Do you want to promote yourself without being annoying? I don’t know who said it was annoying or what has you potentially feeling that way, but we’ll get into that a little later.
Early in my blogging journey, I used to think that one post, one share and one time a week was enough. Of course it wasn’t and it will never be, but I too used to have this serious fear of “promoting too much” or being too “salesy”, but the truth is I was missing out on valuable traffic that could have had my blog numbers beyond what they are today. I let fear of being annoying stop me from going hard with the promo for a solid 2 years. No more though.
I didn’t realize the power of consistent promotion until I started following Mattie James. She mentioned that our Instagram stories are basically like ad space and we should look at it that way. It doesn’t matter if you’re running your own ads, or ads for a brand partnership, promotion should be constant. All of that said lets get into 3 ways to promote yourself without being annoying.
Promote Yourself with a Newsletter / Email List
Newsletters and email lists are not dead, the game changed for me once I started my newsletter list. The more I’m consistent with it, the more it will grow, but I’m happy that I have it at all. You may have heard this before and maybe not, but you own your newsletter list. People that sign up for newsletters and email list are expecting you to promote yourself and share things that maybe you aren’t sharing to the public.
Designated Promo Days
If it helps, you can have designated promos for designated days. Monday, Wednesday and Friday you share something from your blog or website, Tuesday and Thursday you can share affiliate links and things and then Friday through the weekend you can decide what you like. At the end of the day in order to get eyes on your things BEYOND social media, you have to promote yourself.
I was starting to feel overwhelmed by trying to decide what blog posts to share daily, especially on the days I’m not dropping anything new. Instead of trying to decide or guess, I decided I would start sharing what’s popular every day. It takes the guess work out of it, I’ve been running numbers since I started doing it and it’s such a no fuss, no stress way to promote myself every day. It’s given significantly greater results then me guessing what people want to see everyday.
Promote Yourself Using Short Video Content and Digital Instagram Stories
Short video content and digital Instagram stories are the perfect way to promote yourself without being annoying. Like I mentioned earlier, stories is to be considered as ad space, that’s why brands often ask for stories to be included. If you use your stories frequently, or use your swipe up frequently at some point people will become used to it.
Custom digital story frames and custom PNGs makes the way in which I share less “icky” in my opinion. If I put a slide telling you what is coming next, you will most likely know what to expect. Even when I didn’t it still worked out well, but I really wanted it to be more organized and more of an experience so that is why I’m so big on the digital story content.
Not only that, the thing I love about using digital Instagram stories is that they are templates, I don’t have to recreate them over and over and over again. I make one and can use it several times. I recently rebranded my digital story content to be more aligned with how my website looks and I love it here. This makes it easy and fun to promote yourself without feeling annoying.
I feel like you’re more inclined to promote yourself when you appreciate the look and aesthetic of what it is you’re promoting. If it’s thrown together it will come off that way, use a little more effort when you share.
Bonus: Who Said You’re Promoting Too Much and Who Cares?
No one has ever told me I promote myself too much. Most people tell me that they appreciate how I always show up. There are blogs from 2020 that are popular now and people who have never read them, though I’ve posted them several times STILL haven’t seen them. There is truly no such thing as too much, but that’s just me.
Your platform should be a place of promotion especially if you’re looking to get into the influencer space or being paid to talk about brands. I’m picky and like what I like, but when I do like something ya’ll are going to see it. How many times have I shared Necessaire body products with ya’ll? Don’t let anyone tell you, you’re doing too much when it comes to being actively involved with your brand and business.
Anyone who thinks you promote yourself too much, WHO CARES? Who gon’ check you boo? Lastly don’t let anyone who isn’t doing what you want to do tell you to scale back on self promo. It takes courage and confidence and a lot of faith to show up every day. To share the same thing several times.
Do what you need to do to make sure you’re getting your content out to the world.
If you want to see how I do it in real time, make sure you’re following me over on Instagram
