Tips to Promote Yourself, and Your Business.
Where do you begin?
It doesn't matter if you’re an individual or a business owner, the following tips and strategies can help you strengthen your brand. Some of these can be knocked out in a few minutes, while others may take more time. The payoff will be worth it.
Update your online profiles - personal & business
A quick Google search can help fill in the gaps for where your outdated company or personal information is located.
Depending on your business, here are a few common ones to get you started: LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Google Business Profile, Yelp, and Better Business Bureau.
Don’t forget about some of the less obvious locations where your personal/company information could be located like your local chamber of commerce, trade associations, and company descriptions sent to trade shows.
If you’re a contractor, you may have a profile listed on the websites of the manufacturers you work with.
It's also crucial to update (or add) your headshot, logo, and other photos. People are more inclined to do business with someone they can make a connection with.
Identify your target audience
This is often overlooked but is an incredibly important piece of marketing. And no, everyone is not your audience.
Whom are you talking to? Whom are you trying to reach? Why?
Without this key information, you’re likely not going to craft the proper marketing messages and materials to reach the audience you want.
Create a customer or buyer persona. This is a detailed description of the person that represents the audience you are trying to reach. You will need to identify the following:
- Demographics: Age, gender, occupation, title
- Geographics: city, state, region, country
- Psychographics: behavior, interest, attitude, opinion, organizations
- Pain points: challenges, issues, concerns
Again, depending on your business, you may have multiple personas so you will need to do this exercise for each audience. If you find you have more than three, then go back and identify which are the most valuable to your business, and focus your efforts there.
Update your elevator pitch
No, the elevator pitch is not dead.
If someone asks you who you are and what you do, what will you say?
It may seem obvious, but take thirty seconds to write a pitch for yourself identifying who you are, what you do, and what value you bring to the table.
For your business, always keep your target audience in mind.
Invest in good marketing materials
First impressions matter.
Are you trying to design marketing materials in Word or Powerpoint yourself?
Or, have you been saying “we really need to update our website” or “our brochures are terrible” for over a year, and no action has been taken, it’s time to seek outside help.
Take the time to review all your materials through the eyes of a potential customer, and make updates accordingly.
Invest in your business and work with a professional copywriter, designer, and video editor (if you're not using video yet, you should be). Effective marketing will yield significant ROI in both direct and indirect ways.
We’re all responsible for how we position and brand ourselves and our companies.
Keep in mind that doing something is better than doing nothing at all, and every little bit counts.
A version of this article has also been posted on Roofing & Exteriors.
