If you don’t have time to promote yourself or your business, nobody is going to know you. When nobody knows you, nobody flows you.
In 2017 I was named Forbes #1 Marketer to Watch, and since that time I’ve grown as a marketer and I want to share with you how to market your business better.
Marketing is not difficult, but it does take commitment.
Your most effective marketing tool
When most people think of marketing, they think flyers or commercials or some sort of paid ad and then don’t think about people being a marketing tool.
The most important and effective marketing tool in your company are the people in your company. The fact that you don’t demand of yourself or them to market is the error.
The world is spending unbelievable amounts of time on the internet doing research or using social media platforms. The more those sources are being used to reach and communicate the more valuable the personal contact becomes.
You should absolutely dominate your market using virtual marketing to keep your clientele thinking about you but don’t let that be your sole dependence when you think “marketing.”
What about making a personal visit or writing a personal letter? Don’t use one avenue to market, use them all, even old school- “John, I am 5 minutes away and wanted to stop by and say Hey.”
The most important marketing tool that you have is YOU and Your People
You are in the people business, not the billboard, social media or Youtube business.
You want to be EVERYWHERE.
Send emails, make phone calls, do personal visits and dominate with other traditional and non-traditional means of marketing!
Taking a few minutes to just see how someone is doing will guarantee you a much higher chance of earning their business later on.
Remember, if you take a smart, consistent, personable, and aggressive approach to marketing you and your business, you are guaranteed to find success.
For more details on how you can create effective marketing strategies, listen to my best-selling book, If You’re Not First, You’re Last.
Even If You Don’t Have a Business, You Are a Business
How do you market and brand yourself and your business to have massive growth?
Some business owners think that if they have a product or service then, like magic, customers will come and they’ll be a success. But real entrepreneurs just don’t sit around or rely solely on advertising to build a brand.
A fundamental quality of successful entrepreneurs is the mindset and willingness to do whatever it takes to build a company that makes money and changes the world.
You Are a Business and You Have a Brand
A while ago I had the great privilege of working with Joan Rivers. You may remember her for a TV show called, “How’d You Get So Rich.”
Unless you had ever met Ms. Rivers you would only know her for what you had seen on television –a bold, brash, raunchy comedian with no boundaries.
When I met Joan Rivers I realized how little I knew about her.
Joan showed up at my home in Hollywood at the age of 79 after a full day of work and a cross-country flight from NY to Los Angeles. She showed up face-lift positive, with the attitude of a 20-year old in love, grateful to be working, and demonstrated a Whatever It Takes work ethic.
At Joan Rivers’ funeral a few years later, her friends talked about her as more than just Joan Rivers but as though she had become a symbol or a brand for them.
This got me to thinking about branding. Merriam Webster’s dictionary defines branding as, “the process involved in creating a unique name and image for a product in the consumer’s mind, mainly through advertising campaigns with a consistent theme.”
But does branding always require advertising? Does advertising always require you to spend money? I don’t think so.
Joan Rivers proved that branding and advertising were a result of her actions, not what she spent.
Businesses and individuals have become too reliant on spending to get attention and don’t how to build a brand with action.
Everyone has a brand…everyone.
You, your spouse, your kids, your friends, everyone!
You created that brand through advertising without spending any money. What causes people to perceive you in the way they do is dependent upon what they see you DOING most of the time.
- Millennials have been branded as lazy texters
- Rich people have been branded as greedy
- Rappers have been branded as thugs
How have you branded yourself? If you don’t know you need to be concerned. You should be able to identify your brand with three words that capture what you do most of the time.
Think of someone you really admire and I assure you that you respect him or her for the thing they do the MOST.
That is their brand.
I’m known as a promoter-marketer, author, speaker, salesman, social media driver and someone that is willing to work and do Whatever It Takes.
What is the brand you are creating?
Your Brand is the Most Valuable Asset You Have
Your brand will determine your value in the marketplace. Your brand ultimately determines your success.
So, figure out what you offer and what you stand for. What’s your special “thing?”
Spend time on your brand every day, enhance it, reinforce it to let the world know through your actions that is who you are.
Branding is who you are while marketing is building awareness of your brand.
I build my brand by marketing myself.
Are you being creative with your brand on social media?
Have you ever noticed some people have short, 5 or 10-second “videos” on their Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram where the video automatically loops over and over again?
This is what’s called a GIF.
Using GIFs are a great way to drive social media engagement on your channels.
There are 2 main types of GIFs I try to create:
#1 Funny and/or Surprising
Most GIFs are humorous in some way, that’s why people like them and share them. Popular GIF’s often have a surprise element as well. Something happens that you don’t necessarily expect. The surprise element is usually also humorous. This is why you will see your friends share a GIF of a cat that suddenly falls off a tree—it’s funny and surprising.
#2 Collaboration
I like to make GIFs from videos where I’ve collaborated with other successful people. This shows people in a quick way that I’m collaborating with others and this gives me more authority. It doesn’t need to be funny or surprising, but if you have a way to make it funny or surprising it can make it even better.
Try making your first practice GIF of me from something off of my YouTube channel and send me the link of it in the comments below. I look forward to seeing what you can make!
How to Go Viral
You don’t need to get on BuzzFeed to go viral, but going viral is difficult.
Rather than just going viral, you want to be thinking of how to grow your footprint online daily. You need to get attention, stand out, and be consistent. You want to get to a point where people see what you produce every day, 7 days a week.
Make it your mission to be a digital celebrity and you will become an actual celebrity.
The reality is most people are not stars. There are only 4 types of people online — and you should only want to be in the 4th category.
3 Groups of People Online:
Browsing, looking at cat videos, scrolling through their newsfeed.
Liking, sharing, and commenting on other people’s posts; taking pictures of their food and telling others their political opinions.
Blogging, uploading videos, producing content that others actually consume. Might have a few thousand followers/subscribers.
The One Person That Actually Makes a Dent in the Internet Universe: Mr. Unicorn
Has an insatiable appetite to get known; Understands his potential and is in an all-out sprint, all the time to post content, give value, and become a star.
You don’t want to be in the first 3 groups.
Even with limited resources, you can create content that millions of people engage with — but it will take time, energy, and commitment.
The idea of becoming a digital unicorn should be the kind of target that will provide a tremendous amount of motivation for you.
Become the name or top two or three names in the market you work and live in.
Become the most dependable person, business or product in your market and then become a celebrity. Become the one everyone is talking about; the one that’s getting all the criticism and all the admiration.
A celebrity is someone other people follow and talk about — someone who sets the standard.
All you have to do is go online and see who gets their posts shared and you will see who the celebrities are.
You will see them and think, “they aren’t that good-looking, they aren’t that big of a deal, they aren’t that smart,” or, “oh my god, how did they become so famous?”
Right?
You, me, any of us can be that celebrity. They come through our news feeds every day.
Old Media vs New Media
Up until around the year 2000 there were 4 main ways that you could get known.
You could…
- get on the radio
- get in the newspaper
- network with people outside your office
- get on television
Today you can still use those methods, but there are newer, more effective ways to get known. If you aren’t using the 4 new things I’m going to tell you about below, you are a dinosaur stuck in the last century.
To build your brand and sell your products, you have to get known throughout your city, your state, your country, and then the entire world. The bottom line is if you don’t have time to promote yourself, nobody is going to know you. When nobody knows you, nobody flows you.
Here are the four new ways of becoming a media mogul:
Old Way: Newspaper
New Way: Blogging
It used to be a big thing when you could get in the paper, but nobody buys newspapers anymore because we have the Internet.
Your blog is the new newspaper.
I have a lot to say and want things in writing because the more quality content I produce, the more people will find me—and keep coming back. It takes time and commitment to write articles like this.
In addition to putting articles out on my website, LinkedIn, and Medium, I jam content out to Entrepreneur, CNBC, Business Insider, and more.
I don’t need to be in the Miami Herald today and wait for them to approve and print it, I can publish to the world from my laptop NOW.
Old Way: Radio
New Way: Podcasting
While there are plenty of uses for radio, people want to listen to things on demand in today’s world.
Podcasts have exploded this decade and I’ve got a top podcast on iTunes.
The best thing about it is I can control the content I put out because it’s my show. Get your own podcast and you basically have your own radio show today.
Old Way: TV
New Way: YouTube
I don’t need to be on TV to be on someone’s screen today. The whole world is using YouTube and stars are being made on the platform.
Some of my videos were done on phones, some of them are 30 seconds long, some of them are 7 minutes long, and some of them are 50 minutes long. I record everything; I shoot video constantly because we are in a video universe.
Where is there a TV channel today?
YouTube is a TV network. That’s where you’re going to get all your TV in the future.
I can make whatever show I want today and put it up for people to watch. Every person that wants to get well-known should be banging YouTube videos out on a regular basis.
Old Way: In-Person Networking
New Way: Social Media
Back in the day, you had to get out of your house, go across town, and meet up with people in person to start prospecting and to get known.
You could—and still can—also use the phone to network with people—something that is lost on many people even today.
I can network with people today on Facebook, LinkedIn, Snapchat, Instagram, Twitter, and every other social media platform your customer spends their time on.
You can search a person’s profile, get data, and befriend people and message them without ever seeing them face-to-face.
You can find an army of people to network with and collaborate with on these networks. Face-to-face networking is still very effective, but if you aren’t networking on social media, you’re not really networking.
Don’t just use 1 or 2 of these 4 methods above—use them all
A few years ago, I made a decision to get known. I have the goal to get 7 billion people to know who I am, and I’m grinding every day to make it a reality.
I’m networking, getting on screens, and making sure people are listening to me and reading me—all to get my name out there. The simple fact of life is the more people you reach the more people you can help.
How to Write a Bestseller
I’ve said before that everyone should write a book because you need your name and brand out there and should establish yourself as an authority in your space.
Having written 7 books that have sold millions of copies I can tell you that books don’t directly bring home a lot of bank, but they are great for expanding your brand and getting known to people around the world.
You too can become a bestselling author—or whatever goal you set as a target—if you just make a commitment to it. Every serious commitment requires time and money.
It’s not just about the hustle, you have to have skill.
All the hustle in the world will not change the fact that if you don’t know how to sell and market it, nobody is going to buy your product.
Turn yourself into a superstar.
The best way to build your brand is to become a superstar where you are. Football player Tom Brady became so unbelievable as the quarterback of the New England Patriots that they built the entire franchise around him.
Don’t try to go out and build a name, because your name is only as good as your accomplishments.
Take massive action and you will soon have something worth marketing!
ARE YOU READY TO TAKE YOUR PROMOTIONS TO THE GRANT CARDONE LEVEL?
Get on Cardone University.
Building a brand and spending on advertising is a reinforcement of the blood, sweat, and tears you drop into your business every day!
Without promotion, it all stops. Without marketing, legacy cannot exist and it cannot endure.
Be Great,
GC
P.S. Was this blog helpful to you? Subscribe to my newsletter!
