It’s the Marie Kondo Effect: Does Your Marketing Spark Joy? If Not, Here’s What You Can Do.

March 8, 2019 by Clever Samurai

It seems the entire world has fallen under the spell of Japanese organizing expert, Marie Kondo, whose system provides a simple way to organize or get rid of anything in one’s life that doesn’t, in her words, “spark joy.” Ever since her Netflix show, “Tidying Up with Marie Kondo”, debuted on January 1, donation bins at Salvation Army and Goodwill stores have been overflowing. People love her simple approach to decluttering and are discovering that the benefits of her technique go well beyond mere organizing, they result in mental clarity as well. By all accounts people’s lives are changed for the better after tackling the mess in their home.

So, how’s that marketing going? Could it stand a Marie Kondo-style clean-up, or at least a refresh? It might be time to toss anything that isn’t sparking joy, and that can mean marketing collateral that once rang true and clever can now sound a little “been there, done that.” Here are a few ways you can spark joy in your marketing efforts once again.

Brochures and Sales Materials: What image do your printed pieces reflect? Do they spark joy? If not, it’s time to file them in the archives and get your creative agency to come up with concepts that do.

LinkedIn Profile: Check out your LinkedIn profile to see if it needs an update. Consider posting an article if it’s been a while (once a month is a good start). Think about adding videos to the mix if you have any to post.

Social Media Pages: If your business has Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube or Instagram pages, check them to see if they need an update, or a re-think of some kind to better manage them and keep them fresh. If there’s any content more than two years old on those platforms, see if they still reflect your current image or whether they might be sending the wrong image.

White Papers, Workshops. Take a good hard look at these and question whether there might be something new that you could offer. It might be time to retire some seminar and workshop titles and think about which titles (and keywords) might help attract better-paying clients.

Speech Titles. Speaking of titles, have a look at the titles of any speeches you might be making. Is it time to replace less popular titles with new ones that spark joy in you? If you enjoy public speaking, have you given a TEDx talk yet?

Blog Angles. Have your blog topics gotten stuck in a rut? If they’re not sparking joy, it’s likely no one is reading them, so start thinking outside of the box and jumping on trending topics that can be tied to your business.

 

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