As someone who makes it their business to do marketing and advertising for others it may be that the hardest company to promote is yourself. There is nothing wrong with a little shameless self promotion. We are going to look at some reasons that it shouldn’t be so difficult and how you can have one that is successful. There may be some things in this article that sound obvious but many times it is the most obvious things that slip by us and confounds our efforts.
The first thing that you need to do is consider yourself a client. What are the things that you do when you are starting an advertising and marketing campaign for someone else.
First you need to have a target market. Who is going to be your target market? Well, everyone. The best thing to do, though, is to look for a niche. Your niche could be small businesses who need very little online presence but who do not have the time, money, knowledge, or resources to pull something like that together. Having that online presence can be incredibly helpful to a small business and you can make it happen. Sure they won’t be bringing in the big bucks for you that some huge corporation will have but what you will find is that not only will they be loyal to you, they can get referrals for you and can e easily found. You could even go after a certain niche of small businesses. It could be anything associated with the medical field, or sports, or the outdoors, or any niche. The sky really is the limit. The more you get to know a niche, the better you will be at designing a marketing and advertising campaign around them.
An advertising and marketing campaign for yourself can also be tailored to go after a certain niche. It can also turn off a niche just as easily. Consider all of the tailoring to young, urban and “hip” people. It may have some funky music and slick graphics with swirly things and lots of dancing but will something like that be appealing to a group of doctors…who may, as a niche, have some very deep pockets? Probably not. What about your website that has the goth thing going on or shows some great designs that would be good as a tattoo? Sure it might reflect who you are but does it reflect and draw in those people whose business you need and want. It isn’t called selling out to cater to the likes of those whose business you desire. It’s called selling.
Several years ago the band Metallica was talking about the criticism they have received for trying to reach a broader market. Their lead singer, James Hetfield, said “sure we sold out….every seat in the house.” The successful strategies used will take note of these things. The marketing and advertising you do for your own business will be successful online if you make yourself as appealing as possible to as wide a range of people as possible on the Internet.
