P.T. Barnum gave us with many valuable messages. The one that resonates deep within me is, "Without promotion a terrible thing happens, nothing."
Did you know that, according to the statistics compiled by the SBA, the top two reasons businesses fail in the first year is not under capitalization; it's poor management and lack of promotion?
Yet each time I keynote on the subject of promotion I am constantly amazed at the numbers of people who subscribe to the no-promote rule. Seeking to determine the no – promote reason, I'm usually staved off with "not enough time or no extra hands."
Nice mask I tell them. And when I explain that it's much deeper than this that it stems from behavior they learned in childhood there is always an interesting hush that ascends over the room.
I ask who was told, "Don't blow your own horn. Don't brag. Don't make waves. Don't tell people your ideas they'll steal them. I observe many head and facial acknowledgements to the affirmative. There is increased fidgeting and frowning.
When I reveal that I was told, "men don't want to marry someone who has a big mouth and a big ego," this opens the way for others to dig deeper. My further probing reveals parental dialogue that includes, "What makes you think you have anything to offer?” “Don't take risks, they only lead to failure.” “If you stick your neck out there are people waiting to break it.” And the one that gives me pause, "Don't be more successful than your father.”
Look inside yourself for the messages you were given as a child. These usually are messages that stems from their failures, their parental observations and experience that has frozen them in time and prosperity. Did your father claim bankruptcy? Did he have to close his business and work for others? Was the breadwinner fired for taking risks?
These messages are your parent's stuff. They are not yours. You no longer have to be the recipient of their lineage or suffer because of it. Instead, shift your emphasis from denigration and denial into prosperity and success consciousness.
Gandhi said that if you don't ask you don't get. I think of promotion as asking for the prosperity and success I not only want, but that I deserve. I believe that success and abundance is a built in feature of our birthright.
Another attitude that prevails, passed down the generations has to do with the word hype. “It's sleazy, cheap and unprofessional,” are the usual comments. "It reeks of taking advantage of, of cheating someone out of something" is another. And don't forget the one about "pulling the wool over one's eyes."
Hype unfortunately has become synonymous with that of a four-letter word. Its real meaning of trying to please transformed into a negative of taking. The word comes from two Greek words, hyper meaning over, and bole meaning to throw. Picture the farmer's market of many years and centuries ago, crowded with rows deep with customers. In order to feel or test the merchandise they would enthusiastically and with passion throw it over the crowd into the waiting grasp of the potential buyer.
The key words here are enthusiastically and with passion. How about replacing your conception of hype with the concept of enthusiasm and passion for what you have to offer? From here on in, I would like you to think of promotion as the outward manifestation of that enthusiasm and passion for your products or services. Just this shift in attitude and tactics alone will bring you more business. I guarantee it.
The third aversion I often encounter is the perception promotion has dollar signs attached to it. Believe it or not promotion does not have to break your budget or your bank. There are many no cost ways or low cost effective promotions to get your name and benefits in front of your target over and over again. Each of my six books is designed around 101 Ways to…and are filled with no-cost, low-cost ways to promote yourself. The low-cost might be for a website, a networking meeting, postage and printing should you decide to do a mailing. Almost everything else is free. Six times 101, minus a few that do cost something, by calculation certainly does leave a large choice of free promotions to try.
As for "the no extra hands" comments, I suggest an intern, or a retired person.
What kinds of promotions are most successful in enhancing your image?
- Promotions that are about giving and not taking
- Promotions that offer benefits rather than features
- Promotions that are selfless not selfish
- Promotions that educate
- Promotions that solve a problem
- Promotions that fill a need
- Promotions that change the quality of life
In other words, promotions that benefit others will benefit you. Information, strategies and technologies that help people improve their lifestyle, body, mind and spirit. Here are five credible, field-proven promotions that fit these criteria, taken from the international best selling 101 Ways To Promote Yourself.
It is true that promotion, aggressively reaching out for visibility takes time, energy and effort, but the benefits show up in customer acquisition, retention and appreciation, which translate to a greater bottom line.
You might have built the better mousetrap or have the solution to community issues, but if you don't tell your target market where you are, how they can buy your goods or engage your services, how are they going to beat a path to your door? Put all your preconceived notions about promotion aside and maximize your biz-ability with viz-ability.
Grow an image that's worth more than gold, and grow a business that will bring you gold in many different shapes and sizes. Sit down with a piece of paper and a pencil and say, what do I want? What’s stopping me from going there? How can I avoid that? Forget that as a child you were taught not to talk to strangers and Promote Yourself and Prosper!
Raleigh Pinskey is a consultant and speaker on the topic of PR
for Wealth Building, Director of the PR for Wealth Building
Summit and Mentor Program for businesses, authors and speakers.
She is the author of the best selling 101 Ways to Promote
Yourself, 101 Ways to Get on radio and TV, 101
Ways to Write
Foolproof Media Releases, and 101 Ways to Market Your
Business
on the Internet.
Raleigh Pinskey, www.promoteyourself.com, 480-488-4840
raleigh@promoteyourself
.com
