The Four Agreements in Marketing

Four powerful principles to incorporate into your marketing to make it much more human-friendly – not just for your audience, but for you too!

What I’m going to share below will positively impact your mental health as much as it will your marketing edge!

If you’re familiar with The Four Agreements, the classic book by Don Miguel Ruiz, you’ll be familiar with the four principles that have the power to change your life when you live by them. 

Of course, this also includes your marketing and everything that sits around it.

The Four Agreements apply to everything we do – family, relationships, business, health, finance, growth – and over the last few months, I’ve found one of the most impactful areas for me has been to apply them in the context of social media.

So I thought I’d share just a few of the ways I apply The Four Agreements to marketing, brand building and social media.

(For those that are new around here, this is quite different from what I usually share, but one of my values is around making our marketing more human-friendly (both for us and the people we serve) so I hope you enjoy these insights.)

1. Be Impeccable with Your Word.

Always tell the truth in your marketing. Don’t embellish or exaggerate. Don’t make stuff up. People may not know the facts but they can sniff out a fake a mile off.

Don’t be clickbait-y or lower your standards to get attention. 

Be the one who aims to inspire others with what you post or share.

Your Intention counts and will come through in your words.

Don’t use false scarcity. If the special is ending, end it!

If there are limited spots, then limit it!

Also, be honest, open and transparent. It goes a long way.

Sometimes mistakes are made, it happens to all of us – but your audience appreciate your willingness to share and be human just as much as they do your professionalism and in those difficult moments often more!


2. Don’t make assumptions

When someone comments on your material (or doesn’t) don’t immediately presume to know why, (or why not) or what’s going on in their head.

Don’t prejudge people’s motives. Don’t read into things.

When you see other people posting material that might trigger you, or prompt you to doubt yourself, lean into this truth and free yourself from the judgement and baggage your thoughts want to lumber on you.

Forget trying to make assumptions about what other people may or may not be doing in their business or marketing.  

It always leads to comparison-it is and it’s usually unfounded, and always unedifying.

And don’t make assumptions about who you are able to help. I find plenty of people seek me out for guidance and support, people I never would have expected.

And for me to make assumptions about their financial situation, or assume they might not be interested in something, would be disempowering them.

It also goes the other way, when people you admire come to you for help, thinking you may not be able to help them, don’t be intimidated. They see something in you that you may not see yourself (yet!) Let people make their own decisions.

Finally, don’t make assumptions about people you think might be interested in what you have to say or offer and ram it down their throats.

If you come from a place of service those people will seek you out and let you know.


3. Don’t take things personally.

Much of what I wrote about not making assumptions in marketing and social media & marketing also applies here. A few additional thoughts come to mind.

When someone doesn’t respond to your email/message/DM don’t get upset. They have stuff going on in their life that you have no idea about.

If someone talks you up and praises you, don’t take it personally or let it go to your head. Just accept it with gratitude.

When someone criticises you or whinges, don’t take it personally. Just be kind, (firm if required), work it through with them (if appropriate), and then release it. It’s more about what’s going on for them than it is about you.

If someone unsubscribes to your email list, see it as a blessing that they self-opted out as they’re not your ideal customer.

If you put out an offer or do a promotion, or launch a new project, host an event, start a new business, and it doesn’t go as you’d like, don’t see it as a reflection on you. See it as more data that you now have to work with.

4. Always do your best.

Whatever you do, do it from a place of aiming to be the fullest expression of yourself in the world, in business and in life, and know that your best is ALWAYS enough.

Forget the “should’s” and “oughts”.

I learned a lot about the practical value of this from the extraordinary Karen Demmery, who I met when she was a student in my Thought Leadership Accelerator.

I used to judge myself when I found myself taking actions that didn’t align with my values, or if I felt super-flat - and I learned from her that it’s in those tougher times (not the times of mega-achievement!) that how I feel about myself matters most and actually has the most impact.

When you put yourself out there to market your business, you will always find ways to improve, optimise and grow.

But you also need to know that you did the best with the time, knowledge, resources, and emotional energy and focus that you had at the time.

Release everything else.

Putting yourself out there on social media, website, content, events, starting a business, sharing your gifts with the world in any way takes courage.

So this is another very powerful one to remember in your marketing and social media activities.

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Did you enjoy these thoughts?

Love to know what you think – whether one of these stands out to you or you have another application for one of these agreements - please share below!

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Nina Christian is a Marketing & Brand Strategist who helps business leaders and social-change-makers use thought leadership content to build their authority and widen their impact.

She is the Director of Braveda, (est 2000), which was recognised as  "Best Marketing Agency" at the Australian Marketing Excellence Awards.

She is a Certified Practicing Marketer (CPM), a Fellow of the Australian Marketing Institute & AMI State Chair (Vic) and runs two businesses of her own.

She has a knack for simplifying the complex which comes from being a hands-on mum to five young children, and uses this to turn time-sucking activities into easy to follow systems and processes that get outcomes fast.