This is a guest post by the straight shootin’ Maggie Patterson. I cheered when I read this article, let me know your thoughts in the comments!
You’ve got a website and you are ready to go? Bring it on world! You’re on your way to fame and fortune. Or are you?
Nothing. Zip. Zilch. Nada. Total crickets.
This my friends is the sad reality of any business, if you build it, they will not come.
Having a website is simply not enough. The best packages and services in the world will simply never sell if people don’t know you exist.
I know its hard to hear, but this is the harsh reality of having a primarily online business.
So, what’s a savvy business owner to do? You need to get out there and promote yourself!
Easier said than done, I know. Putting yourself out there is tricky business, but it is 110% doable. You can go from unknown to building a community of people that know, like and trust you, but you need to simply start.
Here’s the three core pillars to getting started with building your brand and promoting yourself.
The Confidence to Embrace Being an Expert
For most of us, the trickiest part of promoting anything, let alone ourselves, comes down to confidence. The sooner you acknowledge that you may be a bit shaky in the confidence department or harboring some limiting beliefs, the better.
Here’s the thing. Feeling like you aren’t “enough” is entirely normal. You aren’t expert enough. Smart enough. Experienced enough.
To make it as a business owner, you need to find a way to get over this pronto, because if you don’t believe it, no one, and I mean no one else will. You need to realize that you’ve got something to offer and you are an expert on something.
Take a sheet of paper and write three things you are an expert on related to your business. Do not judge or censor yourself. Those are all things you can focus on as part of promoting yourself.
Service Not Sales
As coaches, consultants and service providers, we are focused on helping our clients, so when it comes to promotion, particularly ourselves, it is easy to slip into a pattern where we feel like promoting anything is sleezy.
The key is to flip your script. The most effective way to promote anything is to come from a place of service not sales. The goal should be to educate, inform and/or entertain versus trying to get people to buy anything.
In recent years, there’s been a shift towards marketing that’s driven by delivering content that adds values versus straight up shameless promotion. This reset in the marketing world makes promoting yourself so much easier because you simply need to show up and deliver content that helps people solve a problem or overcome a challenge. (Okay, it is a bit more complicated, but this is the high level view.)
Walk Before You Run
While, I’m a HUGE fan of starting before you are ready, but when it comes to things like media, speaking and guest posting, it’s not the best advice.
Yes, start to promote yourself before you completely are ready because otherwise you’ll never do it and it will be you and the crickets hanging out for a good long time.
When it comes to promoting yourself, knowledge is power. Before you dive head long into trying to secure guest posts or anything else, you need to understand the way things work so you are working within the established system. Bloggers, reporters and other influencers have a way of doing things so you will greatly increase your chances of success when you play by their rules.
With my clients, I advocate a “walk before you run” approach to publicity and promotion because you need to start somewhere. Starting off with trying to secure an appearance on a national talk show when you’ve never been on camera and are a relative unknown is going to result in a lot of frustration and wasted time.
Instead, look at all of these efforts as an ongoing activity over the course of months or even years. You can start with some lower level guest posting opportunities, then you build up to higher level targets as you become proven and then you can move up to interviews in mainstream media or that national TV appearance. Taking this approach gives you time to develop your swagger and establish yourself as an expert.
Guest posting is the ideal “walking” activity as you are getting started with promoting yourself, that’s why Ellen has included the Guest Posting Kick Starter package as part of her Signature Services Package.
Maggie Patterson is a copywriter, communications strategy and PR expert who works with entrepreneurs to help them get more clients, more money and more cred. With 15 years of hands-on experience she has worked with companies of all sizes – from big brands to solopreneurs. She is the host of the Marketing Moxie podcast and her work has been published on leading websites including The Huffington Post, LKR Social Media, Duct Tape Marketing, Content Marketing Institute, Yahoo Small Business and more. She is a proud wife and mama, avid gardener, reader, traveller and all-round crafty girl.
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