This article takes a look at ‘Above and Below the Line’ Personal Marketing and how you need to have a new understanding of them in the digital era.
The terms “above the line” and “below the line” marketing refer to how you market your business or company. But today I would like to ask whether this type of marketing can be used in personal branding and/or marketing? The simple answer to this, in my opinion, is ‘yes’.
So what exactly does this mean and how exactly can you put it into practice?
Let’s start with a quick understanding of the two kinds of marketing.
Above the Line:
This is any kind of marketing that can be defined as ‘in your face’. Think sales, specials, discounts, price-based advertising and ‘come in and buy’ style advertising (just to name a few).
Below the Line:
Not as easy to detect as above the line and can be hard to measure the return on investment (ROI) of. It would include things like, ‘brand only’ based advertising, sponsorship, community or charity involvement, branded merchandise and so on.
So how do we move this into the personal arena?
Well it’s not that hard really, let’s think of a few scenarios for both above the line and below the line. One of the first situations that comes to mind for above the line for personal marketing is a networking event. Now you could approach a networking event in both ways, above or below the line. Most people in this situation frequently attack this type of occasion ‘above the line’; they go into the event, business cards at the ready, looking to pitch to the first person they chat to, always thinking, can I get business from this person or not, should I bother giving them my card, or are they wasting my time? Like with most ‘above the line’ marketing opportunities, there are very important times to sell your services, to let people know how and what they can buy and how to go about it, but think about sitting in your living room watching the TV and all those ads that you mute or totally avoid by taking the opportunity to channel surf – are they effective? Well sometimes they are, when you are hungry and the fast foodies start spamming your brain, but generally unless you are looking for that service, they’re not.
Using the same scenario, let’s take the ‘below the line’ marketing approach to your personal branding. You hit the event with your business cards buried deep in your wallet, you don’t have them at the ready and you don’t care who you are talking to. You are simply looking to listen and add value wherever you can, and be a worthwhile connection to the person you are talking to. You just want to talk to them about what makes you tick (not what you do), what you’re passionate about (not how you make a living) and how that is relevant to them in their life and line of work.
So what is better, ‘above or below the line’? Well the answer is neither and both. Like any business, you personally need to consider a combination of both types of strategies. What I see far too often are people at a personal level going 100% ‘above the line’ but ignoring the ‘below the line’ stuff. Maybe they are rushing towards a ROI thinking the ‘below the line’ stuff takes too long, but I strongly believe you can’t get a return from anything you do without using both types of strategies at different points. Above the line worked well in the past, but when you are competing with the world for their attention (and everyone is out there ‘flogging their wares’), people are ignoring ‘pitches’ and ‘selling’ much more than ever before and gravitating towards people cutting through the noise by offering value and a relationship (online or offline) that people want to be a part of. We talk more about this in Julz’s Top Tip from a few months ago.
You are probably already familiar with, or doing plenty of above the line marketing… things such as emailing details of your services to new contacts, using Social Media channels to advertise your services and joining local business groups to advertise yourself.
But open your mind and think of some ways you can also be using personal below the line strategies too, such as:
- Using Social Media to connect with people
- Attending functions and getting yourself “known”
- Use Social media to promote your culture, message and brand (either at a personal or business level)
- Helping others (without expectation of receiving!)
- Joining in online conversations to add value e.g. answering questions
- Offering free services in addition to your ‘customer or client’ offer
It’s pretty easy when you step back and see how you, like big business, are marketing yourself on a regular basis already. An important question now would be, why don’t YOU have a personal marketing strategy, so when you do head out into the world of contacts and connections, you know what you’re trying to achieve. Whatever you decide to do, don’t go crazy with ‘above the line’, but also consider and implement ‘below the line’ strategies to complement this.
Then next time you are about to send an email or connect with someone for the first time, take time to consider, should this be ‘above or below the line’? Have I got my message straight, am I on brand?
If you found today’s article helpful please feel free to connect with me on LinkedIn. I am always happy to help where ever I can.