5 Ways to consistently market your authentic self

I’ve been in business for almost twenty years. Over that time, marketing has come a long way. I often use the analogy that marketing is much like the telephone — it’s barely recognisable these days.

I’m mature enough to claim the following statement “In the olden days…”. I laugh as I say that, but when I’m coaching it’s a great icebreaker to demonstrate the journey that solopreneurs have taken over time.

Back in the day, you identified a passion topic. You studied. You got qualified. You hung your shingle out front of your shop or took an ad out in the local paper and bazinga, you got clients.

These days, many people get tricked into the belief from the social bombardment that is social media — that you have to perform like a circus monkey on TikTok in order to attract new clients.

Don’t fall for any of that malarkey.

Here’s the thing, doing anything new, especially out of your comfort zone is not pleasant. It can feel hard and overwhelming. It’s inauthentic to your true self, your beliefs and values.

Dedicate yourself to the practice of showing up to your authenticity — that humble feeling you experience when you’re holding space for a client or creating your product.

Remain connected to the passion in which you first learnt your craft or created your first ‘thing’.

And remain authentic as often as you can. This is your vibe, and it’s what attracts the clients.

Here are some of the top coaching tips I share

1. Advertise vacancies

Regardless of how new or established you are in your business, you will always have cancellations. Always. Your audience will love learning when you’ve got a free appointment.

This technique is fabulous for those entrepreneurs who don’t use an online booking system.

I used to advertise vacancy dates for the coming month and update that social media post each time I made a booking. Nowadays I simply point clients to my online booking system and they marry up their calendar to mine.

As your word-of-mouth referral begins, existing clients will share these ‘vacancy’ posts. Be sure to only ever use the same graphics, and this trains the audience’s eye to be on the lookout for this type of post!

2. Show up with offers — as an experiment

About 5 years ago, there was a bunch of hype around launching. To be honest, I found the big launch a lot of work and heartache, especially if the tech didn’t align.

These days I am much kinder to myself and continue to grow my brand with small offers. I test my marketplace for what the client desires. Whatever is successful remains on my website invitation menu.

The bonus of making small offerings is you continue to tell your audience that you are growing and evolving in new ways to support them. This builds on your service and brand reputation.

The final benefit of small offers is you are effectively honing your launching skills, so the second or third time you begin to scale the small thing that worked with the following:

• You have nailed your messaging
• You understand your niche
• You have testimonials
• You have a proven track record + evidence of your success

3. Start with a single social media platform

Here’s the thing, there are so many social media platforms, it can be bewildering where to start. Then there are the myriad of programs and plugins that allow you to market to multiple social media sites. This can be a trap.

My advice is to commence your marketing on one platform that you currently personally use. You will begin to understand that different audiences utilise various platforms.

For example,

• my younger audience accesses Instagram, look at content after dinner and loves videos + reels
• my more mature audience uses Facebook, look at content at breakfast and prefers quotes
• my Linkedin audience loves to be thought challenged

4. Start simple marketing strategies

You do need an email list— because this becomes an asset in your business that you own. You don’t need a funnel straight away.

Why? Because generally speaking you need a free something to offer and dangle the carrot to sign up for your newsletter. I suggest keeping the process organic as this attracts people to the authentic you.

When you’re first starting in business you don’t have the types of resources to give away for free — you’re wanting to make money! You also are unlikely to recognise what additional information or homework tools your client may require until you start practising or selling.

You create these tools over time because you come to understand what your audience needs, how they need it and what format. For example, a younger audience may salivate over a TikTok video but a more mature client may love a pdf handout.

5. Be consistent

Whichever strategy you decide be consistent in that approach. Start with what your available time and capacity allow and continue in that frequency. There’s no point stressing yourself posting content every day on a social media platform if it kills you to do it.

Show up when you say you’re going to.

Deliver what you promise to bring to the table.

Apologise when you can’t.

You’d be surprised how engaging it can be to show a little vulnerability to your audience that you too are human and shit happens.

First published with Illumination, a Medium Publication. Click here this piece.

Want to read more like this?

This is My Roar – signed copies of my first published book can be purchased from this website.

A Warning to Solopreneurs – click here