Personal Branding

4 Inexpensive Ways to Market Yourself Online

Marketing should never be something you have to break the bank for, especially in this day and age when the Internet can give you access to numerous tools and vehicles for marketing yourself cheaply. This can actually be something a problem, though — there are so many different ways to market yourself online, many entrepreneurs who are just starting out don’t exactly know where to start.

Never fear. I’ve got four inexpensive ways to market yourself online with little tips and tricks for how to do so in the most valuable way possible.

  1. Social Media

First and foremost, social media should be your go-to marketing vehicle. It’s essentially free unless you want to invest money into it, and even then the capital required is small — especially for the return on investment.

You’ll need to establish which social media sites suit your business. For instance, your jewelry ecommerce store may not benefit from LinkedIn like it would from Instagram or Pinterest. Then find inventive ways to promote yourself on these social sites, like coupon codes or freebies. Always pay attention to your engagement on social media: who is talking to you, and are you talking back?

  1. Online Reviews

Online review sites are a great way to market yourself cost effectively, mostly because you’re not even really doing the work involved! Always make a point to ask your customers to post reviews of your service — make things simply by including it in your site or email copy. The site you choose should coincide with your business theme. Sites like Yelp and a Google My Business page can do wonders for your word of mouth marketing capabilities.

  1. Blogging

A business blog can help you market your brand, boost your SEO AND give you great visibility — so why aren’t you doing it yet? Consider things like partnering with an influencer or related company to double your visibility while promoting valuable content. Your blogs are also a great way to market your business in a subtle way, like talking about the benefits of your business in an otherwise informative article.

Your blog can also act as your on-site press room. When you have news you want to share, do it via a blog post! Then share that blog post on social media for maximum results. This takes little to no capital, and blog posts are cheap if you want to outsource them.

  1. Put Yourself Out There

Online marketing is essentially finding ways on the Internet that put your brand in the spotlight. Doing things like answering Quora questions our joining industry relevant forums can promote you as a thought leader while also boosting your brand within the public consciousness.

Always be innovative and look for opportunities. I can’t give you all the advice you’re looking for because I don’t know what opportunities may come your way. The best marketing advice I can give you is to stay hungry and always keep a watchful eye out for ways to promote yourself online. It’s easier to find cheap marketing vehicles than you may think.

About Branding Yourself Online: The Whys and Hows You Need to Know

Branding Yourself Online The Whys and Hows You Need to Know

How do you brand yourself online? A better question might actually be this one: do you brand yourself online in the first place?

Aside from your business, you should also be branding yourself on the Internet. The difference is obvious: when you brand your business, you market it and what it can do for others. When you brand yourself, you market your own person and what you can do for others. This includes showcasing yourself as a thought leader, an influencer or just someone that needs an audience.

Why You Need to Brand Yourself

As you can see above, it’s pretty obvious on the surface why building a personal brand for yourself online is enticing. Who doesn’t want to be thought of as someone influential with something to share with the world?

Being an influencer, though, does more for you than just boost your ego. The long and short of it is building a brand for yourself improves your credibility. This helps you out in more ways than one.

  • Any personal projects you start or endorse will immediately be thought of as credible based on your improved personal brand.
  • Your business will be seen as more credible based on your own credibility.
  • Your social media, publications and any content with your name attached will be seen as credible and insightful based on your personal brand.

This can certainly be a great asset for your other businesses. When you work on building your brand, you also work on building your image and credibility across the board in the world of business.

How to Start Building Your Brand

Building a personal brand is in no way an exact science, but there are some basic steps and tips to follow that can get you on the right track. In general, building your brand is composed of two parts: activity and image.

How active you are online greatly affects your credibility and brand. When you post on social media often, keep your website updated and actively engage with others online, you give off an image that you are committed to maintaining your brand and being active within the business community.

Your image is greatly based on the kind of content that you post and how you engage in the above activity. Sharing insightful tips and content is one way to boost your image online.

Here are some quick and simple ways to start working on building your personal brand:

  • Post on social media every day on a schedule.
  • Post to your website’s blog and business blog(s).
  • Always stay committed to sticking with trends.
  • Read thought leader blogs and websites.
  • Offer your content services to outlets.
  • Look to attending and/or speaking at events, conferences and seminars.

These are just some of the more basic ways you can build your brand online, and you’ll quickly find that the effort involved is minimal compared to the great results you get at the end of it all. If you stick with these small tips and grow from there, you’ll have a great personal brand in no time.

Making The Most of Social Media

Branding yourself or your company through social media is not difficult to accomplish when the right strategies are employed. Below are a few tidbits of info that are easy to do yourself. If successful, over time you should notice a gradual increase in your audience and voluntary interaction. Once you decide on what content you’ll present through your social media networks and what you hope to achieve you can then start mapping out a strategy. These social media strategies however should be well-thought out and serve a sole purpose of peeking the interest of your audience.

Here’s a few strategies to help you get started on the frontiers of social media.

Let’s say you plan on launching a series of new products and want to start promoting the product release dates along with information about the product and where it is to be sold, etc. A great approach would be to leverage the pre buzz through social media. You could start by setting up scheduled tweets and Facebook posts that gradually unfold bits and pieces of information. These tweets and FB posts should be direct, concise and visually attractive. A big mistake would be posting the same information over and over and over again. If you’ve failed to get the wanted reaction the first time, dont just repost the same post. Think about rearranging the content of that post, figure out what didn’t work and step it up with more flattering, appealing info but still get to the point, and quickly.

Nothing more desperate than asking your audience to “please re-post” or “please like” my whatever. Not only does this reveal desperation, but it also reveals that you haven’t taken any time to consider the audience’s interest. Don’t get in the habit of fishing where there are no fish. Instead consider the people in your audience. Are they truly consumer targets or just a scattered demographic of people who have come to jump aboard your band wagon just because. If the latter, you’ll need to start from square one and find out why they ended up in your social media network to begin with. The bottom line is to take time to get to know what moves your audience or at least figure out how to get them to move.

Take advantage of your social networks by interlinking them when possible. Sync them across multiple online platforms. This encourages viral interaction and the chances of your audience sharing your post increases.  If your twitter account links to an rss feed or automatically updates on your other accounts great. This in a sense kills two birds with one stone and your audience can easily keep up with your company.