Polarizing Marketing

Why “Polarizing Marketing” Creates a Fiercely Loyal Audience

There’s a saying that goes, “I don’t know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everyone.” It’s true: If you try to serve everyone in your business, you’ll end up serving no one. I learned this when I began creating information products to sell online. As hard as I tried, I discovered that creating a product that would be right for everyone meant that my products weren’t right for anyone. That marked the beginning of my polarizing marketing and I have never looked back.

If you are a marketer trying to stand out in a noisy marketplace, being polarizing is NOT an option. It’s a must. The hard truth is that no matter how good you are or how much value you offer, not everyone is going to like you. Discovering this was freeing for me, as I had been a professional “people pleaser” for decades.

And that’s fine. We weren’t designed to please everyone. As a marketer, you can’t cater to everyone’s needs. You must define your audience and take a stand for what you believe in. Only then can you build a loyal following.

Early on, a big name on the internet stated that “Unless you have ten thousand or more people on your list, it will be impossible to get to six figures a year as an online entrepreneur.” Without giving it too much thought, I fired back that “I didn’t get that memo. I got to six figures a year with just over six hundred names on my list, so I know what you’re saying is not true.

Polarizing? Yes. But this helped me to make a name for myself. Few people were willing to take a stand for what they believed and knew to be true, but my days of allowing others to tell my story and limit my goals was behind me. So I not only kept writing and speaking about how anyone could make huge profits with a tiny list, I started a second blog about this and then wrote and published a book titled “Huge Profits with a Tiny List: 50 Ways to Use Relationship Marketing to Increase Your Bottom Line” and it became a bestseller. My polarizing marketing made a positive difference for tens of thousands of people around the world.

Examples of Polarizing People

There are tons of people who abhor Grant Cardone because of his polarizing personality. Yet, there are many more who like his brash attitude and persona.
The same applies for people like Andrew Tate, Taylor Swift, LeBron James, Candace Owens, Anderson Cooper, Kanye West, Ann Coulter and so on. Their views are controversial and highly polarizing.

Because of this, their audience knows their stance and what they believe in. The result is that they resonate with a target audience that become diehard fans. Even if someone disagrees with their views on a specific topic, they remain fiercely loyal.

Similarly, as a marketer, your personality and style of marketing must be so polarizing that your audience/followers strongly believe in you. They enjoy your content and agree with you, for the most part.

How to Be Polarizing as a Marketer

The key to being polarizing is to define a common enemy and stand against them. For marketers, that may mean exposing the scammers and their tactics. It will also make you appear more honest and authentic. For example, I believe that you must purchase and benefit from any person, product, course, or service before you recommend them to others.

Being polarizing could mean identifying controversial topics and going against the flow. Or finding standard practices/ideologies and sacrificing these sacred cows – to show your audience a better way of doing things.

One example could be the current trend of using AI to generate niche specific content. Being polarizing in this case will be standing up and saying that AI is pointless and how you are more successful without using it.

Highlighting all the downsides of these AI tools and explaining how your methods are better in the long run will set you apart from the masses who are currently hailing AI as the be-all and end-all of content creation. You must go against the flow and be vocal about it. Only dead fish go with the flow. You know better, or at least you must make it look like you do.

Benefits of Being Polarizing with Your Marketing

While being polarizing will get you haters, it will get you even more fans. There’s an old maxim, “Even if you bring a roast pig to the feast, someone will say you forgot the apple.” The haters will ALWAYS be more vocal than the fans.

That’s because they’re haters and have nothing better to do. But don’t let the negativity fool you into believing that what you’re doing is wrong.
Very often, the hate comes from a vocal minority. But if you’re doing good in the world and selling/promoting legitimate products that deliver value, you’ll be on the right track.

For example, when my book on affiliate marketing was published, someone left a scathing review saying there were blank pages in the book. I quickly verified that both the paperback and digital versions only had a blank page between each section, as I had intended. I complained about this one star review to my long-time friend, Joe Vitale and he summed up the experience with a three-word reply: “Congratulations! You’ve arrived.”

Just remember that despite all the people hating on junk food (and for good reasons), McDonald’s gross revenue is over $23 billion annually, as of this writing. This is proof that when you have a loyal customer base, you can still turn a massive profit despite the drama and cacophony emanating from the masses of unwashed detractors. And yes, the previous sentence is antagonistic and divisive. But that’s how we roll!

Now, let’s look at the benefits of polarizing marketing…

1. You’ll appear more authentic

When someone is willing to speak their truth, whatever it may be, it makes people sit up and listen. Instead of going along to get along, you’re willing to stand up for what you believe in. That screams authenticity and honesty… and it makes your audience believe in you.

2. It builds authority and an emotional connection

If you are saying what your audience believes, they’ll develop an emotional connection with you. They’ll look at you as an authority they should listen to.
For example, the keto diet is highly popular when it comes to weight loss. However, it’s a strict diet to follow and requires one to eat lots of fatty meats and so on.

Millions of people will struggle with this diet because of how stringent it is. The lack of carbohydrates will create sugar cravings in those who adopt it.
Being polarizing in this case will mean standing up and saying that the keto diet is pointless. One can’t be eating oily and fatty foods forever, even if it’s supposedly ‘good’ fat. We shouldn’t live our lives as hostages to an unforgiving diet.

Because you have a better way! You have a diet program that lets people eat whatever they want and still lose weight. It’s more sustainable and easier to follow. NOTE: I DO have a better way, and I wrote a bestselling book about my experience and how you can benefit in a similar way. It’s titled In Pursuit of Healthy-Ness: How I Reinvented My Life with Intermittent Fasting.

The more you say the keto diet is rubbish, the more haters you’ll get. But here’s the best part… You’ll get a lot more fans who want to lose weight without eating bacon and avocados from morning to night. And many of them will buy your book or coaching. Now we’re talking!

3. You differentiate yourself

When everyone is following everyone else, being polarizing instantly makes you stand out. For decades, we have been told to go to school and get a stable job so that we can climb the corporate ladder like mindless drones.

These days, we see many personalities like Andrew Tate, MJ Demarco, etc. saying that going to college is a waste of time… and the secret to real wealth is to build your own business. Their radical approach has made them unique, won them millions of fans and earned them millions in sales from business books and courses.

4. You’ll filter out those not on the same frequency as you

This is one of the BEST benefits of being polarizing. It repels people who do not agree with what you’re saying. They’re not in alignment with your beliefs and values and will want nothing to do with you.

They’ll avoid being on your email list. They won’t buy your products. They want nothing to do with you… but it won’t stop them from hating on you and stirring up more interest in your brand and products. This will not only increase your reach, but you won’t be paying more to have disinterested people in your list and so on.

This is where the Know, Like, and Trust Factor comes into play. Once we resonate with someone, we tend to become their lifetime fan and want to be a part of everything they create, shares, and recommend.

5. People Will Remember You for Your Polarized Marketing

This is obvious. When you’re polarizing, people remember you. Just get on Facebook and you’ll still see people ranting in 2023 about the past election.

Several years have passed since then, the candidates and the issues still he live rent-free in some people’s heads. But these are just the haters.

The same applies to Tucker Carlson, Andrew Tate, Logan Paul, PewDiePie and so on. Even if their social media accounts are shut down, the moment they get on another platform, their followers grow at an exponential rate.

One example would be how Andrew Tate’s Twitter profile reached 1 million followers in 48 hours once his account was reinstated.
If this isn’t proof that being polarizing works, nothing is. I once heard shock-jock Howard Stern state that “Your audience will either love you or hate you. There’s no money in the middle.”

6. Content Creation is Fueled by Polarizing Marketing

Being polarizing will mean that you’ll never run out of ideas and slants and topics for your content that are controversial. If we follow the earlier example about the keto diet, you could take an opposing stance on every other diet out there and make yours look like the best. There will always be different angles and ideas that you can use to create fresh content for your marketing.

7. Polarizing Marketing Brands You as Unique

If you’re a marketer selling courses on creating funnels and selling products with Facebook ads, you can polarize your audience by saying that SEO, niche sites, Kindle publishing, etc. are a waste of time and money.

Your method is faster and makes more money. The more you repeat this and the more ‘visible’ you become, the more polarizing you will be.
And, you’ll develop a brand that is focused and specializes in funnels and Facebook ads.

Of course, the marketers in other business models will think you’re full of beans, but if your audience (who buys your products) have positive results, you’ll have social proof and build an even more loyal following.

And you can be even more polarizing now! More fun, more sales and more popularity. Polarizing marketing helps you to stand apart from the crowd and
it’s a win-win-win for you!

In conclusion…

At the end of the day, you must have a specific end-goal in mind when you’re being polarizing. Just being controversial for no reason and not having a solution only makes you a whiny hater.

Be polarizing and take a stance on something you strongly believe in. Highlight the problems accrued by using other methods and then tell them that you have a better way.

Then show your audience your methodology, products and services that will solve their problems faster and better than whatever is out there.
Now you’re being polarizing with a purpose. That’s how it’s done.

“In order to be irreplaceable, one must always be different.” ~ Coco Chanel

I’m Wall Street Journal and USA Today bestselling author, independent publisher, and serial entrepreneur Connie Ragen Green and would love to connect with you. If you’re new to the world of online entrepreneurship please check out my training on how to make your first income online at 3 Day eBiz (Use Code: MAKEITHAPPEN to Save) and learn how to gain an unfair advantage when it comes to building a lucrative online business.