The INFJ Guide to Self-Marketing

For the rare and sensitive type, marketing can be overwhelming

INFJs can be very successful entrepreneurs, though we are often distracted by intangible goals and purposes that do not create the building space for a workable business. That’s not to say it isn’t doable — only that we need to find balance between our inner dreamer and our inner planner. This means marketing and self-promotion for the INFJ require more focused efforts and intention.

Overcoming Rejection & Concern About Image

INFJs are notoriously worried about what others think of them. This can be detrimental to a working, progressive marketing strategy due to avoidance tendencies by the INFJ entrepreneur. What we bring to the table creatively, we often dilute when it comes to the self-promotion that is required of entrepreneurs to maintain and promote their business.

As the above video outlines, INFJs have difficulty balancing their creative drive and introverted need to get “lost” in their own “fantasy land,” thereby deprioritizing the need to work on vocation and focus on wealth management. But the latter does not mean that you have to sacrifice any of your creative vision or purpose. You do have to “step out of the fantasy” a bit to focus on what Wenzes calls the “non-romantic things.”

The trick is to understand that the business-related management and the marketing efforts that you do help to provide the greater freedom to pursue the deeper, satisfying creative goals of your entrepreneurial spirit. To find this life of freedom and the lifestyle you desire, you must be willing to tackle those practical steps along your journey.

INFJs need to address the inner fear of disappointing other people, or making themselves look spammy or selfish, and stay focused on the role they are playing while self-promoting. It can feel inauthentic — which is difficult for the sensitive INFJ to tolerate. Find the long-term purpose in your marketing strategies to support the authentic overall purpose that you have for your image and your business.

INFJ Hustling and Community

INFJs love having a sense of making the world around them a better place, yet balancing this with the fear of becoming too emotionally invested in the social connections with other people. The raging introvert struggles to balance with the need to help others and create something in the world that elicits positive change. This is certainly a tightrope to walk while self-marketing. Self-promotion does involve communicating with others across various social media platforms and interacting with family, friends, peers, and others who (you hope) share your interest in the niche work you are promoting. But these interactions can get deeper than the INFJ intends, therefore they may find themselves avoiding them.

Reaching out does have its consequences. It can intrude on the personal space you need to follow your creative vision, nurture yourself and reel in all of those side-thoughts and distractions, and to be productive. Many INFJs dream big, but we do it with a plan and a purpose, though it may be hard to connect the two if we run in too many directions with our marketing. The best way to stay focused on the end goal is to make all of our marketing efforts line up with our personal goals for our business, and to refute the external distractions from those goals.

In other words, stick to the plan. Create a marketing strategy for yourself that is consistent with the “dreamer” part of your business, in vision and tone, but not so lofty that the practical application of marketing feels burdensome and unachievable.

Marketing Techniques that Works for the INFJ

Most people don’t necessarily enjoy marketing their work. This is also true for the INFJ, but can be complicated by the dreamer aspects of our personality and our distractibility. Social scenes are complex for us, often as empaths or HSPs as well, and this can derail our marketing efforts, if we let it. Here are some ways to keep your self-promotion more goal-driven and productive.

Keep it Simple

Keeping it simple will help you to want to do it, which is key for INFJ marketing success. You cannot, after all, aim so high with your marketing on a daily basis that it becomes cumbersome and you avoid it. While you may be tempted to make a marketing strategy 10-tiers deep and 8 platforms wide, you may find it more productive to choose a few platforms per day and a narrower purpose into which you can speak your vision and keep your marketing posts authentic and full of purpose.

Keep Focused

INFJs are notoriously easily distracted when on social media. But, we are good at having a game-plan. Before opening all those social media tabs and setting out to self-promote yourself into a daze, take some time to flesh out a realistic game plan with a time limit. This time limit will help you to stay focused on the overall marketing plan for the day. You can decide whatever works for you and is easy for you to maintain. A few examples:

• X minutes every day. (This is super simple and you may find the posts you focus on each day will change with your moods.)
• Focus on a different platform each day and really dig deep. Work the conversations and place a few well-placed posts. Interact and engage. (Remember to set a time limit to stay focused on the purpose of this engagement.)
• Set a monetary or other goal. Decide to raise your Twitter followers by 300 in one week. Make your marketing posts aim toward that goal. The goal keeps you motivated to get out there and interact and will help take the burden off of that inner worry of “bothering people” or making yourself look too self-absorbed, a common concern for INFJs.

Because we enjoy following our mood, you may also have to schedule a reminder to knock out that marketing time for your day. When it gets boring or tedious, switch up the plan for the day so you can get back into that crucial marketing and engagement with your potential buyers or readers.

Authenticity and Personality

INFJs can be very charming. Their core need for smooth and enjoyable, yet physically distant and safe engagement is often at odds with their need to self-promote, though it does give opportunity to express their more “put-together” side and make a good impression. Combine your best charm and your creative energy to make your self-promotional efforts more attractive to would-be readers, investors, potential clients, and buyers.

When an INFJ comes out to play — people do pay attention. Others may find our big dreams, our vision, and our tendency to march to the tune of our own music as very attractive qualities they wish they could apply in their own lives. Keep this in mind when self-marketing as your purpose is to get noticed, promote your work, find clients or make sales. To do this you must identify the need in your potential client, and address it within the context of your own marketing agenda.

Getting People to Pay Attention Is Only Half the Job

— An example of this complexity:

When I engage with others and promote my writing work, I am often met with lavish compliments: You are so inspiring. I love what you do. You are so helpful. The disconnect is that these compliments, although wonderful to hear, may or may not be translating into my business goals. My ability to get attention and engage overshadows the marketing goal. Are these compliments preceding actual readership of my work? Are these engagements leading to book sales, new followers, or the rampant sharing and buzz over my work? This is the sweet spot for INFJs to figure out — how to get attention, but keep the focus on their work, and on creating engagement that meets clients’ needs so they keep coming back — not just because they love interacting with and being inspired by you, but because your work satisfies their needs and desires so they keep returning for more of it.

Pay Attention to Your Intuitive Side

The INFJs introverted intuition is a bit of an anomaly that many people don’t seem to fully understand. In my case, I’ve been called everything from wise to psychic to a witch. People see something there they can’t quite put their finger on. Perhaps this is a core reason why many INFJs feel so misunderstood. This is a gray area for marketing but you can use it to your advantage if you are both aware and intentional.

As the entrepreneurial INFJ, you have to rely on your introverted intuition, as it is a deeply-rooted part of your personality structure. While you are performing the inner workings of figuring out how all this works together and visualizing the big picture, you can apply these natural gifts to your business as well. That inner wisdom is a helpful guide for making marketing decisions if you ask yourself the right questions (and not just focus on how a marketing technique feels to you.):

• Which platforms are serving me well? Can this be proven in the analytics?
• When is it time to cut ties with a platform or put my energies somewhere else?
• Building friendships and partnerships are great — but am I building foundational bricks for my business as well? How can I nurture these relationships along the way that bring me personal satisfaction but also find clients, sales, and financial support for my work? How can I better use my time to engage in the latter or balance the two?
• Where am I investing my time, energy, efforts — and how can I view the payoff of those efforts. How should I redirect efforts where they are needed?

Marketing does not have to crush the spirit of the INFJ entrepreneur, although if you set your sights on too complicated or too massive a venture, you can easily feel overwhelmed. INFJs often do this to themselves! Transform your creative visions into tangible, doable, shareable bites that your potential customers or readers will want to consume. And then, do what you do best. Inspire, engage, lead your clients down the path of your vision. They will come.

Thanks for reading.

◦•●Christina M. Ward ●•◦ creative professional, freelancer, INFJ