Marketing has taken on a much broader meaning these days, mostly because of social media. A few years ago, my marketing may have consisted of an ad in a source book, a mailer every other month and an emailer.
I’ve pretty much cut back on any print marketing – meaning source book ads and postcard mailings. I still send out an email promo every 4-6 weeks of so to a targeted audience that has “opted in”. But the big difference is that I don’t stop there. I include lots of links to my blog, website and any press mention in any emailers I do.
But more importantly I use my blog as a marketing tool to drive people to my website. And I use social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin to direct people to my latest blog. So it kind of becomes a roundtrip marketing approach. Tweets driving people to my blog and my blog driving traffic to my website etc.
Another “soft” marketing tactic is to take part in discussions on Linkedin and make comments on Facebook (when relevant) because all that is “viral” and for the most part indexed so that in itself gets your name out there on a regular basis. In addition, on my email correspondence with clients I include my Facebook URL along with my Linkedin and Twitter URL’s.
It has never been easier to market yourself because of so many viral platforms. But the thing to remember with all of this is to come up with a plan that is strategic and consistent with your brand and vision. Otherwise you may end up sending out a lot of mixed messages and in the process doing more harm than good.