Building Confidence with Self-Promotion

Recently, we have discussed personal branding and assumed the brander does not have problems with self-confidence and promotion. That is one hell of an assumption, however, so we decided to focus on that specific part in this article. How to develop self-promotion capabilities without crossing this vague borderline where you start to sound salesy, insincere, and even irritating?

Why self-promotion is so hard?

Historically, human beings are prone to vanity and adore praise. At the same time, when we see someone bragging, most of us feel the burning desire to put the boaster back in their place. Which is why many parents teach their children to stay humble — a great strategy for growing up, but a poor pick for marketing and propelling your career. Publicly displayed appreciation of personal accomplishments is usually hindered by:

• Fear of being rejected
• Fear of being ridiculed
• Fear of infamy
• Fear of doing social injustice
• Fear of social isolation
• Uncertainty about unique value proposition (UVP)
• Lack of experience

And many other fears, worries and buts. Balancing out promotional goals and positive public image is an art, but it is by no means inaccessible. You just have to be a bit more objective, put some commitment, and stay brutally honest with yourself.

Breaking the vicious circle

First, keep in mind that there is always a bigger fish, and nobody is perfect. Yet, some people are efficient at self-promotion, so how do they do it?

Put your pen to paper and pour out all your accomplishments so far. Let’s be real, nobody will care about your achievements if you don’t. Writing them down is a good way to remember each significant accomplishment and get inspired by a sheer number of the completed goals. Some examples are:

• Number of satisfied clients/employers
• Key milestones of establishing your enterprise
• Offers tried out and completed
• Years of experience
• First exceptional metrics achieved: ROI of 150%, EPC of $1, CR of 15%
• First positive experience with new tiers
• First flawless funnel
• A certain sum of earned money on your bank account

Over time, we tend to forget our achievements, while remembering all the failures. Negative experience is bound to add up, which will become overwhelming over time if not kept at bay. So, keeping a list with achievements is twice as helpful: getting an inspiration and countering the negative emotions.

Knowing all the facts about your line of work is a solid foundation for well-deserved confidence and future promotion. When you start highlighting these achievements, you garner yourself a large portion of credibility. Numbers and facts are the most compelling evidence you can get, because you deliver facts in the most bias-free way possible. But being objective is not enough for making a good promotional post. You need to present these facts passionately, so that the recipients can’t help but succumb to your engagement.

Think one step ahead and predict what your target audience might need. This way, you can address their pain points and walk a mile in their shoes. When the audience feels like they are not alone, and somebody genuinely understands them — they become much more approachable and friendly. Don’t just spit out the facts at them, try to figure out a pain point first, and then counter it with the fact from your expertise, e.g., We keep our reputation irreproachable, so if you feel disappointed with our product — call us back to get your refund.

Marketing does have to be personal, so that you can engage the potential audience. But it should also be grounded on concrete facts, so that your accomplishments speak for themselves. Don’t make unwarranted claims, like reputation without reproach or the best product out there. These claims are easy to object — says who? The easily verifiable facts wrapped in a highly-personal message is the key to garner trust and sound engaging, maintaining the balance between marketing goals, personal humbleness, and objectivity.

More useful tips and facts

As a cherry on top of the cake, you can amplify the power of the facts, wrapped in a personalized message, by the following techniques:

• Target audience — since we are advocating for personalized messages, you need to determine your target audience before composing a message. You can’t please everyone and at once, which is why you need to specialize. Doing your homework is the key to delivering relevant, engaging, and valuable messages.
• Art of letting go — hard sales rarely establish genuine connection, which is why it is good to let go of the audience segments that are not into your product. Simply accept the fact that you are not obliged to please everyone.
• Succinct language — use simple words and short sentences, avoid adverbs if possible, and rely on exact redirects. This way, you will demonstrate your respect toward user’s time and efforts, which puts you even closer to the target audience
• Humbleness & honesty — so far we have addressed humbleness, by urging to rely on exact facts instead of vague self-appraisals. But this can give rise to another temptation of forging fake evidence. If you genuinely value your reputation — steer clear of that path, for faking the evidence is exhaustive and can cost an arm and a leg. It’s better to ponder and figure out more facts or get good and earn additional achievements — this is more beneficial in the long run.
• Positive thinking — we have used the word “failure” because it’s very common in modern discourse. Now, when we have elaborated on efficient self-promotion, it’s time to perfect it further and address all the negative words, describing the lack of accomplishments. Try to frame your messages in a positive way, at least for yourself. Replace “failure” with “unexpected result”. This will bring you more confidence and facilitate grand accomplishments.
• Power posture — true, no one will see it online. But this is something you need yourself, to make interrelated activities more productive. Our body and mind are intertwined, which is why if you can’t activate your brain cells, you can start the other way around and flex your muscles. By the way, the intersection of seemingly unrelated spheres of activities is the reason for thinking positively too.
• Fearless performance — be willing to accept the risks. Even if your reputation is lost, your health and life are still with you. Everything can be earned back, except for the time. So learn to value your time and stop regretting failures, wasted hours, public denunciation, being irritating and so forth. More often than not, all these thoughts are in your head only, and the surrounding people could not care less about humiliating you. So keep everything simple and just do it!

Conclusion

Promotion of oneself and one’s product is not really difficult. You just have to face the reality and solve the longstanding problems that have been pursuing you since the childhood. Learn to appreciate your achievements and have no fear of telling about them to the people around. There is nothing shameful in telling about your actual deeds, compared to revealing future plans that are yet to be undertaken, i.e., We will expand our network — this won’t make the cut.

Focus on facts, numbers, deeds etc. and wrap them into highly emotional and personal messages, so that the readers don’t feel like in a library. Truth multiplied by expert delivery is the real powerhouse of self-promotion. When you amplify it with succinct texts, precise targeting, and split-testing, the leads are bound to pop up like mushrooms after the rain.