With any publicity or profile-raising you must start off ensuring you are targeting it at the right audience. We all have limited time so instead of scattergunning your efforts to Tom, Dick and Harry, pick a niche, be consistent and stick with it.

Whether your ideal clients are mum’s with two kids, real estate agents or global CEOs, find out what they read, what events they go to, whether they using social media and if so what platforms and what groups do they belong to. This is the foundation of any marketing or PR strategy.  If you don’t know these answers run a quick SurveyMonkey or call a couple of your clients and find out. This really is invaluable.

Now you know who you’re talking too here are a couple of tactics I use on a daily basis to get my clients the profile they need to win business, gain credentials and keep one step ahead of their competitors.

Publicity

Getting publicity takes a little work, but if you have a good angle, are specific in which media you are targeting and are persistent then this is such a great way of getting some profile for you as an entrepreneur, your company and your story.

If you’re not sure what angle to go for, what is newsworthy or how to get attention, I’ve written a whole blog post on it here.

Speaking opportunities

Getting in front of an audience of your ideal clients is a great way to quickly build your reputation in the field, gain credentials and increase your mailing list.

Make a list of conferences and events which has your target market as the majority of the audience and approach the organisations running them with regards to possibility of you speaking or contributing in some way.

Make sure when you speak try to tell a story, they are always so much easier to remember then straight facts and always have a call to action at the end. The call to action could be come and talk to be after my speech to grab a free copy of my book or sign up for my newsletter or tweet as I talk and you could win a copy of my book, new ebook etc.

Awards

Again, make a list, pick which suit your audience best and study the entry criteria.  As you are writing get someone else to help you out, a third person critic will help you sell yourself better. As with any copywriting tell your story, add the personal and use lots of lovely stats to prove your points, based completely on the award criteria.

Strategic partnerships

A great way to build your profile, especially online, is to work with other complementary companies to help build your profile and your email opt-ins and social media follows.

Think McDonalds and the current toy you get in a Happy Meal.  Both companies are reaping the rewards of jointly targeting kiddies.

Testimonials

There is no better way to say how great you are than someone else saying how great you are!  You need to start collecting those testimonials from clients and if you can grab a photo of them and even a video of them praising your work.  Put it in your home page, put it in your email communications, PowerPoint presentations and any marketing activities you are doing. These are like gold, treasure them. Also, make sure you ask your clients to refer you if you like the work you do.  Again within any sales transaction if you have been recommended by someone they trust buying resistance goes down dramatically.

Headshots

Come across professionally and like someone who would be great to work with and fun and you’ve won half the battle. Headshots (like mine above which I did last month) can be used across your marketing efforts and are brilliant for any publicity you do or guest posting. Image is all important today so if your website isn’t looking slick or your headshot was taken on instragram then wise up and invest in yourself and your biz before your competitor does 😉