How does gratitude help us become better marketers and in our professional and personal lives?
The world B2B marketers face today is rife with a variety of new and unexpected challenges, and meeting these often daunting twists and turns head-on with a mega-dose of gratitude creates not only better marketing, but also makes us stronger and more compassionate.
To inspire your own marketing process let’s explore five examples of infusing the power of gratitude into your work efforts, from five memorable people.
1 — Infuse the Goodness of Fred Rogers in Your Marketing
“Try your best to make goodness attractive. That’s one of the toughest assignments you’ll ever be given,” Fred Rogers once said in an observation that applies especially well to the best marketing efforts.
Bringing goodness in any of its many forms to our marketing efforts is a worthwhile pursuit, as work can only benefit when authenticity is incorporated — a characteristic that goodness has in spades.
With goodness comes the gratitude that can bring our marketing to newfound levels of authenticity, and which provides us a way to reach out and thank the people in our professional and personal lives who help us daily and who have made it possible to get to where we are today.
“Anyone who has ever been able to sustain good work has had at least one person — and often many — who have believed in him or her. We just don’t get to be competent human beings without a lot of different investments from others,” Rogers also wisely observed.
Whether it’s through leaving a recommendation on as associate’s LinkedIn (client) profile, taking the time to write an email expressing your gratitude, or recording a video or audio message of thanks, letting the important people in your life know that you are grateful for them is an investment that pays dividends on many levels — not only in marketing.
“Try your best to make goodness attractive. That’s one of the toughest assignments you’ll ever be given.” — Fred Rogers @FredRogersCtr Share on X2 — Get Grand Ambitions and Aim For The Stars With Burnett & Ogilvy
“When you reach for the stars, you may not quite get one, but you won’t come up with a handful of mud either,” marketing stalwart Leo Burnett was famously quoted as saying in David Ogilvy’s Ogilvy on Advertising, encouraging us to strive for the astonishing with our marketing rather than the mundane.
Part of gratitude is realizing that not every effort will succeed, and recognizing and embracing the fact that you’ve gone beyond the safest run-of-the-mill solutions when we reach for our own marketing stars.
“When you reach for the stars, you may not quite get one, but you won’t come up with a handful of mud either.” — Leo Burnett Share on X3 — Keep Every Day’s Canvas Fresh With Maya Angelou & Bob Ross
“This is a wonderful day. I’ve never seen this one before,” poet Maya Angelou wrote in an observation that certainly has parallels in the marketing world.
Our marketing efforts each present us the opportunity to create wonder and delight among our brand audiences, if we recognize the powerful potential of a blank campaign canvas, as I wrote about in “Content Marveling: Wonder and Astonishment in Marketing.”
Gratitude also involves being thankful for simply having another blank marketing canvas of opportunity, and envisioning your best work inspiring others — as is the very nature of best-answer content.
Unforgettable marketing and best-answer marketing often go hand-in-hand, both filled with the kind of authenticity and genuine emotion that builds especially strong brand affinity.
“People will forget what you said, but they will never forget how you made them feel.” — Maya Angelou Share on X4 — Cultivate Marketing Authenticity With Brené Brown
“Authenticity is a collection of choices that we have to make every day. It’s about the choice to show up and be real. The choice to be honest. The choice to let our true selves be seen,” author Brené Brown has observed.
Showing up and being real in our marketing can make it easier to produce work that we can truly be grateful for, not only for ourselves but for those we have helped by our creation of genuine content that’s true to ourselves and the mission of our brands.
“Authenticity is a collection of choices that we have to make every day. It's about the choice to show up and be real. The choice to be honest. The choice to let our true selves be seen.” @BreneBrown Share on X5 — Seek Empathy & Optimize Using Love With Ann Handley
“Empathy — like writing — isn’t a gift. It’s a discipline. It takes some intentional effort and diligence to develop enormous empathy so that you can apply it to your writing,” Ann Handley, speaker and chief content officer at MarketingProfs, has explained.
Other pieces of life and business’ gratitude puzzle include empathy and even love. Marketing that delivers on these accounts is possible when you have them in mind from the very first step of a new project, no matter how small that initial forward motion may be.
“Start with empathy. Continue with utility. Improve with analysis. Optimize with love,” Ann has wisely suggested — advice that will well-serve marketers looking to embrace gratitude.
“Start with empathy. Continue with utility. Improve with analysis. Optimize with love.” — Ann Handley @MarketingProfs Share on XGet Your Own Marketing Gratitude Groove On
Whether it’s through infusing the goodness of Fred Rogers, aiming for the stars with Leo Burnett and David Ogilvy, looking anew at every day with Maya Angelou and Bob Ross, cultivating authenticity with Brené Brown, or seeking empathy with Ann Handley, your marketing efforts are poised to reach new levels of greatness if you take the time to consider the importance of gratitude in your work.
If you’re looking for professional B2B marketing services infused with gratitude, contact us and find out why firms from Abode and Dell to LinkedIn and 3M have chosen TopRank Marketing.
