Are you intelligent? Wait, that was an easy question. You are reading my blog, so of course you are intelligent. Better question, do you have multiple intelligences? Not sure!
Let me ask you another question, what type of intelligence do you have? How do you use that intelligence to connect with your readers.
As a former teacher, I realized that I have an advantage over most bloggers. Most bloggers have fancy business and tech degrees. Mine is in education. I have a masters in education, and three years of teaching experience.
Why does this matter?
As a teacher one of the primary tools you use on a daily basis are multiple intelligences. The seminal book on the topic by Howard Gardner has been a guiding principle in my quest to bring the best information to small business owners for the past few years.
Therefore, I am about to let you into a small secret that can help you understand exactly how small business owners can respond to your content marketing efforts.
It all starts with the learning pyramid that I studies as a graduate student. It explained to me, why after years of lectures I was not the best student in the class. Most classes in middle school, high school, and college use a lecture format.
If we are lucky, a dusty chalkboard, twenty year old textbook, slide project image, or a boring PowerPoint overloaded with text supplement this hour of tedious droning.
Not that it was all bad, but two years after I left the University of Wisconsin-Madison I could not tell you the name of any professor I had in four years of school.
However, while writing this I still remember the professor who taught me about Multiple Intelligences almost fifteen years ago.
It is time you learned how to use multiple intelligences to improve your digital marketing.
Multiple Intelligences in Digital Marketing
1. Musical Intelligence
While this is not applicable to every industry, imagine how awesome it would be if you sung in perfect pitch to demonstrate principles of genetic disposition.
Or perhaps you want to write a blog post that turns the boring into something singularly sensational. You can create a ditty that is witty. He! He! He!
Music Intelligence Example: One of the best digital marketing examples of using music is Eric Thomas. He is know as the Hip Hop Preacher. Here is a perfect example of how he uses music videos on YouTube to inspire.
2. Visual–spatial intelligence
Do infographics make your eyes sing with delight? Do you hear people talk and not understand a word they say until you see what they were talking about in the first place?
Then you have a visual-spatial intelligence. Fear not, most people around the world need visual cues. That is why street signs have visual shapes and street lights use red, yellow, and green to differentiate what you should do on the road.
A boring stop sign would just not do.
That is why you probably learn best from videos and surfing Pinterest and Instagram all day long.
Visual Intelligence Example: When you have the ability to showcase the world, it is not surprising that you have some amazing photos. That is why it is easy to show how National Geographics is a great example of a visual-spatial intelligence.
April 17th, 2016 | South Africa photo by @shaulschwarz Giraffes run at sunset at a game farm in the North West province of South Africa #Africa from the Air #NatgeoEarthDay. Want to have your #EartDay photo published on NatGeo.com? Add#NatgeoEarthDay to your image, then check NatGeo.com tomorrow
3. Verbal–linguistic intelligence
Do you like to talk? Maybe you enjoy talking a lot. Well, that just might be your intelligence. You could be the super hero of talkers.
Faster than a speeding bullet! More things to say than Wikipedia! Never a response missed!
You my verbose friend, have a gift for gab. Use this intelligence wisely, because talking requires something that most verbal people forget: listening.
I know, because it took me a long time to listen to what others have to say. As the famous saying goes, you have two ears and one mouth. Use accordingly!
Verbal intelligence example- A great verbal example is podcasts. You have people talking usually between 5 minute up to an hour. Podcasts like those from StartUp Podcast is a great verbal way to communicate your message.
4. Logical–mathematical
Real quick what is the square root of 7,056?
Did you need a calculator to figure it out? Perhaps you just turned on the old noggin and spewed out an answer. Either way, welcome to the logical intelligence.
You know that know-it-all who just has to make sense on top of everything else. I mean what gives! Who gave them the right to bring a logical argument to the table. Oh! That’s right! They have a logical mind.
If you go by the philosophy of “Live Long and Prosper,” you might be a logical person.
Logical-Mathematical Examples- How many statistics do you see on the internet? Just a random search for marketing statistics brought up the following articles: 2016 State of Marketing- 55 Important Business Findings, Top 10 Digital Marketing Statistics of the Week, and 12 Statistics Why Your Legal Firm Should Be Using Video Marketing.
While most experts agree that the vast majority of buyers still use emotion to fund their purchases, they need a logical reason to do so. Statistics like these posts are the fuel to your potential clients sales.
5. Bodily–kinesthetic intelligence
Are you athletic? Do you have that unexplained need to move around all day?
I do not know about you, but I personally work better after I workout in the morning. Sometimes when I want to work, I walk over to a local coffee shop or the library. The walk itself invigorates me, and allows me to focus on the work at hand.
If your intelligence is bodily-kinesthetic, you might want to clap your hands together as your read my article. One as a long distance applause for my intelligence. Second, moving while you read might help activate different parts of your body as you read this article.
Kinesthetic Example- My cousin Stephanie does a great job with using video to showcase her Yoga skills. She does remote teaching. Here is a recent video she posted showing her Yoga moves.
6. Interpersonal intelligence
Do you really, really, really like to talk to others? Are you always meeting people. Learning more about their stories? Then you are probably an interpersonal person.
Interpersonal people are really good at connecting with others. They are the ones with a hundred friends. All of them seem to be besties. You know the type. Never to eat alone. Always walking around with a gaggle of friends and calendar full of events.
On a digital marketing level, you probably feel right at home on social networks like Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, and others.
After all, you can communicate with others. What could be better than sharing your vision on the ultimate interpersonal mediums?
Interpersonal example- Ryan Biddulph is the master at blog commenting. He consistently posts comments on a wide array of bloggers posts. These are not your simple Great post dude variety. He writes paragraph long responses.
Communicating with others online does not necessarily mean you just have to talk their head off. Instead, be a great communicator who cares about others. That is what Ryan does with his blog comments.
[bctt tweet=”Interpersonal people are really good at connecting with others. They are the ones with a hundred friends. All of them seem to be besties.” username=”andynathan”]
7. Intrapersonal intelligence
Are you an expert on yourself? Do you know exactly who you are and why do the things you do in life? Then you have a strong intrapersonal intelligence.
Intrapersonal Examples- What makes people more introspective than parenthood? That is probably one of the most profitable niches on the internet today are the mommy blogs. An army of strong, independent mothers recounting their story for review and perspective.
Take Not Your Average Mom below. Your mother of 7 with stories that make a mother think.
8. Naturalistic intelligence
Do you have a oneness with the nature?
A great way to share this is through recording your time in nature. Create videos and photos of the time you spent enjoying nature.
Naturalistic Example- One of my favorite sources for images is Unsplash. They are part of a web development company that does projects for some of the largest tech companies in the world.
However, they market themselves through an email that goes out 3 times per month. The email contains 10 quality images donated by photographers around the world. Many of the images are scenes of nature. This way, it is easy to give a creative commons license to the image, so anyone can use it.
Thousands of bloggers, developers, graphic designers, and digital marketers use these images on a regular basis. Perfect way to market to your niche without being obnoxious.
Unsplash Nature Image
9. Existential intelligence
Are you always pondering the meaning of life? Looking up at those twinkling lights in the cool mid-evening air wondering who else is up there? Then you my friend have an amazing capacity to existential thinking.
Your intelligence is a useful one, and can be a tremendous asset to marketing your business.
Existential Examples- Out in Itasca, Solberg Manufacturing is getting a bit existential. This custom filtering machine silencing factory is working on reducing emissions at their plant by 25% before 2018. While the site is a bit text-heavy, they have a lofty goal that they share throughout their site.
The fact is that they are looking outside of their own needs to the world at large.
[bctt tweet=”Create videos and photos of the time you spent enjoying nature.” username=”andynathan”]
Multiple Intelligences Final Thoughts
There you go, now you can count all the ways you the multiple intelligences you can use to market your own business. Keep in mind one thing. You do not need to use every intelligence in your own marketing. Just use the ones that fit your audience and your style best.
By matching multiple intelligences with the right marketing mix, you can create a killer combo that can generate huge interest in your business.
Let us know below in the comments what you think is the best intelligence for marketing your business.
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