Self Promotion, Small Business Marketing, and Your Core Values
The thought of self-promotion can strike dread into the hearts of even upstanding business owners. They know how important it is to stay connected with customers, receive feedback and grow their following, but they also don't want to come off as pushy or too commercial. But self-promotion doesn't need to be a dark art shrouded in mystery or fraught with dangers. You can promote yourself and your company while still being mindful of your core values and not turning off potential clients. We'll walk through the finer points of successful self promotion, small business marketing, and core values that will allow you to promote yourself without sacrificing what's most important.
Bleary-eyed and bleary-eared, you stumble out of bed early to begin a new week. You're heading out as soon as you finish your morning coffee, so you can make it to the nearby coffee shop after work. In addition to your usual order, you have a treat for yourself today: a double latte with an extra shot. (You're not alone in the habit; coffee is the number one drink consumed daily for many people.) You sit down, grateful for not having had to wait in line in an increasingly crowded café this morning.
You order and peruse the local paper, desperate to find something to read while you sip your coffee. There's a small article in the business section about local small businesses starting up and growing. You feel a wave of pride as you read about the owner of this café, along with other people who have started their own businesses. You're confident that one day, if you are successful, you'll be able to do something like this for yourself and enjoy it immensely. (You've read some articles yourself that inspired you to blog; now thinking about starting a business is on your horizon. )
Self-Promotion Is a Necessity
You're not alone in these thoughts. Everyone wants to work for themselves, to have a business that they can be proud of and that they can call their own. But starting your own business is an extremely daunting task, as anyone who has tried knows. You'll have to find clients, come up with a service or product, market it properly and then manage the entire process of creating it. Sound simple? It's not.
Luckily, you don't have to do all of that alone. You can hire skilled people and work together to accomplish tasks. You can also start a blog so that you can generate content and show potential clients what your business is all about. But these initiatives will take time, which means you need to start promoting yourself sooner than later.
Your Own Personal Branding
Just as branding is important for a business's image, it's also important for an individual's public persona. You don't want your past experiences being used against you in a hiring process or when giving interviews; this isn't fair to either the company or yourself in terms of professionalism and trustworthiness. You also want to set yourself apart from others so that you can show your skills, experiences and personality. Your personal image and brand are an important part of marketing yourself.
Let's say you're a graphic designer looking for freelance work. You could post jobs on Craigslist, but are you sure that the people who see your post will be potential clients? Will they judge your capabilities based on what they see in the post? Would they even read everything? It's better to use a method of promotion that doesn't rely on random people who may or may not have the skills to hire you. Instead, focus on promoting yourself in other ways.
Taking the Time to Self-Promote
Working for yourself means building a business from the ground up, which means you'll need to promote yourself in order to succeed. You want to put your best foot forward and show the world what you're all about. But taking the time to self-promote can be difficult in a world that seems increasingly busy and rushed.
How will you fit it into your days? How will you cope with potential pushback from others about how much time you spend promoting yourself? Here are some tips for helping you take the time to promote yourself and your business.
Rely on Others
If spending all of your time promoting yourself is a source of stress, don't do it alone. You can get help from family, friends and other business people. One idea is to get an assistant for a few hours each week who will double your productivity. You can also ask for advice from others. Chances are that someone else has been in the same situation you are and knows how it goes.
Use Social Media Surveys
You'll probably want to start with social media (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Google+). These are great ways to spread the word about your business and show potential clients what you have to offer. Websites like HubSpot allow you to easily create surveys on the fly, which makes them easy to use for marketing purposes. You can use a survey to ask about potential clients' needs and then post the results on your website. It's a great way to engage with people and get feedback from them.
When creating a survey, include some questions about yourself as well. Your customers will want to know who you are and what you have to offer, but they'll also have questions of their own. Coming up with legitimate answers that show off your skills in an interesting way will show your business off in the best light possible.
You can't just create a logo or social media profile and expect someone to do business with you. You need to show what you have to offer and convince people that you're worth their time and money. Taking the time to promote yourself and your business is paramount to success. Set aside some time each day so that you can promote yourself effectively!
About Author :
Judy Murray is a freelance writer, blogger and social media marketer. She has worked with many businesses in developing a presence on the Internet. You can follow her on Twitter @judymurray or learn more about her work at http://www.judy-murray.com .
Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/advertising-and-marketing-articles/taking-the-time-to-self-promote-5087627.html
No tags for this post.
The world of internet marketing can be a complicated one to break into. With so many different tactics to use in order to get the traffic that your site needs, it can be hard to know where to start and what methods you should use. What's the best way to get the traffic that your business needs? The answer is really quite simple and it lies in using article marketing as a means of driving quality traffic and making money online at the same time. Article marketing is a great way for individuals and businesses of all sizes to promote themselves effectively.
Conclusion
Article marketing is a great way to market your business and to generate traffic that you can focus on increasing over time. It's very important for you to understand the methods involved in article marketing so that you can quickly get into the swing of things and start making money.
Article Marketing Tips
The process of article marketing is really quite simple. You will post articles on web directories and then work on increasing the amount of traffic that your website gets from these sites. Keep in mind that using article marketing as a means of sending traffic to your site will only work if your articles are of high quality and provide people with information that they are looking for.