“How can I market myself without feeling ‘yuck’?”

Continuing on with the series of “biggest challenges in business”… here’s my thoughts on how you can market yourself without feeling like you’re selling yourself.

Think of marketing and selling as two different things… because they are. 

• Marketing is about serving, which inadvertently creates a thought in a customer’s mind over time that they need you, and will therefore seek you out.

• Selling is about, well, selling. This is essentially when you are seeking customers by promoting your products or services.

See the difference? Marketing = adding value so customers seek you. Selling = you directly seeking customers.

That’s why I always say Serve. Serve. Serve. Sell. In this sense, you could think of your online presence as being 75% marketing (or serving) and 25% selling. Regardless of the % breakdown, the point to take away from this is that marketing isn’t about selling.

“So what in the world do I talk about on my social media then?”

• Educate about your area of expertise.

• Inspire by building a lifestyle around your brand that your ideal client aspires to.

• Humour your audience.

• Speak truth to challenges you know your target client would be experiencing. 

• Empower your audience to learn a new skill with your support. 

• Go back to my blog post “How to write engaging Instagram captions” and you’ll find 10 ideas for captions ready to go.

Next up? Attracting clients willing to pay your rates.