Successful small business owners know the ins and outs of marketing their products or services. A successful marketing plan includes many components: radio, television, print, and, of course, online marketing. An often overlooked component of small business marketing, though, is marketing the business owner. Knowing how to market your most important product-yourself, will lead to even greater success, whether you are a small business owner or an employee who wants to get ahead.
What Is The Difference Between Marketing Your Business And Marketing Yourself?
As a business owner, you have two goals: Identify new customers and convince them to buy your product or service, and retain the customers you already have.
New customers: Good SEO marketing will bring customers to your website, but how can you convince them to buy what you are selling? You will, of course, explain the value of your product, include testimonials from satisfied customers (“I tried the deluxe doohickey, and it was great!”), and display high quality photos of your merchandise. Savvy shoppers, though, are always on the lookout for online marketing scams and fly-by-night operations that are likely to shut down after before the product you ordered is delivered. To convince those customers, you have to convince them to trust you, not just your product.
Existing customers: Your existing customers already like your product, or they would go elsewhere. While price and quality are two considerations that might keep them coming back, there may be hundreds of others out there selling exactly what you sell. What do you have that the competition doesn’t have? You! If your customers trust you, they will stay with you, even if others may offer lower prices.
Some Self-Starting Marketing Strategies
You Do You
Consider what you can do that nobody else can do. You probably have some training, experience, connections, or even personality traits that give you an edge over others in the business. Make sure your customers and potential customers know what those things are. Your education, specialized training, and/or unique experiences should feature prominently on your website. That trip to England you took last year may have inspired a new design, or that workshop you attended gave you some new insights. Maybe you taught a workshop. Let your customers know what unique things you can bring to the table.
Stay Connected
When customers see your name in places other than on your own website, they will see you as more of an expert. Guest posting on other sites is a great way to get your name out there. A presence on social media like Facebook, Linkedin, Twitter, and Instagram will also help identify you as a person who keeps up to date on the latest trends in your field. If you have the time, starting your own blog can also help establish you as an expert. You can include a click here link on your site to take customers to your blog. When people see that you have written multiple articles about the art of jewelry construction, for example, they will start seeing you as a jewelry expert.
Never Miss An Opportunity To Sell Yourself
Any opportunity to show what you can do is an opportunity to market yourself. Teach a class, participate in workshops and seminars, and make arrangements with your local radio station to do an educational show about your craft or service. If potential customers see you and hear your name enough, they will think of you when they need what you are selling.
Nobody knows you as well as you know yourself. Don’t be shy about identifying and communicating your strengths. Once you have learned the art of selling yourself, you will be able to sell your product or service more effectively.
