You know, there used to be a time when you could differentiate yourself by doing something different. Offering a different result or a different service to your competitors.

Those were the days when finding good people was difficult for clients. When your competitors were all local.

Those days are over.

These days smart people who can do (or claim to do) the same stuff as you are just a google search away. So what's your differentiator if it's not what you do?

It's who you are.

Faced with a choice between multiple competitors who all claim to be able to do the same thing, clients usually pick the people they feel the most comfortable with.

And to do that, they need to know you as a person.

That's not easy in today's online world where most communication is virtual. But it's not impossible either.

What it requires is that first, you communicate regularly. They can't get to know and like you if they rarely hear from you. 

And secondly, you've got to infuse your communications with your personality. Far too many communications from small businesses and solo professionals feel like they've been written in the PR departments of mega corporations.

If your clients wanted to hire a mega corporation they would. They don't need you to pretend to be a mega corp too. 

When I started email marketing 7 years ago I immediately got decent results by sending out high value content.

But my results really took off when I started telling stories – usually about my own struggles and challenges.

Of course, I still got across valuable content in those stories. But using a story format also allowed people to connect more with me. To empathise and to know I'd had similar experiences to them.

It made all the difference.

So, how are you infusing your personality into your marketing?