3 Lessons on Marketing Yourself from the 2008 Presidential Campaign
Photo by Peter Smith (license)
I’ve mentioned before that I think marketing myself is one of my weak points, so I’ve started to pay more attention to the marketing that other people are doing. And since the biggest marketing campaign going on right now is political, here are three lessons that I’ve learned about marketing yourself from the 2008 presidential campaign.
1. The hard part isn’t getting people to see that there’s a problem, it’s getting them to see you as the solution.
Take, for example, Dennis Kucinich. Presumably, most Democratic voters would agree that there is something wrong with Washington, but when voters go to the polls they’re not voting on whether there is something wrong: they’re voting on who they think can fix it.
Likewise with marketing yourself as a web designer, copywriter, or programmer. You probably don’t need to convince people that they need a new website, new copy, or new code. Instead you need to convince them that you’re the solution to that need, rather than one of the thousands of other people who say they have the same skills.
2. Being vocal is great, but isn’t a substitute for results.
This is a lesson from the Ron Paul campaign. Though Ron Paul supporters are quite vocal, dominating Digg and creating a highly successful fund-raising campaign, that hasn’t translated so well at the polls. The problem is that most people aren’t that vocal about politics, and it is this silent majority that actually determines who gets voted into office.
Likewise, while having vocal supporters is great for your business, the greatest potential market is actually the same silent majority. The key is figuring out how you can get your supporters selling you effectively to them. I don’t have any great solutions for this problem, but it seems that Apple has done a great job at implementing this sort of strategy
3. I’m not running for president.
The most important lesson I learned from thinking about the marketing of the presidential campaign, though, is that I’m not running for president. Seem a little obvious? What I mean is that while some lessons can be drawn from the race, for the most part, marketing yourself is a much easier, much more forgiving affair.
I don’t have to convince a majority of people that I’m the solution to their problems. All I have to do is convince a handful. And when I think about that, I get pretty inspired.
Popularity: 15% [?]
If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed or subscribe via email. Thanks for visiting!
Good points!
As you say in your last bullet, luckily marketing yourself isn’t always quite as hard as in the presidential campaign. When running for president, finishing second or third doesn’t count.
But if we think for example about Ron Paul, I think he has already done a tremendous job in marketing himself. He has made a name for himself, collected lots of money. That’s not going to make him the next president, but for a regular freelancer like you and me what he has achieved is already pretty huge.
So yeah, I think I’ll follow your advice and not run for president either
I agree with you about Ron Paul. If he was just aiming for monetary income rather than election as president, he would have already succeeded.