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Marketing your Home Business with Confidence
By Joyce Gowens
You've started your own business and by all accounts your business should be busting at the seams, but for some strange reason, it's not!
Below are some goals that need to be set by you in order to build confidence and succeed in your marketing efforts.
1. Your first goal: Market --- RIGHT NOW
Aim to market every day. Your marketing effort for the day may be simple: you may send a stay-in-touch email message to a client you haven't spoken to for a month.
Maybe you spot a new potential market, and you send them a quick note, telling them something about your business, yourself, and your current clients.
If you make marketing part of your everyday life, it doesn't seem like such a chore. Nor do you get hung up on whether people respond to an email message, or a message you've left on their voice mail. People often don't respond, unless they have work for you immediately.
2. Your second goal: Get known --- promote
This means that to sell to a market, you first need to become known to a market. Yes, you can get extremely lucky, and may make a sale the first time you contact a particular market. You can't count on it happening every day, and depending on luck is no way to build a career.
Send out a news release at least once a month. Get your name out there.
3. Your third goal: commit to your marketing campaign
Being committed to marketing means exactly that. It means that like Nike, you just do it.
I read a profile of Mary Kay Ash, the cosmetics queen. When she was starting her business, and for many years thereafter, she was always the last person to leave the office. Long after others had left, she'd been busy making just one more marketing phone call.
This is the spirit you need to aim for in your marketing efforts. Make just one more phone call. Send just one more email message. Every day.
Whatever your business, whether it's writing or something else, you won't succeed unless you make it a habit to do some marketing every day. Start small, set tiny achievable marketing goals like those I've suggested. If you do that, your business will be a success.
Get ready to achieve
Setting goals is challenging for many people because they've had more experience at failing to achieve a goal, than they have of successful achievement. Therefore, if the idea of setting goals makes you wince, relax and read on. You'll discover a new way of setting goals which will inspire you.
Set little goals at first: start small
Set small goals. Small goals are achievable, and they're not intimidating. Setting small goals, and achieving them, gives you confidence. Each day you will improve your writing skills, and you will learn more about how to market.
Setting small goals applies whether you're a beginner, or a pro.
After making some inquiries about building your business, some genius asks you how you're marketing your business.
If you are like many new business owners you may be thinking: "Marketing? No, not that... Anything but that!"
Fortunately marketing does not have to be the big, scary, hairy green monster it may appear to be. The following tips will help you take the fear (hairy green monster) out of promoting your business.
1. Know & appreciate thyself.
If you realize that you are one of the greatest things to come along since the invention of M&M's or chocolate covered raisins, than you will boldly market yourself and business without any fear of failure or reprisals. Get grounded in what makes you special, unique, and great!
2. Know the specifics of what you are marketing.
Educate yourself on the ins and outs and every aspect of what you and your business have to offer. What exactly does your business offer and to whom? By getting really clear in these details, you will be more confident and aggressive in your marketing strategies and communications.
3. Learn about marketing from a marketing expert.
The easiest way to get over your fear of marketing is to remove the confusion and common misperceptions surrounding marketing. The more you educate yourself and learn about marketing, the less fearful and the more confident you will be to get out there and do it!
4. Have fun.
It doesn't matter whether you are an introvert or an extrovert, marketing can actually be fun! You get to meet a lot of neat people, continually have new experiences, and learn more from every interaction. Enjoy this process and fear will be the last thing on your mind.
5. Get support.
Do you realize how many people are out there just waiting for you to call and ask them to help support you in your marketing efforts? Start off by asking friends, family, and colleagues for their support in your marketing efforts. You will be amazed at how many people in your sphere are willing and available to assist you in marketing yourself and your business. This way, you won't be the fear-filled lone ranger racing out in to the wild blue yonder to single handedly promote your business.
6. Let your creative juices flow.
The more creative you are in your marketing efforts, the more fruit your efforts will reap. Put your own unique, creative twist to your marketing efforts. For instance, if you love to sing - write and sing a little appropriate jingle you can use to announce your business to others.
7. Be persistent.
You have implemented some marketing strategies and have yet to see the rewards to your efforts. So? No biggy! Be persistent and keep putting effort in to your marketing strategies. With continuing persistence, the results will eventually happen.
8. Put your eggs in different baskets.
There are so many different ways to market yourself and your business. Don't limit yourself to just one area. Spread your marketing efforts in many different areas, including, but not limited to - business promotions, snail mail, media (including radio, newspaper, television, and magazine articles), networking, personal interactions, and the internet.
9. Accept that NOT everyone will be interested in what you are offering.
How many billion people are on this earth? Not everyone will be clamoring to hire you or purchase your products. By understanding and accepting this, you will get over your fear of rejection and be more aggressive at taking action towards marketing your business.
10. Design a wonderful daily, weekly, and monthly marketing plan.
Great results do not happen by accident. Instead, they are the byproduct of a well thought-out, documented, logical plan. Work with a marketing plan for your home business.
Good Luck and Good Marketing!
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About the Author
At Bizymoms.com we use team effort to provide the most enlightening and informative articles on the net. Joyce Gowens is Chief Writer, and Home Business Expert at http://www.bizymoms.com. The site offers home-based business start-up kits, online classes, e-books, chats and enthusiastic support for moms who want to have it all – a family and a career. Visit http://www.bizymoms.com for more information.
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