As sexuality professionals, we are compassionate, service-oriented practitioners. We’re empathetic, understanding, and other-focused. We just want to help people resolve their sexual concerns and learn to embrace their erotic birthright.
To do that, we need to find the clients who need us. It’s the only way to ensure our business thrives.
And so on top of being sexuality specialists, we must also be marketers. This can feel awkward and uncomfortable, especially if we follow more traditional marketing models.
Finding a balance between the heart-centered nature of our work and the need for self-promotion can be challenging. And this is on top of marketing in a taboo field.
However, effective marketing practices and heart-centered service are not at odds. In this article, we’ll reveal several ways you can bring your marketing efforts into alignment with who you are.
Understanding the Tension Between Service and Marketing
All of us in this field have a deep understanding of the sensitive and personal nature of the issues we address. And this respect for the vulnerability of our clients necessitates an open-hearted approach.
The thing is, in some prevalent marketing approaches, the objective is to focus on your ideal client’s pain points and fears so they feel they absolutely must have your services to alleviate their pain and suffering.
But inflaming a person’s literal and figurative pain and fear is antithetical to heart-centered sexuality work. It feels gross and out of alignment with your values. It doesn’t reflect who you are as a professional or an entrepreneur.
This is why many sexuality professionals feel resistance to this marketing approach. In a nutshell, you want to make people feel better, not worse.
However, like any other entrepreneur, sexuality specialists must also acknowledge the necessity of marketing to sustain a business. Surviving and thriving in business means paying attention to things like client reach and brand visibility.
This can feel like a stark contrast to your service-oriented work. So how can you relieve this tension?
Align Your Marketing with Your Values
There is another approach to marketing you can take that is in harmony with your heart-centered work. The Love-Based Marketing approach—yes, that’s literally what it’s called—was born out of the founder’s desire to write marketing materials that tap into emotions associated with love, not fear.
So, instead of inflaming emotions of pain and fear such as desperation, shame, and insecurity to market your services, you can take the Love-Based approach and inspire positive feelings such as hope, connection, and pleasure in your audience.
Doesn’t that sound like a better marketing approach for both your business and your audience?
One way to shift to a more positive marketing approach is to align your marketing practices with your values. What are your core values as a heart-centered sexuality professional?
Take a moment to reflect on the fundamental beliefs and principles that guide your actions and decisions as a sexuality professional. If you last did this exercise a while ago, now is a great time to do it again. How can you incorporate these values into your marketing practices?
How To Balance Heart-Centered Work And Marketing Practices
Here are a few suggestions for ways to align your marketing practices with your values as a service-oriented practitioner and entrepreneur:
Model Consent
As sexuality professionals, we are highly conscious of the importance of obtaining consent in all types of relationships, whether they are intimate or casual. In marketing, it’s ethical and legally required to ensure data privacy and respect your audience’s preferences. It also enhances their experience and boosts your reputation.
For example, if consent is a core value you want to model through your marketing, periodically ask your newsletter subscribers if they want to continue receiving marketing emails from you. They could unsubscribe at any point, of course, but going out of your way to directly ask them if they wish to remain on your email list and giving them the opportunity to opt in or opt out shows them that you respect their time and attention. Filtering your email list like this also means that the people who receive your emails are actually interested in your content, which is good for your business.
Tell Your Story
Maybe you value progress over perfection in your sexual wellness practice. A powerful way to demonstrate this value and inspire your potential clients is to tell your story in snippets on social media, in long form as a blog article or a podcast, or in the bio section of your website. Share your journey and your dedication to sexual wellness in your marketing materials.
Tell your audience about how you have evolved and progressed as a sexologist and as a sexual person yourself. Where did you start? Where are you now? What did you learn? Show them how you have healed and improved your own sexual wellness and how you can support them in writing their own sexual wellness story.
This kind of storytelling resonates deeply with potential clients, encouraging them to feel hopeful about their own sexual wellness. And it allows them to get to know you, which is a key element of effective marketing.
Educate
Do you want to create a world where people have access to information about sex that you wish you had? Do you value sex-positive, inclusive education? Then use your marketing platform to educate and inform. You have an opportunity to put fact-based information and actionable suggestions into the world. When you provide valuable information about sex to your audience, you not only provide a service, but you also position yourself as an authority and show your commitment to your audience’s sexual well-being.
Be Transparent
If you value honesty and integrity, be clear and transparent about what you offer and what clients can expect from you, and then follow through. By defining your services and making commitments that you can keep, you build trust with your clients, which is another key element of effective marketing. Additionally, transparency in your offerings can also help attract the clients that are most aligned with your work.
Engage and Build Community
Due to the nature of this work, it’s safe to say that most sexuality professionals value connection and community. Show your interest in building a community with other sexuality professionals, for example, which can help you build a loyal following that will not only support your business but also recommend it to others. Collaborate with other professionals for cross-promotion. And wherever you connect with your audience, engage with them.
To engage with your audience, have mini conversations in the comments section of your social media posts. Poll your audience and ask them what content they enjoy and what benefits them. And remember to engage with your folks after they have paid for your events or courses by sending feedback questionnaires, which further shows them that you value their opinions and want to hear about their experience.
This is a form of relationship marketing, which cultivates long-term relationships with your existing clients to ensure they keep coming back to you with any sexual challenges they may encounter in the future.
It’s important to ensure your marketing strategies align with your values. If a particular marketing strategy feels uncomfortable, listen to that instinct. Use the marketing approach that feels good to you, and you will attract more of your people to your business.
Your comfort and integrity in your practice are essential. By aligning your marketing strategies with your values, you can strike a balance between marketing and service and establish an authentic and trustworthy brand that genuinely connects with your target audience.
Effective marketing does not require you to compromise your values by eliciting fear and pain-based emotions in your audience. Instead, marketing can be approached as an extension of your heart-centered, service-oriented mission.
Marketing doesn’t have to feel icky or pushy. At its best, marketing is about reaching the people who truly need your help and letting them know how to find you.
By making your services more visible and your marketing more true to you as a heart-centered entrepreneur, you can expand your influence and make a greater difference in the lives of those you serve. The more visible and distinct you and your services are, the greater your reach and impact. It’s a win-win.
Curious about training to become a Certified Sex Coach™? We invite you to join our Sex Coaching in Action webinar to meet the Sex Coach U team and participate in a live Q&A.
