The 4 P’s of Marketing Yourself: Promotion, Part 3
By Catherine Lang-Cline
Once you have established where you need to be, how do you make an impact? How do you get remembered? How do you stay front of mind?
Creating your strategy for marketing yourself can be as easy as the 4 P’s: Product, Place, Promotion, and Price. Here we are going to talk about Promotion and how you can get the word out about you. These are some of the things that effectively work for me and for my company:
Partnerships > Sponsorships
At startup stage, we really didn’t have a lot of money. We had to think smart. We had to get the word out about us, so we sponsored an event. I know what you are thinking, sponsorships are a lot of money. Not necessarily if you go about it correctly. When groups put on a large event they cannot get enough money or volunteers. Many things can be offered in-kind or chipping in to help could be offered in exchange for logo placement at the event or on the website. If you are looking to meet people, you might be able to make an exchange for volunteering just for a ticket to the event. Stepping in at this level will also build great relationships. By the way, our first sponsorship was providing cocktail napkins to an event. That was all we could afford. Well, we did pay a little more to have our logo on all of them.
Invest in Branding
Get a really great looking logo and get it out there! This goes back to sponsoring events, writing articles, and handing out a lot of business cards. It is going to take the average person about 7 times of seeing your logo to actually remember it. Keep that in mind when exposing the world to your logo. It is not going to be a one-time thing. Persistence. Make it your friend. And make that logo memorable; clean, bright, and with your personality.
Use Networking to Build Relationships
You may have noticed by now that this involves a lot of hand shaking and networking. All true. Personally, I had to learn to be comfortable with it. I would define myself as an un-shy introvert. What worked for me was walking into events and knowing that the only thing I may gain from it is getting to know someone a little better. When you go in with the desire to get to know people, what you do is build a network of people that will spread the word about you. All of our best clients and talent come from referrals. Put your time and money there first. It goes back to getting that 5-star rating from the people that really know you. Others will learn about that and take a chance on you.
Marketing yourself always needs a strategy. For me and my company it is always about the relationships; building and maintaining them. This goes for if you own a company or are just trying to get your foot in the door for your next job. One thing to be very aware of is that almost all people are very helpful. Do not be afraid to ask for help, connections, advice, or criticism. People will help as long as you are helpful and courteous in return.
