According to Blog Energizer, one of my favourite sources of blog inspiration, September is Shameless Promotion Month. Although you should be shamelessly promoting your business all the time, you might be shy about “tooting your own horn” or feel that you have nothing new to say, so in honour of Shameless Promotion Month, here are three ideas from Michael Fletcher’s Shameless … A Business Coach’s Guide to Success.
1. Unique Selling Proposition (USP)
Your USP explains what makes you different from your competitors by answering three questions:
- What do you have to offer?
- What makes you unique?
- Why should anyone choose to do business with you?
The answers to these questions should be clear in all of your marketing materials and in the way you introduce yourself to others. I’m constantly refining my self-introduction, but it currently goes something like this:
I am a virtual assistant specializing in supporting professional organizers. I help my clients to enhance their online presence by creating and maintaining their websites, blogs, and social networking profiles. As a former professional organizer, I understand the challenges faced by my clients, and by their clients, and am familiar with the resources available to deal with those issues.
I’m looking forward to this month’s Golden Horseshoe Virtual Assistants Group meeting, when we’ll be discussing ways to enhance your 30 second introduction to capture people’s attention and make them remember you.
2. Continuity Programs
A continuity program is a way of motivating people to do business with you again. Here are a few examples:
- Lots of stores give you points every time you buy something, and you can use your accumulated points towards a free product.
- When you purchase a copy of The Copywriting Scorecard for Bloggers, you receive coupons worth 50% off 31 Days to Build a Better Blog and Practical SEO Copywriting.
- At Organized Assistant, we offer a discount to clients who purchase more than 25 hours of services in a 12-month period.
3. Video Brochures
These days, video is becoming a very popular marketing tool. Today’s technology makes it really easy to create your own videos and upload them to YouTube, Facebook, your blog, and many other places. I admit I’m a little behind the times on this one, but I have a couple of videos on YouTube, thanks to Marie Mushing of People in Connection.
Marie’s been telling me about a cool service called ComF5 that she’s started using which lets you embed videos in email and other exciting things, and I’m looking forward to learning more about it.
What “shameless promotion” strategies are you using for your business?
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Janet,
Self-promotion is so-o-o-o hard for me. Why does your article make it sound so-o-o-o simple?
Thanks,
Debbie
Debbie, it’s probably because while we were growing up we were told it was rude to brag. When you start your own business, it’s a whole new ballgame with a different set of rules!
Remarkable ideas with a great USP! Thanks for sharing!