Editor's Note: The following is a guest Marketing Mulligans post written by Mickie Kennedy, founder and president of eReleases, a cost-effective electronic press release distribution service. These tips originally appeared in this article on Kennedy's popular PR Fuel blog. Promoting yourself can be tricky. You know you need to do it to create opportunities for yourself and your business, but oftentimes it can come across as boorish, overly aggressive, or even worse...offensive. Follow these suggestions to get it right, especially as you start the new year in full-on marketing and business development mode.
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Self-promotion: some business professionals do it naturally, while others despise it. Either way, getting it right is crucial to growing your business. Here are seven essential tips to get you started on the right foot.
1. Zero In On Your Target Market
This seems obvious, but you’d be surprised how many people get this wrong. Step one is to identify your target market. Who is best suited to use your product or service? Once you figure that out, only market yourself to them. Self-promoting to anyone else is a waste of everyone’s time.
2. Be Confident, But Not Overbearing
Getting number two right requires you to tread a fine line. First of all, you don’t want to come across as a pushy salesman who is full of himself. On the other hand, you need to be confident in what you’re offering or no one will take you seriously. It takes practice to walk this tightrope without falling on your face!
3. Don’t Interrupt
You don’t want someone interrupting your family time do you? Be sensitive to your listening audience’s time. If they’re busy — then they’re busy. You aren’t going to sell yourself to them if all they want to do is get back to eating dinner with their family. Remember, they’re doing you a favor by listening to you in the first place.
4. Get To The Point
It’s easy to ramble on and on. But the more you ramble, the less chance you have of the party on the other end being receptive to what you have to say. In fact, the more words that come out of your mouth, the more likely your promotional message is getting muddled in the process.
5. Put Your Service Into Everyday Speak
Have you ever come across a company website where you read the homepage and you have no clue what the heck they actually do? Remember, all of that industry jargon that you use — your customers probably don’t. If you’re a lawyer, you aren’t speaking to other lawyers. You’re speaking to those who will need your service. Adjust your language accordingly.
6. What Makes You Different?
Why should someone listen to you when there are a million other people offering something similar? You need to come up with your own Unique Sales Proposition (USP) and present it clearly to your target customer. Otherwise, your self-promotion will fall flat and they’ll just go with whoever else they know offers a similar service.
7. Call To Action
Think of your potential clients as sheep (and we mean that in the nicest way possible). They need to be told what to do. Your self-promotional spiel will mean little if the other party is left wondering what to do next. Instruct them!
Remember, all businesses rely on a certain degree of self-promotion. Learn how to do so effectively and watch your company grow.
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