Updated June, 2020

Four Tips for Writing Ethical, Effective Marketing Copy

Note: for our purposes here, marketing copy and promotional copy are synonymous and mean material written for the purposes of promotion and creating sales.

Some individuals want to earn a living doing what they love in a way that makes a positive difference in the world.

Such caring individuals, whether potential entrepreneurs or long time ethical business owners, can become confused or otherwise stymied by marketing. Their services or products are good, but they don’t always know how to put them out there. Perhaps they only see unethical promotion, so don’t know ethical ways to promote. So they procrastinate or try to sell their work only a bit.

If you relate to what I’ve said so far, this post was written for you.

Whether you are offering your services as a doula, shaman, psychic, or other support provider, or you want to sell art, jewelry, handmade vintage style aprons, or another product, whether you’re selling online or not, I have good news:

The same tender, caring sensitivity and sincerity that makes you recoil from unethical marketing or shady business practices is exactly what you need to promote yourself.

Love creates sales.

Love is sales magic.

You are coming from the heart: your work springs from a beautiful place inside you, and you really want to help people. Here are four tips for using your beautiful loving heart to write great promotional copy. Every single tip is about being sincere and coming from the heart. That’s right up your alley, so don’t be intimidated. You can do this.

1) Spell out the ways you want to help people.

In some ways, promotional copy is simply saying, “I want to give you something that will add value to your day,” and then spelling out what that value is. In other words, you’re telling folks you want to serve them! Marketing can be heart-based.

Be specific. List benefits they’ll receive from you. It’s not bragging. It’s letting folks know what you can do for them, so they can take advantage of it. If you don’t tell them what you have to offer, how are they gonna know that you can help them?

2) Don’t worry about “doing promotion right.” Write sincerely, from the heart.

Ethical, spiritually beautiful marketing is tantamount to reaching out from your soul. And that’s something that you already know how to do, at least in some ways. Draw on that, to the best of your ability, when writing copy.

This tip is practical. If you want to sell your art, spiritual classes, psychic counseling, healing work, handcrafted lampwork beads, one of a kind hats, or anything else that springs from your spirit, then promotion includes making authentic human connection. Why? Because the folks who are the right buyers for you will feel that connection. If they do not feel it, they won’t want heart-based services or products from you.

They may purchase auto parts from you, but they’re less likely to buy your art.

3) Risk: express yourself from deep inside.

Someone sincere about their work might have to write from their deepest place to describe that work. Making such personal disclosures can be scary. To alleviate fear, try pretending you’re writing to someone who needs that deep part of you. Then, you’ll more likely be able to communicate what your work offers.

I put myself out there 100% when writing copy, and the clients right for me resonate with it. Everyone else will find what and who is right for them. I want students (or call them clients if you prefer, or even better, call them my community members) with whom I have an authentic connection because the particular spiritual work I do can’t be one-size-fits-all. It has to be done in a heart-to-heart way.

4) Write in the spirit of service.

Despite my previous tips, in some ways you have to selflessly forget what you want to express, and instead focus on the needs of potential customers. Your self-promotion should be about what they’re going to get from you. You are all about giving. If you write in that spirit, your copy addresses what potential customers might need from you. My previous suggestion to list benefits of your work is a good example of focusing on their needs. When you write that list, try to think of everything they might need, whether your product or service gives it, and if it does, add that benefit to the list.

As to expressing yourself in promotional copy, yet putting yourself aside, you might try going back-and-forth between the two approaches. It’s a bit of a balancing act. But the more you do it, the more you figure out how to navigate it. Plus, when I forget myself to focus on the needs of potential customers, it is a form of self-expression, because one of the reasons I was put on this planet was to be a service.

The proof is in the pudding. The info in this post has repeatedly helped my clients who couldn’t previously get on top of marketing. And, if you want to go even further, for your work to reach as many people as possible, which means you could be of maximum service and earn the maximum amount, keep reading.

More Shamanic Resources for Ethical Marketing

I get excited about helping artists, healers, and other world-changers promote their services and goods. Using my shamanic philosophy and skills to support my fellow seekers to sell well feels important because heart-centered services and goods are crucial.

Want more marketing support from a mystic who understands the soul journey of doing what you love as a business? And who can guide you through it shamanically? Or give you straight-ahead marketing tips? Here you go:

* If you find it hard to offer your professional services, because you worry someone’ll assume you’re making a sleazy sales pitch, or that they might otherwise think poorly of you, check this out: https://outlawbunny.com/2013/06/04/marketing-is-simply-reaching-out-to-serve/

* Get my spiritually-based marketing book. This little guide gives more value than typical seminars that cost $1000s. And you’re spared years of heartbreaking dead ends. A Sacred Marketplace: Sell without Selling Out or Burning Out. Mysticism + Marketing = Sales. https://outlawbunny.com/2015/10/15/a-sacred-marketplace/

* Book an appointment with me. I can channel a marketing plan, help you move through inner or outer blocks to career success, or otherwise guide you about work: https://www.outlawbunny.com/pastoral-counseling/

* Be kept abreast of my upcoming marketing and other courses: subscribe to my free newsletter. Even my shamanic courses that do not focus on business boost your career: the shamanism I teach helps you keep growing, keep showing up for life, and keep being of service, all of which helps with all your life goals, big time. Subscribe here: https://outlawbunny.com/newsletter/

Do it, now—support yourself by marketing from the heart. Pax.