The one thing we business people love to talk about most is ourselves. We love to brag about our projects, skills, achievements or anything else that makes us special, even if it’s in our eyes only. There are no exceptions here. In spite of how successful you are, talking about what you have done makes you feel better about yourself. The trouble is though, bragging is not something you can do too often. At least not when you are selling.
You can’t go to your clients office and talk about yourself. Or brag about how great your product is and what technology you have used to build it. Or how you have reinvented the wheel in your industry. You just can’t, sorry.
But, at the same time, you want to be known. You want your clients to hear about you way before you even ring them. And, you want them to know how great you, your product, service and company are. It’s a catch 22. You can’t promote yourself but hey, if you don’t do it, who else will?
Turn Self Promotion Into Your Best Marketing
Self promotion sounds like a dirty word to many people. Bragging or singing one’s own praises are not something we tolerate. Yet, if you look closely at people who have found success, in business and life, you will notice that self promotion played an important part of it. If achieving success, your business survival or livelihood rely on promotion then ultimately you have no choice but to self promote.
Remember, if you don’t do it, who will?
13 Techniques to Promote Yourself While Staying Professional
# 1. Blog
Writing your own blog is by far the best way to promote yourself, build an image of being an expert in your field and promoting your name to your prospects. If you can’t do it on your company’s blog, set up your own one. Register a domain with your name, or any other domain and get a simple WordPress site set up.
Related: Business Blogs! What, When, Where, Why and How?
# 2. Write a Column
Write a regular column in the newspaper. Just like with blogging, offer tips and advice that will make your clients lives better.
You most likely won’t get paid for doing this but the benefits of promotion here outweigh any potential income you could get from this writing.
# 3. Speak in Public
Public speaking is a great way to promote yourself. Not only do you get a chance to stand in front of your potential customers but also offer them advice and introduce yourself as a person with authority. Good places to start when seeking public speaking opportunities would be your Chamber of Commerce, County Council or local area business groups.
# 4. Give Interviews
This is by far one of the most powerful ways to self promote, however, the most difficult to obtain. Being mentioned in the press gives you the credibility that you really need when self promoting.
# 5. Write a Book
Having a book out adds an enormous amount of credibility to your person and can be used to market yourself out there.
You can self publish the book quite cheaply, just like I did and send a copy to every prospect you meet. Also, having it reviewed means even more promotion to your name.
# 6. Post Online Videos
Videos are the second best thing in marketing. And, creating them is quite easy. Use your laptop’s built in camera and some free software and record yourself talking about things that matter to your prospects.
TIP: One of the best ways to create videos is to reuse your old content. Simply record yourself reading or talking about something you wrote previously in a blog post and you are done.
# 7. Go Crazy on Social Media
Without a doubt, social media is the self promotion haven. It is the place to go to promote yourself. If your company already has social media accounts and you can’t use them for yourself, set up your own one and start connecting to people there too.
# 8. Publish an Elite Newsletter
These days, self promotion is all about information and quality. And, just as sharing it openly with anyone works great, building an elite platform, where you share the best of the best advice is even more powerful. Of course, as part of doing so, you want your subscribers to tell their connections about it and spread the info about you further.
Related: How To Create A Newsletter That Won’t be Spammed!
# 9. Teach a Class
Depending on what you do, this could be a really great way to promote yourself. Create a course where you would be preparing young adepts in your profession.
# 10. Get Involved with Community Groups
Community groups can be a great way to introducing and promoting yourself, especially if you are working on a local market.
# 11. Join Business Networking Groups
Business networking groups like BNI are a great way to build business relationships and gain referrals. Seemingly, they are ideal if you want to promote yourself as a person too. Just make sure that you don’t overdo on the self promotion and stay professional.
# 12. Perform a Media Stunt
This technique might not be for everyone but if you decide to do it, the results can be pretty amazing. A media stunt involves doing something crazy (but while staying professional) that will attract the attention of the press and other people. It’s not the easiest thing to achieve but it can be done on the cheap.
# 13. Guest Post on Other Blogs
Writing guest posts on blogs read by your audience allows you to introduce yourself and your knowledge to a new audience, often at the expense of the blog owner, who created the community. Just make sure that you offer an amazing value to the readers, otherwise they won’t pay any attention to you.
Related: 6 Free And Amazing Ways To Promote Your Business
Your Turn
How do you self promote yourself in the market place? What techniques do you use to get your name known to your prospects? Let me know in the comments.
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Image: “Worms Eye View of A Businessman/Shutterstock“
