Promoting Yourself & Your Business
Having a great product, idea or services is really nice, but you and your business need to be promoted. Word-of-mouth is great, but usually more effort will need to be employed to reach your potential customers. Make to-do lists for promoting your business. I find that the only way I get real serious about getting things done is by making lists. People po-po it, but try it and I believe you will see amazing results. I could never have completed this website without lists, I have dozens of index cards with lists and reminders. LOL
Promoting Yourself and Your Business
There are numerous ways to promote you and your business locally, including print ads, online classified ads, business and trade shows, simply passing out your business cards. And don’t worry so much about the competition, focus on your business instead of worrying about theirs. Here is an excerpt of something I wrote to a young entrepreneur.
As to your competition, the world is not fair, I had to learn that lesson the hard way, as I was raised that the world is fair. It was a difficult thing for me to accept that the world is not fair, it really was. There is nothing you can do about unfair people, except stay the course, do things better. Create a blog, or reach out to people locally, in person. Go to shops, give a card to your checker at the grocery store, always have your cards and hand them out to everyone. Join physical groups, business or Meetup types, not just virtual groups. The people that succeed are often members of Lions, PTA, etc., they put themselves out there and meet people. Gift a sample of your product, with your card attached, to places that do giveaways, like senior centers or clubs. Brain storm with family and friends about all the ways you can reach people. And stop worrying about your competition, if you out preform them, then the unfair things they do in a couple of places will not matter. Don’t worry about them, concentrate on yourself and your goals. As a bonus, you will meet some wonderful people! Best of luck!
- Go to local trade and business shows.
- Run Online Classified Ads.
- Run Print Classified Ads.
- Hand out business cards to everyone, even your grocery store checkers.
- Join groups and clubs, from business to social, PTA to photography. Meetup.com has a good variety of local groups. These groups do not have to be about your product or service, just get out and meet people.
- Gift items to groups as promotional give-a-ways, with your card attached, of course.
- Host a party to make new friends, or add something to your product-hosted party that might compliment your product. Article: How to Host a Bead Bracelet Party.
- Give presentations on subjects you know and in your bio handout include your business information.
- Create social pages, like Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest. Note: Adding your logo image to these sites can be tricky. Search for “image sizes” for the social page you are interested in and you will find plenty of info, but even with the correct sizes it may still not work and you many have to make some further adjustments. For sizing, if you are not a Photoshop users, your computer may have a preview with sizing option, or you can use an online service such as Pixlr.com. Also pay attention to what the social site may add over your image when you are designing your logo image, or the text they add may cover your text. My opinion, Twitter is the fastest way to reach people. Pinterest is the best for sharing images. Facebook is the best long-term medium. You can pay for advertising on social pages such as Facebook, which allows for very small increments of ad buying, like $5, and it allows some targeting of the ads.
I mentioned in other areas that I learn tips from going to seminars, I learned this one a long time ago and it seems to actually be true. When passing out your business card, give good potential customers 2 cards, it seems to confuse them and they have a harder time deciding to throw your card away. LOL
Other Promotional Tools
BizBox – Expandable, traveling showrooms, offices, and more. Interesting concept to promote a business, certainly not for everyone, but interesting. Their Twitter page has some really great ideas for using their products. BizBox@BizBox1.
Having a website is not the end game, it is just the coin toss, now you need to get into the game and promote yourself and your business. This is a huge area for discussion and learning, but these are some bare basic.
Websites to Learn From
27 Killer Facebook Post Ideas for Small Business Owners – Boom! Social
BrazenBlog – Ideas & resources for engaging leads and customers.
National Days: The Ultimate List – TrackMaven – Huge list, most everyday represented.
ProBlogger – Since 2004, ProBlogger has been the home for bloggers wanting to create and grow their blogs, and then go professional to make money blogging. We’ve got close to 8,000 posts with blogging advice, tips, and in-depth tutorials alongside the latest blogging trends.
The Networking Gurus – Blog with tips and resources.
Promote Yourself and Your Business
Business Directories
If you are serious about your business and really want to put yourself out there, consider adding your business to Internet sites. Start by adding your business to this website, it is free, why would you not?
What is the point? Two things, linkbacks and citations. Search engines, like Google, like websites that have links to them from authoritative websites, and search engines likes citations, your information, name and address. Linkbacks and citations will help your website rank higher and increase your chances of being found in a local search.
See Blog article: What are Linkbacks and Citations? And Why are They Important?
There are loads of directory sites, here are a few examples.
Lists of Directories (Thanks to Nancy for these suggestions):
Top 25 Local Business Directories
Additional Places to Submit Your Website
While it may seem trivial, it is widely said that search engines love links “backlinks” to websites from reliable sources.
Over 101 Hand-picked Web 2.0 Sites To Get Instant Backlinks To Your Blog
Note: The “101” article above may require work to get the linkbacks, like for Youtube you might need to create a video. Speaking of creating a video, here is a link to such a resource, there are many more: Screencast-O-Matic.
Advertise at Classified and Social Websites
Here is a page of information about social websites. Web Sellers’ Lunch Club – Social Page.
Craigslist – Online
Home Business Ideas – Direct Sales Only! – Facebook
Web Sellers’ Lunch Club – Classified list page.
Look for local classifieds such as Northeast Illinois Directory.
Facebook: Look for your local groups, here are some examples in North Texas.
Benbrook Tx Buy Sell and Trade
Networking
Join Business and Service Groups (These may have membership fees.)
Business Network International (BNI) – The world’s largest business networking and business referral organization.
Kiwanis – Service is at the heart of every Kiwanis club.
Lions – Group of service-minded men and women who volunteer to support their community every day.
LeTip – The world’s largest privately owned community of premier professionals.
Local Merchant Associations
MasterMind Groups – Often found at Meetup or Eventbrite type websites.
Optimists – Worldwide volunteer organization whose Members work each day to make the future brighter by bringing out the best in children, in their communities, and in themselves.
Rotary – Coming together to exchange ideas, and form friendships and professional connections.
Participate in Local Events
Blog article at this website: Network Is An Important Key To Success
