9 Most Efficient Ways to Self-Promote Your Startup Business

When it comes to promoting your business online, the majority of people nowadays leave this to others (mostly social media influencers and digital marketing experts).

What they fail to realize, however, is the fact that the general audience sometimes wants to hear the words from the person in charge.

Which is why you should consider the most efficient ways to self-promote your startup business.

Keep in mind that shameless self-promotion is completely fine as long as you stick to the plan and do it by a couple of unwritten rules.

Here are nine efficient ways to self-promote your startup business.

1. Do your research

The first thing you need to do in order to successfully self-promote your startup is to do some research in three crucial areas.

First, you need to know a thing or two about your audience and their preferences. Second, you need to identify their social network of choice and learn its rules.

Every platform has its best sharing time (for optimal engagement) and its own most successful formats.

Finally, you need to know your own company inside and out in order to portray it in the best light and explain to your audience why it is exactly what they are looking for.

2. Offer something of value

While there is nothing bad about promoting your brand, even doing so in the most direct and shameless way, what you need to keep in mind is the fact that your audience is not there to listen to you talk about yourself.

Therefore, in order to make them stay, you need to offer something of value.

In general, when it comes to content marketing, what you should do is provide at least six pieces of content that hold value to your audience for every piece in which you are shamelessly self-promoting your brand.

When we talk about value in this regard, what we’re mostly suggesting is content that’s informative, educational or entertaining.

3. Look for feedback

In the previous section, we’ve mentioned that you need 6 pieces of content that provide value for every piece of content where you’re shamelessly self-promoting your brand.

Still, this is not an exact science and the only way for you to figure out when it’s too much is to ask your audience. Of course, asking them directly isn’t the only method of gathering feedback.

Sometimes, if you hold your ear close to the ground, you can hear them complaining.

This is especially true if they think that you can’t hear them. Therefore, some social media monitoring might come in as quite handy.

4. Promote and wear your own merchandise

Regardless of whether you are taking a photo for your company’s social media page, a photo for your own Facebook or Instagram profile picture or making a YouTube video, there is no harm in wearing your own merchandise.

Instead of talking about your brand and thus assuming a direct approach, why not print some promotional hats and wear one for the occasion?

The rest of them you can hand out to some of the influencers that you’re collaborating with, thus further capitalizing on this idea.

5. It is not a paid ad

There are a lot of online platforms out there that are trying to flesh out the influencer industry by making it mandatory for them to be open about sponsored ads.

In other words, if they are paid to promote something, they need to clearly state so, otherwise, they are in for some serious penalties.

When promoting your own business, things are a bit different, mostly due to the fact that you’re doing so out of conviction.

After all, no one will pay you to promote your own business.

6. Free self-promotion

There are a lot of platforms that will allow you to promote your business for free.

Sure, they might not be as effective as a sponsored content, however, due to the fact that they are free, their ROI is probably even better.

Sure, if the effect isn’t what you’re aiming for, you don’t have to spend too much time or energy on them.

Still, just knowing that you have this one additional option can be quite reassuring.

Needless to say, for this to work, you must first figure out all the best platforms for your free self-promotion.

7. Tongue-in-cheek promotion

In one of the previous sections, we’ve mentioned an instance where your content has entertainment value and, when using humor, it’s quite easy for you to slip even the most shameless form of self-promotion in as a joke.

Keep in mind that just because you’re doing it all tongue-in-cheek and your audience isn’t taking your words at their face value, this doesn’t mean that they didn’t get the message.

The price that you’ve displayed and your contact number are what matter and the manner in which you deliver them can be quite arbitrary.

8. Watch out for false advertising

The reason why it’s important that we mention the problem of false advertising is due to the fact that A) even the most absurd things can be classified as false advertising and B) it’s up to customer interpretation.

In fact, no one at Red Bull has thought that there’ll be someone out there who will actually buy their energy drink in order to grow wings.

Still, this simple concept is what has made them pay about $13 million in a settlement. A similar thing could happen to your own startup if you’re not careful.

9. Humanize your business

The reason why a personal brand is so effective is due to the fact that it’s easier for people to develop feelings for an actual human being than for a cold, faceless entity that is your business.

Nonetheless, what if you had a way to humanize your business and give it some familiar, welcoming features?

Wouldn’t this give a boost to your branding efforts and further enhance brand loyalty?

Of course, it will. Start by working on your corporate culture. Establish a mission, a vision, and your goals.

Communicate directly with your audience, interact with them and, when speaking in the name of your business, try to use a persona that you believe they would like.

Promoting your startup is not an easy task but it is definitely something that has to be done.

The reason why self-promotion is so important is due to the fact that it’s honest and organic.

People know that you have a direct material gain from promoting your business and it is this transparency that they appreciate.

Just make sure to do it in moderation.