Many people find the prospect of marketing what they do scary and put it off, thinking of it as being pushy and selling to people, when in fact a lot of marketing is common sense and about finding out about people’s needs and being persistent. Here are 10 simple marketing tips to make marketing what you do easy.
1. Needs and wants – Marketing is about what your target audience want and need NOT all about what you can do. Start with your audience in mind.
2. Differentiation/USP – get clear about what makes your company/service different or better than your competitors and then communicate it consistently.
3. Verbal business card – have a distinctive and attention grabbing verbal business card as well as an impactful printed business card.
4. Research – with new business ventures/new services, find about what people want; they are more likely to give you time. Then get back to them giving them what they told you they wanted.
5. Testimonials – ask satisfied customers for written testimonials and use them in new business.
6. Introductions – ask your contacts for introductions to people who might be interested in your services and follow them up. It is easier to open the door with a warm referral than a cold lead.
7. Proactivity – be on the front foot (offensive marketing) rather than reactive (defensive marketing). We live in a fast changing world, so make sure you don’t get left behind.
8. Network – keep in touch regularly with your contacts and be persistent. Set up a database which shows you who you’re due to contact and what their key needs are. Doing networking little and often ensures it happens
9. Nurture key contacts – look after the key people who rate you and who are happy to sell on your behalf. You might never need to do any marketing!
10. PR – have a thought provoking point of view and write a letter or article for free PR. Newspapers and magazines welcome initiatives to appeal to their readers and it costs nothing but your time and thought.
Hope these have been useful. Many people would rather stick pins in their eyes than market themselves, but Marketing in reality is different to what people think it is. Marketing is not sales! It is understanding people’s needs and working out how to help them and to make them aware that you are there.
If you are allergic to marketing what you do, you could be sabotaging your success which would be a shame. Get in touch by using this contact form – click on the link, or call me 0845 22 55 010.
Look forward to hearing from you. By the way, if you found these tips helpful, opt in for our FREE bulletins about Self promotion:
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Cheers
Rachel
Rachel Brushfield
Career strategist and coach
Personalised professional career empowerment
Energise – The Talent Liberation Company
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