Marketing yourself – encourage word of mouth
How often have you been asked “can you keep a secret?” For most of us the answer is yes, of course I can keep a secret. Since we often pride ourselves on being able to keep secrets, you may wonder why I am about to tell you to stop keeping secrets. Of course I don’t mean the secret your best friend swore you not to tell. However I think that we sometimes are so used to keeping secrets that we end up keeping the wrong things a secret.
If you haven’t already guessed, the secret I am talking about is you. Yes, I said you. What I am talking about is you and your business and your capabilities and your successes and all the great work that you can do. A few years ago when it wasn’t necessary to speak up, word of mouth was just fine. Now however, we are living in a different economic climate, and to survive we can’t remain a well kept secret.
So what are the secrets to getting more work? It is really simple. It is simply not to keep our services a secret. Whether we want to hear it or not, we must recognize that word of mouth is no longer enough. But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t encourage word of mouth. In fact we have to be willing to ask our previous clients to tell their friends and family about us and our services. To do that, we have to communicate to them on a regular basis so that they don’t forget about us. We have to be willing to brag and to tell others what we can do for them.