Eight Steps to Successfully Marketing Yourself
New technology has expanded the ability of a single person to reach anywhere in the world.  Conversely, it has made almost every marketplace more competitive.  Even in today’s world of changing technology, the basics for marketing remain the same.  To be successful in a new business or in expanding a current enterprise, you will need to adopt these eight steps.   To create a marketable business, you need to take action and actively, routinely participate in these processes.
1.    Define Your Mission – To create a mission statement it helps to look at why you got started in business.  What initially got you excited about getting started? What values and principles are guiding your business?   Once you have answered those questions, you can begin to develop your mission statement – your purpose or goal in business.  Remember that your mission does not have to be as elaborate or complex as a business plan. Keep it brief; three or four sentences would be the most you need.  Do not include numbers, goals, or other facts that will require frequent revisions.   It is simply your concise expression of your business purpose and what you have to offer.

2.    Set Your Marketing Objective – Objective statements are written in a certain way and state exactly what you want to achieve.  They always begin with the word “to,” i.e., “To develop a strategy in which business leaders will learn about my business.”  You need to set several objectives that will get your business going.  These objectives need to be ‘hard core’ reality objectives that will get your business hopping.  They need to both be challenging to do, but still need to be doable.  There is no sense in setting six objectives that you know you will never reach just to say you set them.  These must be reachable objectives if you are going to market yourself.  So, set really hard, doable objectives.  It follows that these need to be within your budget; you must have the means and the ability to reach them within a reasonable time line.

3.    Design Performance Measures - This is where most young business persons fail.  They refuse to set any litmus tests in the dirt to make sure they are making the grade.  Performance criteria are the way to avoid that! Set absolutely ethical, valid criterion in the dirt that you must pass and get beyond if you are going to make it.  If, for example,  you say you are going to be the best sous chef in the city in one year, then that ought to be provable in the restaurant critic’s reviews; both on his palate and in his column.  There is no guessing here.  We have turned the decision over to a third party who is considered an expert; few will set up their design to such a trial by jury on their performance.  Thus, they steal the gold ring from themselves because they never know how good they are.  They design their performances so that they can pad it for defeat should it come, but the sweet smell of true success always alludes them.  It is at the time that one sets objectives that one should also set the design to measure the exit performance criteria.  In this way, one will have set up their design to know the objective for themselves and to know if they have reached it and how well they came out on the other side.

4.    Gather, Analyze, and Interpret information about your situation—No one can market him or herself without understanding the situation into which one is casting data.  The way to do that is to gather data about the market, including your own personal weaknesses and strengths.  This is done by gathering as much data as possible and analyzing it for such things as marketing, gaps in marketing, strong areas in the market as well as weak ones.  All of this is known as interpreting the market.  By doing this, one is able to see a better picture of their situation and where they fit into the larger spectrum of marketability.  You want the market to know you are there and that you are ahead of your competitors.

5.    Identify Target Markets – Start by asking yourself “Who Are my Customers?”  Not everyone can benefit from your services.  But, for those who can, you are the man!  Determine who can best benefit from your services now and also in the future.   While researching who is most likely to purchase from you, be sure to think about why they would purchase your service.   Target markets can be broken down by a number of factors – age, income, geography, gender, hobbies, etc.    You can do research using federal databases.  The biggest of these is the US Census Database.  www.census.gov.  You can also purchase data from commercial databases.  Another option is to conduct marketing surveys to gather your own information.

6.    Develop A Marketing Strategy - The first part of this process is to define your products or services.  Write down the benefits and values they bring to customers.   Show customers that what you offer can enrich their life or make them successful.

Identify and plan your marketing budget including how much you can spend now and in the future.   Then look at the types of marketing available and determine which ones best fit your business.  A few options include various opportunities on the internet, direct mail and public relations.   Compare their pricing and longevity.

Be sure to research what products and advertising are being used by your competitors.  Also look at other successful businesses in a similar but not competitive business.  Are they using methods that you could duplicate?

7.    Implement – Once you have analyzed the available marketing offerings and compared them to your objectives and budget, pick the one best for your business to begin marketing.   Set a date as to when you will implement your marketing strategy.  Lead up to that date by being sure that all of your technology is also set up, i.e., email, website, cell phones, etc.  Obviously, this will include some people power to operate so that the information you receive will be able to get transmitted to you in the shortest available time with the most accurate results for quick decision making.  Have everything in place to handle the feedback.

8.    Evaluate Efforts and Modify – Stay focused on your goals by evaluating your efforts.  Look at your marketing.  Is it working?  Can you measure the returns?  Can you track where your sales are coming from? Are you meeting your measurable goals?  Keep track of both positive and negative feedback.  Respond to both.  Keep that part which is working and revise any part that is not bringing you a return.  Continue to periodically evaluate, perhaps biannually, to see how you are doing.

By following these eight steps, you will be on your way to successfully marketing yourself. Take time to plan your strategy and to do the research. You are your most important asset.  And remember, most importantly, to always evaluate.