Learn how to promote, market and get yourself published with these simple steps!

Self promotion, yeahhhh… it’s just something we have to do. Sort of like a necessary evil. If you don’t promote and market yourself, how will you be able to reach your target audience?

By the way, have you listened to my podcast yet? 🙂 See what I mean?

I’m excited to share that I recently had the opportunity to be featured and published in “LA’s Most Inspiring Stories” in the online magazine, VoyageLA. I got chance to share my story and reach a much larger audience that I wouldn’t have been able to reach on my own.

Now, I want to tell you how I did it and how YOU can do it too!

I’ve listed 4 simple steps on how to market yourself and score some self promotion, on your own. Oh, and it does NOT require hours of social media!

Check out the VoyageLA article below!

Why is self promotion important?

As we all know, starting a new business or a career is incredibly difficult. There is a lot of new things to be learned and time isn’t always on your side. These days, it feels like if you aren’t an influencer or have 10K followers on any given social media platform, getting those bigger opportunities or reaching a larger audience feels nearly impossible.

As an actor, getting the audition is hard enough not to mention booking the job. To be fair, that’s a whole other story. If you are an actor and not even sure where to begin your career, don’t worry, I got you…

How getting your OWN press can help you.

To start off, I believe that by acquiring press, I can use this as leverage when an agency is looking at me or when production wants to cast me for a film. The idea is this, if so and so magazine trusted me enough to publish a story on me, I must be good enough to be trusted on this project too. I carry more momentum and weight than someone who doesn’t have the same clout. Essentially, they vouched for me. See where I’m going with this?

There’s a lot of talent out there so we need to give ourselves a fighting chance. Consequently, marketing yourself and self promoting can often feel like a drag, so that’s why I’ve created these simple steps to help make the task a little easier.

Follow these steps for Better Self Promotion

First- Step 1

• RESEARCH. We hear this often enough, but it’s a good one. First thing you need to do, is to take a moment to see what everyone else is doing. Is there someone you admire who may be at the same level as you?
  • What are they doing that makes them stand out? What’s their gimmick. Have they gotten any press lately?
  • Take it to social media and browse some hashtags that are relevant to your industry. Did you noticing any trends? Or perhaps, maybe you couldn’t find what you were searching? It may just be that your look, brand or product does not exist yet. This is GREAT news.

Next- Step 2

• TARGET. Next thing you will want to do, is to make a dream list of where you like like to be featured.
  • Be realistic with your level and how popular the publication is. For example, you’re likely not going to make it onto CNN if you’re a newb.
  • Study the articles and take note of what the articles are talking about. What are they key topics they talk about in every article? Why’s, how to’s, must haves?
  • What’s trending? Are you an expert on a popular topic right now? If so, that’s a major plus!
  • ***This one is important*** WHO is writing these articles? Do they have a niche?
  • Scroll all the way to the bottom and see what kind of information is provided. Can you get a hold of an email, preferably to the editor? Is there a contact page? Bookmark it but do NOT reach out yet.

Then– Step 3

• PITCH PACKAGE or SELF PROMOTION KIT. This is your way of showing up to the party with flowers and a bottle of wine. You WANT to get the writers/publication excited about you.
  • Create a folder containing all of the content that will convince them as to why they need to do a story on you and how it will benefit their audience.
  • Include a solid self promotion pitch summary of yourself/brand/product.
  • Add good, high quality photos. Remember, you want to be published and taken seriously.
  • Next, feel free to list your biggest accomplishments. This is not the time to be modest. You’re worthy and important.
  • Add a compliment or two to the writer about a previous article of theirs, and how it resonated with you. You’ve done the research already, why not use it!
  • If you happen to have a referral, definitely name drop!

Lastly- Step 4

• REACH OUT Last but not least, you don’t need to be an A lister or have a publicist to get press.
  • Do. IT. Yourself. Go back to that bookmark of contacts and send those emails and make those phone calls!
  • Don’t be intimidated. The worst thing that could happen is that they say no. Big deal. Rejection is part of the game. Move on to your next contact.
  • There are PLENTY of online magazines, blogs, social media outlets that are starving for content. Why not have it be yours and have them help you expand your audience!
  • GET PUBLISHED! Share it on your website, with friends, family and everyone you know!

Conclusion

How’s that for some solid self promotion? It wasn’t as bad as you thought it was going to be, was it?

In summary, in order to get your own press, take your time to research the market, take notes, study, make those connections and your self promotion kit, then hustle hustle hustle!

FUN FACT: Online magazines like VoyageLA and Shout LA have branches all over the country! There you go, saved you a little bit of time already. If they’re not in your area, do a little googling and see what’s being published near you!

Hope you enjoyed these 4 simple steps for solid self promotion! Did you follow these steps and get an article published? Share it with me, I can’t wait to see it!

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