If you want your business to thrive, you must first overcome the fear of marketing yourself.
But trust me, you are not the only one who has this fear.
There are countless, thousands who also have a phobia for self-promotion.
Studies have shown that a substantial portion of the population struggle with self-promotion.
There are many factors that contribute to this. For example, you could have a fear of public speaking or social anxiety.
Or it could be that you are simply an introvert. But even some extroverts fear self-promotion.
You can be the most outgoing person in the world or the most outspoken person on the internet and still be gripped by the fear of marketing yourself.
In this blog post, I’m going to teach you how to overcome the fear of marketing yourself.
We’ll look at a few strategies that you can use so that marketing yourself will be much more easier and enjoyable for
you.
1. Discover your Unique Marketing Voice
The first step on how you can overcome the fear of marketing yourself is to identify and develop a distinct way of presenting yourself and your brand to your audience.
The way I’d do this is to look inward and try to understand what my personal core values are.
So look in introspect and figure out your personal core values, also identify your strengths and then find a way to combine these with your personality.
Let’s look at an example.
Say you are an introvert and your core values are integrity and self-development and your strengths are are listening, empathy, and deep thinking.
Your marketing voice will most likely be calm. You’ll have this quiet confidence and an aura of authenticity around you.
What you would then do is to communicate these consistently and genuinely across all your marketing channels and even in person to create a strong, memorable presence.
Another helpful way to identify your marketing voice if you want to overcome the fear of marketing yourself is to take inspiration from other people’s sales conversions.
Listen in (not eavesdrop) when people are having normal conversations, listen to sales conversations as well. Pay attention to marketing techniques too.
When someone walks up to you to sell themselves, consider how they approach you, the stories they tell, and the angle they come through.
So take inspiration from other people’s marketing styles and implement them in a way that works.
2. Identify the Triggers
If you really want to overcome the fear of marketing yourself, it is important that you identify the triggers.
You need to determine the root cause of the fear.
Is it public speaking? Is it social anxiety? Whichever one you feel it is, what is the root cause of it?
A friend of mine who hated public speaking and obviously also fear marketing himself or speaking about his work (by the way he makes very beautiful art pieces), shared that his fears were caused because of a childhood trauma.
He was asked to recite a poem in front of the class when he was in primary school, but he forgot a few lines and the other kids started to make fun of him.
He peed on himself in front of the whole class that day and the trauma stayed with even as an adult.
Of course, he had to deal with it because no one could talk about what he did so well except himself.
So are you suffering from a trauma from childhood? Because childhood trauma have a very huge impact on our lives and lifestyles as adults.
Or is it fear of rejection? I used to have a horrible fear of rejection when I worked in marketing and the way prospective clients spoke to us whenever we went for marketing had a lot to do with it.
I remember one prospect saying that putting his money in our bank would only happen if he dies and then proceeded to chase us out of his stall.
Tragic! LOL.
Sometimes, I would break down crying, other times, I would just go straight home instead of going back to work.
Those times were not fun at all. I dreaded it.
But I didn’t always dread marketing, I used to really enjoying, yet, all that changed when I started to work in a bank.
I realized that it was necessary for me to handle rejection if I wanted to go far as an entrepreneur, so I started to take it in and deal with it.
So figure out how you can develop tough skin if rejection is the root cause of your fear of marketing yourself.
Another reason could be self-doubt. Our feelings of self-doubt often times happen because we fear that our limited knowledge may be found out.
For example, you may be having problems marketing yourself as a freelance graphics designer because you don’t think you know graphics design enough.
The solution to this is to fill up your knowledge gap by learning more about your craft.
If you feel that you are well informed, then self-doubt will quickly disappear.
So acknowledge your feelings, recognize and accept them without judgement.
This self-awareness is the first step to overcoming fear.
3. Pay Attention to Sales Conversations
Imagine how embarrassing it would be if you got into a sales/marketing conversation with a prospect and then fall short because you ran out of answers or didn’t know the proper questions to ask.
One of the keys that will help you overcome the fear of marketing yourself is to pay attention to sales and marketing conversations of other people.
Watch them on TV, listen to them on radio and it may not necessarily be sales and marketing conversations, but any kind of conversation or dialogue.
I particularly love to watch TV talk-shows and listen to interviews. I also listen to podcasts too.
One great TV series I love is Suits.
The dialogue in Suits is crazily efficient.
Every one knows how to ask and answer questions intelligently and those who do not know are sidelined.
Let me ask you a question. Have you ever been approached by a sales person or a marketer?
I believe we all have being. Do you pay attention to their tactics?
The best marketers tell stories, and they put a lot of empathy into their stories.
My sister has this tactic that she uses to get her clients to always give her jobs.
As a fashion designer, she understands that its not every time people will always want to sew clothes.
Her customers reach out mostly on special occasions.
So to get them to give her jobs on regular days, she would scour the internet for beautiful dresses and whichever ones she feels a particular customer would like, she sends to them.
She would tell them butter them up with stories about how she had a friend who turned heads at the market just because she was wearing exactly that type of dress.
She would then paint a picture of how they would look in the dresses, with that, their imaginations will be on steroids.
In no time, they are paying deposits to get the exact same dresses.
So you want to learn how to tell stories that paint pictures and be fluent with your words.
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4. Focus on Helping Others
Helping is also marketing.
Find ways of which you can be of help to other people without necessarily receiving or asking for anything in return.
This strategy has really worked for me. If I want to get on people’s radar, I find ways to help them such that they remember me when next they have a problem.
And trust me, I’ve done a lot of free work that ended up in referrals and jobs from the people I helped.
So you too do the same, look for ways of which you can give value to people without asking for anything in return.
Make sure that you are indirectly pointing them to your products and services.
Have you ever joined any free webinar where the host gives free information and at the end of the webinar, they introduce their paid offer?
That’s another good way to market by helping.
I joined a webinar recently about growing a YouTube channel. I would say this, if you are hosting a webinar, let the information you are giving out be unique such that no one would be able to find it on the internet.
The webinar I joined, the host shared a few YouTube growth strategies which were generic information anyone could find on Google.
He was more interested in talking about his paid offer than in giving out helpful information.
So when you are hosting a free webinar with the intention of upselling your paid offer, let it be juicy enough so that your audience can be convinced you have something better to offer in your paid offer.
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5. Always be Prepared
I have this bad habit. I never prepare for any training or speaking engagement that I have.
The reason is because I can’t get any serious work done until it’s close to deadline.
If I’m going for any speaking engagement, I never write down my talking points until its one hour to the time.
It works for me because I’m an ‘active-when-it’s-close-to-deadline’ person.
For you who wants to overcome the fear of marketing yourself, my recommendation is that you carve a clear marketing message that you can always share with people when marketing yourself.
Of course, your marketing message will only be effective provided you have figured out who your target audience is and what problems they need solutions to.
Once you have crafted this message, rehearse it, cram it if you can, and make sure that you can clearly present it to your target market and to prospective clients.
Rehearse your pitches, presentations, and networking conversations in a safe environment.
Then ask for constructive feedback from trusted friends or mentors so as to improve your approach.
6. Develop a Marketing Plan
Another key way to overcome the fear of marketing yourself is to create a plan for it.
You need to be able to define clear and achievable goals for promoting yourself both on social media and in person.
Here are a few strategies that you can employ.
Define Your Personal Brand
Identify your strengths and capitalize on them. List your skills, experiences, and what sets you apart from your peers.
Then create a value proposition by summarizing what you offer and how you can solve problems or meet the needs of your target market.
Develop Your Online Presence
Choose the best social media platforms that work for you. LinkedIn, Twitter, Substack, TikTok? Whichever one you decide.
Then create professional profiles on every one of them.
Optimize your LinkedIn and Twitter profiles most especially, including other relevant platforms.
Post regularly on social media, sharing valuable content, and engaging with your audience.
Another thing to do is to build a personal website or a blog that that showcases your portfolio, achievements, and contract.
The best blogging platforms that will help you do that is WordPress.
Share insights, how-tos, and stories related to your expertise.
Write guest posts for reputable blogs or publications in your industry.
Establish Yourself as an Expert Online
The best way to do this is through content creation. So start a blog, a newsletter, or a podcast.
Don’t underestimate the effectiveness of these platforms.
In addition to this blog, I have a newsletter platform on Substack where I’m growing very fast.
The god thing about Substack is that it has an app where I can reach people who are not even on my list.
I also have a podcast where I reach people who would love to listen as they commute or get busy with their hands.
Join Online Communities
Participate in forums, groups, and communities related to your field.
Ensure that you attend industry events, conferences, webinars, meetups, and network with peers and leaders.
I once attended a pastors and ministers conference with a few pastors from my Church.
The conference was for 3 days and at the end of each day, everyone of them will start rushing to go back into the bus that brought us and head home.
I didn’t have time to network and meet fellow young ministers.
My pastors were obviously not interested in meeting in meeting people and I knew this wasn’t good for me.
So the third day, after the conference, I decided to stay back to meet people and let my pastors go home.
Planning is very crucial in the creative industry and in any industry for that matter.
So create a plan that will outline your goals, strategies, and tactics. Then monitor your progress and adjust accordingly.
Develop a strong personal brand online, making it easier to share your story and accomplishments.
7. Learn Everything You Can
The earlier you overcome the fear of marketing yourself, the quicker you’ll achieve your marketing goals.
So learn everything you can on self-promotion.
Read relevant books, take courses, and enroll in workshops that focus on communication skills.
Take courses on public speaking, marketing, and any other self development ones.
Finally, stay persistent. Persistence is the key to building confidence.