How are you surviving the current quarantine state of our world? If you are an introvert by nature, you are probably loving this time to yourself with no one bothering you. If you are an extrovert, it is more than likely driving you crazy to stay inside and stay away from the very thing that charges your batteries – people!

Introversion and extroversion were terms used by Carl Jung, the father of analytical psychology, to explain personality preferences. Introverts are not necessarily shy, but rather introspective when processing what is happening around them. Extroverts are more likely to process by focusing outward and interacting with the world around them. It really has to do with how we recharge ourselves: by being alone or with a group of people. Introverts would prefer to be isolated or in the company of a few people. Extroverts are at their best around people. What we know is most people fall somewhere in between the two extremes, meaning most introverts do quite well at a large gathering of people and extroverts can sit down and read a book now and then.

Is the world run by introverts or extroverts? There has been a lot written about the way technology has leaned young minds towards introversion rather than extroversion. Games are not played with a group of friends in the same room, rather they are played online against a username with an avatar. Beliefs are not expressed verbally, but with memes on social media. Products are not sold in a physical shop at a specific location, but in virtual stores and delivered by an Amazon driver. The current lock down is an introvert’s paradise and an extrovert’s bane!

What does all of this have to do with marketing? Quite a lot.Traditionally, marketing has been geared towards extroversion.When we make strategic marketing plans, we focus on large gatherings of people to carry our message, such as trade shows and golf events. The success of a sponsorship is based on how many people we can expose to our brand. The success of an ad campaign is based on how many people we can get to crowd into one place to buy a product.We often use a bandwagon approach to garner more people to get on board.

The new media is more individualistic than traditional marketing. It drifts toward introversion –research my brand without talking to a salesman, buy it online, have it shipped to your doorstep, etc. If you are paying attention to this trend, you will make it seamless for the introverts of the world to buy from you without talking to you. And if you make that leap in the way you do commerce, you need to market it. Nothing sells without marketing.

On the other hand, what do you do with all the extroverts who are dying to talk to someone? Do we have to live in the old world of commerce for the extroverts and in the new world for the introverts? No, there are new technologies that fit the extro-half of the population. For instance, online chat on your e-commerce site fits the extrovert's itch for human interaction.So does social engagement. We have a marketing segment we do for a customer who works with mechanical engineers where we ask them to identify a machine part on social media. Engineering is a thinking-person's gig, but that doesn't mean that all engineers are introverts. There are a mix of both intros and extros in the engineering field. Here is what we have observed. We know the introverts look at the piece and try to figure it out, but never comment. The extroverts will actually comment, like and share the piece.

Learn a lesson from the grand social experiment happening all around us called social distancing and home isolation. Some love it; some hate it! Your marketing has to take into consideration both sides of the personality spectrum. Look for ways you can engage both the introverts and the extroverts in your target market. Build your marketing strategies in ways you can meet both of their needs for interaction.