibility, and get those followers” … I do not believe in that. And they’re probably great people, amazing people, but I don’t believe it. And I’m going to call that out, because I don’t believe in the method. And clients who care about just getting followers and likes and those metrics, the vanity metrics, are not Hirsh Marketing’s clients, and I don’t want to attract them. I want to repel them.
And so, you have to be polarizing in your marketing. You have to be specific in your marketing and who you’re talking to. And the only way that you can do that is to get clear on it first yourself. And then I want you to go and look at everything you put out. Look at your content, look at your videos, look at your website. If you speak, look at your speeches. Are they polarizing enough? Is there anyone in the room who would disagree with what you’re saying? Is it powerful enough that somebody could be like, “Hmm, not so sure about that.”
If it’s not, it’s not polarizing enough. Think about that. So hopefully this was helpful today, guys. I haven’t asked for this in a while, but if you listen to this podcast regularly and you haven’t left a review yet, I would love if you’d go leave me some love on iTunes, or wherever you’re listening to it, and just give me your feedback on the podcast and leave a review.
I would super appreciate it. Our downloads and our listeners is growing and growing, and it makes me so happy. I am so enjoying this container in this space to connect with you guys and continue to just provide you amazing, valuable, straight-to-the point, true Emily Hirsh-style content. And I will talk to you guys next time. Thank you.
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