Too Proud to Market?

I was talking to my friend Patrick last week about his wife's band. Renee is a full time musician and one of the guitarists and lead singers in Hard Rain, a folk/rock band in Los Angeles. And of course, the topic turned to marketing.

Bands need to market themselves as well.

Most bands are not rich and famous. Renee's band works hard to get their gigs. They play at several restaurants and clubs, but Patrick pointed out that events and private parties are much better gigs that pay two to three times as much.

Patrick has been working to help Renee get more of these kinds of gigs. And in the course of our conversation, I shared some ideas of how I'd do it.

"Look, whenever Renee and the band have a gig, they need to make an announcement from the bandstand that they are available for events and private parties."

"Well they do that occasionally, but not consistently," said Patrick, "They don't do much more than a brief announcement, almost apologetically... 'Don't forget, we do private parties and events.' The moment passes so quickly, most in the audience miss it."

"Then they need to do something that will get more attention," I continued. "For instance, somewhere in the middle of each gig they could perform their 'parties and events song.' It would go something like this..."

I won't embarrass myself by sharing my pathetic song-writing attempt, but imagine a short, fun and up-tempo song announcing that the band did events and private parties, from corporate gatherings to birthdays, retirement parties and weddings.

Not a hard thing to do (they are songwriters, after all).

And then they could hand out a nicely printed postcard with a picture of the band and a list of the kind of events and parties they did on the back, along with contact information and web site address. ( http://www.andyandrenee.com )

Such a simple promotion would accomplish several things:

a) the audience would know the band did events and parties,
b) the audience would have an easy way to remember and contact them,
c) it would be a fun and memorable promotion, and
d) some people might actually pass the postcards around.

Slam dunk, right? Virtually no cost and no time. A perfect marketing strategy. Except for one little thing...

"Here's the problem, Robert. I love the idea. I think it would really work. But I don't think they'd do it."

"Why not?"

"They don't feel comfortable promoting themselves. They feel self-conscious, even embarrassed about it.

"They know they're a great band and when people hire them, they love their music. So I think they wish that people would hire them without having to promote themselves. Perhaps they don't want to come across as if they needed more work."

Sound familiar?

I pointed out to Patrick that a very large percentage of independent business owners (from bands to consultants, from artists to financial planners) struggle with this. People feel too proud to market themselves. It shows up in their thinking:

- If I'm great, people will finally discover me
- I'm lowering myself by self-promotion
- Promotion is boasting and I'm not a boaster
- People will think I'm like a used car salesperson
- I don't want to embarrass myself
- I don't want to put myself out there and be rejected
- People already know what I do, so why push it?

But aren't these all pretty poor excuses?

Yes, they are totally lame. You want to be a success, attract more clients (or gigs) and make a difference, and yet you let these considerations stop you. You talk yourself into not putting yourself out there because it might damage your fragile self-image. Yikes, what if you failed?

Listen, if you promote yourself, it might actually work out!

Imagine you were listening to Renee's band, and in the middle of the gig they did a fun and interactive song to promote themselves. Wouldn't you smile? Wouldn't you accept a card? Wouldn't you take it home and stick it on your fridge?

Would you feel pressured, manipulated and coerced into calling them to hire them for a special event or party? Of course not. You'd understand that they, like every other enterprise, need to promote themselves. You'd actually appreciate that they did it in a fun way that got you involved and gave you an opportunity to contribute.

And I'm also willing to bet you'd think about them every time someone said they were looking for a band for a special event or party. You might even pull the postcard off your fridge and hand it to a friend or your boss.

Look, promotion is not hard.

There are a ton of things you can do that will bring you more business. Any marketing consultant could come up with half a dozen good ones in less than an hour.

But your pride will stop you.

I've seen it in my clients hundreds of times. "You're suggesting I do what!!??" And then, with some gentle persuading, I point out that they probably won't die if they give it a shot. And they do.

More clients flow in very soon after. And happiness replaces pride.

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The More Clients Bottom Line: Let go of the foolish pride that's holding you back from promoting yourself. Be willing to make a fool of yourself, in fact. You might even discover that marketing not only brings in new business, it can be a lot of fun. (Oh, yeah, and when you're successful, hire a band and celebrate.)

*

Share a time you swallowed your pride and promoted yourself with great results. Just put it on the blog.

Comments

[Thilak]

This is a good article the marketing field is very useful to business people. Who are interesting for more information visit the site marketing strategy

[Carol L. Skolnick]

I tend to get shy when I call what I am doing "marketing;" however, I have effectively marketed myself in some interesting places, including a hotel hot tub and in line at the supermarket. It is natural, in conversation, to share information about what we do. It's just one more step to hand out my business card, a booklet, or my website and blog URLs. When I'm simply relating to people, I'm not the least bit shy about discussing my work, because my work excites me and is a large part of who I am. That's attractive both to prospective clients and to those who can introduce me to prospective clients.

[Tracey Matthies]

Wow, what a great story!
My husband and I were enjoying a DJ at a club recently and thought we might hire him for my husband's upcoming 50th. The DJ saw me making a note of his contact details from the banner he hung across the front of the stage, so he came across to speak with us.
We chatted about my husband's party and the DJ asked for my mobile phone number. Now I receive a text message whenever the DJ has a gig in my area which is great, because he knows that we like the type of music he plays.
And he will get the job for my husband's birthday!

[Regina]

I attended an "information gathering" event with a friend. To my horror, each person had to give a 30 sec 'elevator pitch' about themselves and their business. Since I hated doing that sort of thing, I had no pitch ready. My friend told me to use my name, company name, and the slogan from my business card. It was hard at all!! Everyone congratulated me on being so 'polished'! Now I've taken it one step farther. What started as "Hi, I'm Regina Sampson of Kingdom Travel. I build memories, one vacation at a time" now concludes with "seek ye first the Kingdom...Kingdom Travel", since I market primarily to religious groups!

[Brian Kolstad]

Great article. I teach graphic design at Lewis-Clark State College. We're almost at mid-term and yesterday I gave them a test and asked them to write down what grade they expected halfway through the semester.

Surprisingly, quite a few "A" students wrote down that they expected "B" or "C" grades.

Needless to say, we'll be spending a few class sessions on self-promotion.

Thanks for the article!

[Sr. Patricia]

I love this - because it is just what I need to take on my next Push for publicity in marketing my book. I've been reading, reading, reading everywhere that if you want to get your book out there then you need to get on the radio. Sounds good - except that it's scary and I'm a nun after all and how many nuns do you hear on the radio? Of course I don't listen much to the radio so I can answer that easily -but I don't think outside of catholic radio you hear many. So after a talk with Robert he suggested - hey you need to get on the radio and he made a few suggestions how to do that. I'm thinking. GULP! And at the same time I'm thinking wouldn't it be cool if it worked? So I sent away for RTIB (Radio Television) and started taking my first steps. I got the information and they "hinted" that maybe you should get a little media training at the same time... they named a person - but I decided to GOOGLE it as well. I found this really great place.... where this morning jock has branched out into marketing himself (I think he should go with Robert) anyway he helps people with a 30 day course to get on the radio. Okay, now this is starting like an ad but the thing is - that the course leads me in 30 days to market myself exclusively for radio...so its like first I took one baby step (talked to Robert about it. took another baby step .. in sending off for the information he reccommended, I took another baby step and ow I'm taking a medium step in taking the course and THEN I will take ONE GIANT STEP and actually start pushing myself into radio markets. I haven't gotten the end results yet.. but I feel like I'm on my way. http://onairpublicity.com

Sometimes - if the prospect of something seems too big.. start with dem der baby steps...

[Chris]

Very timely article. I read this as I realized how long I've been putting off starting a direct mail campaign to promote my business.

Whenever I did direct mail in the past consistently in brought in business.

A success of the past is that I had "beginner's luck" with the first batch of direct mail letters I sent out several years ago. I resulted in 2 new clients that ultimately were worth $27,000!