Building Your Fan Base
Want to build your fan
base? Meaning, do you want to attract more clients or customers to you
and your product or service? Then build a platform. A platform is media
lingo for having a solid base from which to pitch your work. It's about
numbers, about how many people know what you do. It's about building
your following, that you can use to then build it even more.
So,
how do you build your platform? It's not hard ~ here are some tips to
help you do just that:
Make sure your niche is narrow and
solid.
Research your target market until you can narrowly define
who it is in that market that you are going to focus on. Make sure you
get really clear on your "who" and your "what." Be certain who your
ideal client is and what problem you are solving for them. Then decide
what you'll call yourself and/or your service/product. Make it a brand.
Give it a unique name that will catch others' attention - even if you
make something up. For example, I'm a business coach, my niche is
stay/work-at-home moms, and my program is called the EntreMom™ Success
Program.
Decide on the best web address (URL) for your
business.
The easiest way to get search engines to like you is
to have a URL that has your keywords in it. For example, http://www.stopyourdivorcenow.com/
or http://www.artellawordsandart.com/
It's ok to have a long URL, since most browsers will prompt the visitor
to the site after just entering a few letters once they've visited it
once. And a lot of people will bookmark the site as well. Besides, it's
easier to remember if your URL spells out what it is that you do.
Know your market.
Your target market is your best
source of information for what they need from you to help them solve
their problem. Ask your friends and family to become part of your
R&D team and use a free survey instrument like Zoomerang (http://www.zoomerang.com/) to
gather relevant and very valuable feedback from them to help you better
understand their needs and tailor your offerings to those needs. This is
undoubtedly one of the fastest roads to building a successful fan base.
Get educated about Internet marketing.
You know you
need a website, but there's so much more you can do online to build your
business. A good place to start is with learning more about keywords and
search engine optimization (SEO) that will drive traffic to your site.
Visit http://www.keyword.com/SearchEngineOptimization.htm
for a basic understanding of keywords and how they can positively affect
your placement in the search engines. Put yourself on a self-guided
curriculum to help get your work known online.
Smile!
Have a professional headshot taken. One marketing tool you
should have is a press kit and/or speaker sheet with a professional
photo of you. You know that cropped photos are not professional and
having your friend take a "nice" picture of you is not the same.
Remember, what you put out is what you get back. If you want
high-quality clients, you need a high-quality headshot (that goes for
all your marketing materials).
Create and memorize your short
elevator speech.
Here's mine as an example:
I run a
business coaching program for stay-at-home moms who want to become
work-at-home moms and successful entrepreneurs. I show them how to
create a successful business from home, by their definition of success,
in a way that allows for their family to remain first priority.
Notice how it expresses what I do, how I do it, and for whom I
do it. I don't say, "I'm a business coach." If I did, people would
respond with, "Oh, that's nice." Not exactly the reaction I want. I want
to pique their interest. "Oh, really? Tell me more." Feel free to use
mine as a template for creating your own.
Write, write,
write.
Write free articles and submit them online. Add a bio box
to the end of each article. This should include your name, website
address, and other contact info, etc. See my bio box at the end of this
article as an example. Google "article submissions for (your niche)" to
create your own list of submission sites.
Create a press
kit.
This should be a professional looking folder with a pocket
9 x12 (so 8.5 x 11 paper will fit inside) perhaps with your logo on
outside, and cuts to hold a business card. You'll also need an 10 x 13
envelope to mail it in, unless you are emailing your kit - in which
case, I'd highly recommend encrypted PDFs to send. You should include at
least one business card, any press releases you've sent, a short bio, a
photo of you printed on good quality stock with your name and phone
number either on the back or printed in the margin, copies of any
published articles you've written, as well as any unpublished articles
you've written the media can use, published articles written about you,
published articles supporting your work, brochures, fliers and other
marketing materials, fact sheets, including a backgrounder on your
business, key points, topics you're an expert on, etc, testimonials and
success stories, and samples of your work - guides, workbooks, product
catalogues, etc. And don't forget to include a short personalized cover
letter.
Building your platform takes consistent effort.Getting
your message out there often enough, increasing the number of people who
know about you and your offerings, and constantly adding value for your
"fans" will position you as an expert, which will help you immensely
when you want to publish your book, be interviewed by the media, or to
command higher quality clients/customers.
If I can help, please
feel free to email me at alicia@entremoms.com.
copyright 2004 Alicia M. Forest and EntreMoms.com™
Alicia Forest is an EntreMoms™ Expert, coaching Moms who want to
become Entrepreneurs by building a successful business from home, by
their definition of success. If you'd like more tips on how to build a
platform to help boost your business success, please visit
www.entremoms.com and sign up for Alicia's free EntreMoms™ Success
Newsletter. You are free to re-publish this article as long as this bio
box and copyright remain intact.
