The Power of Personal Promotion: Part One of Simple Steps to Success

Home > Promote > Marketing > Public Relations

by Eva Almeida

There are many ways to promote your products or services, but have you ever thought of promoting yourself? What?! I know what you are thinking...promote myself...how do I make money doing that? My answer to you is that you may not directly make money by developing your reputation online or creating relationships with fellow marketers; but, it will certainly go a long way in your future recommendations of certain products or services.

For example, in my profession as a pharmacist, I take it for granted that people trust me and come to me for health-related advice. Even though they realize that I am also a sales person for that pharmacy, they still come to me for free advice. Why? Primarily, that is part of my profession as a pharmacist and also, I have made it my mission to tell people when NOT to buy certain products as well. I have developed their trust and when I recommend something they know I mean it! They believe that I am promoting a certain product because it is the best remedy for their ailment (and so they should because I believe it as well).

You can do this as well! Don't come across as always trying to sell something just for the sake of profit. By freely providing your expertise in discussion forums, you will gain a reputation as someone who is there to help others to succeed! Believe me, you will definitely gain from this! Your contacts will be more likely to buy products from you if they perceive you as honest, dependable, helpful, and open to suggestions. Someone who is sarcastic and selfish may become successful but it will eventually backfire by negative word-of-mouth advertising.

Dale Armin Miller, owner of the SuccessArsenalT site <http://www.successarsenal.com/wow/reprt31a/>, sums it up perfectly:

"Many netpreneurs spend too much time trying to uncover what's "wrong" with their current product or service, and not enough time trying to uncover why their prospects just plain don't believe them. Sometimes marketers look at the facts and wonder how I could pass that up. I don't have any idea what facts they're looking at, but I do know what I am looking at: a bunch of words. I can tell you that I'm tall, dark, and handsome, but (unfortunately) that doesn't make it true! It's hard enough for someone to gauge your honesty when they can see your face. No, IBM doesn't have that problem; and, no, you're not IBM."

Other than being as honest and sincere as possible, other ways to promote yourself include testimonials, partnerships, and personalization. When people are happy with you and your products, they will send you testimonials to thank you. Show your appreciation by posting them on your site! They will respect you even more and are more likely to recommend you to their friends! Word-of-mouth advertising is a very effective way to promote yourself so please take advantage of it.

If you are a part of an associate program or multilevel marketing program, a very effective way to recruit new associates or sell your products is through partnerships. Team up with your enroller or your enrollees and promote together. My neighbor and I promote health supplements together. She provides the testimonials (obvious to everyone just by looking at her 40 pound weight loss) and I provide the expertise being a health professional. If you know of someone in your program who could complement your sales style than partner up and your membership will undoubtedly increase (since two people convinced of the benefits of a particular program are more impressive to a prospect than one)!

This could also be used by ezine publishers through creating joint ventures with other publishers. A new subscriber would receive a welcome message recommending another quality ezine and most likely they will subscribe to the second newsletter as well. So, look for others who could complement your business to joint venture with.

Lastly, personalize your communication with other marketers as much as possible. Use sincere compliments (note the word: sincere!!) when replying to other marketers and include your name as much as possible. Treating fellow business people with courtesy will earn you respect and they will think of you first if they need your services in the future.

When emailing offers, try to personalize the ad by addressing it to your prospect by using his or her name, if possible. This doesn't apply to broadcasting an ad to opt-in lists, but includes replies to business offers. The biggest percentage of my downline are from personal contacts that I have developed during the time I have been in the marketing business. I had developed a dialogue about family and my business; then when they asked me more information, I told them how the particular program benefited me. I left it up to them to decide if it would benefit them and they usually enrolled based upon my recommendation.

Therefore, try to develop a personal dialogue with fellow marketers first and when the conversation leads to your business, tell them the benefits to yourself and more importantly how it could benefit them and you will be on your way to success!!

Part 2