Tasteful self-promotion can be good for your brand. It can even be a nice touch to add. That may be referred to as personal branding. But do you know that too much self-promotion hurts the brand?
So, where do you draw the line?
When Do You Know How Much is Too Much?
In today’s ever-competitive world, you need to ensure your customers that they can trust your brand. They can depend on your brand to deliver quality and an experience to remember.
Looking at things from the perception of marketing, self-promotion is needed, because until you tell your customers you are here and existing in full force, how will they know about you?
But that is not all there is to it. The marketing and advertising universe has undergone many changes over time.
Not only this but the customer perception and preferences have also changed over time too. And it’s important to adapt to those changes, and you know what doesn’t work well with them? Too much self-promotion.
When you indulge in a self-promotion streak a little too much. You’re unknowingly sending a message that is rather the opposite of what you intend to send out. Let’s understand what goes wrong with too much self-promotion.
What is the Problem With Too Much Self-Promotion?
1. The Brag it all
No one likes a brag-it-all. And when it comes to gaining potential and target customers. Too much self-promotion will put people off. Because admit it, no one likes a “me me me” rant.
After a certain point, people get tired of constantly hearing your self-praise. And it starts to give out adverse effects rather than being beneficial for your business.
2. Think of It Subjectively
Let me give you an example. Let’s try putting ourselves in our target customer’s shoes.
Now suppose, I come to you, you are my potential customer. I introduce you to me, I told you what I offer, then I tell you how good I am at handling stuff.
No, I don’t stop there, I keep telling them how great I am, how good my service is, and how much I will benefit them if they choose me.
In short, I keep going on and on about myself, my greatness, and everything that promotes me.
Now, what would you do? Would you not get irritated? Of course, you would, I got irritated at myself while writing this.
So imagine how a customer must be feeling when your brand indulges in too much self-promotion? That’s right, annoyed, and put off.
3. The Newbie Mistake
This too much self-promotion at business is mostly noticed as a rookie mistake. All the newly freshly started businesses want results. And they want it fast.
They want it all and they want it now. This is why the road they choose is that of self-promotion. But in this process, they do more harm than good.
A new business must realize that marketing is a gradual process. It’s not a destination, it’s a journey.
A journey that requires patience and perseverance. Moreover,
And in this journey, merely undertaking too much self-promotion will hurt the brand. Patience, perseverance, and productivity will get you there. Not self-promotions, self-promotions, and self-promotions.
But that doesn’t mean this bug of too much self-promotion is only limited to small or new brands.
Some long-standing brands also follow this unnatural path of too much self-promotion and that’s why they are not able to get to the place where they desire to be.
Do you know why? Maybe because of a lack of direction. A proper and strategic marketing and advertising plan of action in place will work wonders.
So what can they do about it? Research is where they should begin. And the next step? It is hiring a suitable marketing and advertising agency that will align everything on your path to success.
4. The statistics
According to studies, 79% of the content marketers believe that the content that is intended by the businesses to be written, edited, and marketed comes from a point of view of too much self-promotion. This too much always self-promotion hurts the brand.
Moreover, studies have also suggested that if you indulge in too many self-promotional activities, you will likely experience a nearly 50% drop in customer trust.
That’s some alarming statistics, right? Shouldn’t that tell us already that how self-promotion can while intend to do one thing but can end up doing the exact opposite for our brand?
These content marketers have the pressure to bring the business audience.
How to Avoid Too Much Self-promotion?
1. Be informative, not repetitive
Let’s suppose you have a social media marketing strategy lined up. Now, what do you do with it? You constantly post about your awards, your praises, your client reviews, your products.
And then what happens? your too much self-promotion hurts the brand. You start seeing your followers dipping instead of increasing.
Ever wondered why that happens?
Well, it happens because you’ve fallen into the “I, me, myself” trap. That’s a vicious take on marketing. Posting only about yourself all the time will put people off.
And can prove to be a detrimental aspect of your overall marketing strategy. Being repetitive in a self-promoting self-bragging manner is bound to get you down on your potential customers’ preferred brands list.
So what can you do here? You can start being informative. Don’t just tell them about how great you are. Tell them everything about the product and services and subtle information related to it.
When you send out meaningful and informative information, Your audience automatically starts forming a bond with you and connecting with you on a deeper level.
And this is how you gradually build a solid and strong customer base that will be loyal and add to your brand equity.
Doesn’t that sound much cooler than the “I, me, myself” rant?
2. STOP!
Now First things first, just stop for a while. Stop with the self-promoting techniques you thought would work for your brand.
Stop it all!
Once you’ve stopped. Reassess. Reassess where your marketing strategy went wrong. Then recreate a marketing plan or hire professionals who will do that for you.
That way you will not only have a clear vision on how to proceed with your marketing and advertising, you will also come out of the vicious circle of self-deprecating self-promotion tactics.
And then, you will be on a path to design a well-structured, marketing, and advertising strategy that doesn’t involve too much self-promotion and is subtle.
3. Stay competitive
Stopping the overtly self-promoting streak doesn’t mean you shouldn’t participate or be competitive. The digital space and traditional marketing space both are highly competitive these days.
Everyone is at the top of their games and you should be too.
Your focus should shift from “Me” to “My Customers”. You should design and execute a marketing strategy that will deliver valuable and effective content to your potential customers.
This will, in turn, help you generate a loyal customer base, and that’s where you start.
Because in today’s world, customers are everything, and they are focusing more on quality than quantity. So you need to choose and play your marketing and advertising cards wisely.
4. An Informative Adjustment
Social media marketing is one of the most important aspects of overall marketing in today’s world. And ironically enough, social media is the place where self-promotions are undertaken at an alarmingly high rate.
So what can you do instead of only talking about your products and services? You can talk about the industry you operate in. You can post information about the industry.
Like I said before, be informative, be interactive, and be responsive.
Everything revolves around it these days, your customers are existing everywhere so you never know which information you provide will be useful to them
Moreover, interactions and that too naturally so will work wonders while promoting your brand and products, because when you organically speak to your audience without shoving your promotional stunts on their faces, they develop a deep sense of connection with you.
And that is where your winning streak will begin. Still a little confused, you don’t have to be. Let’s take an instance.
For instance, if you work in the fashion industry, you can post about its history, cultural differences, big icons who changed the game of fashion like Gianni Versace, some quick facts about clothes.
Not only this, but you can also take on queries that your customers or followers have and answer them promptly and effectively.
Moreover, now and then within these posts, you can post about your products and services. Be subtle, be in the industry that you operate in, and be effective.
Also Read: A Complete Social Media Branding Guide for Small Businesses
5. Valuable Content, Engaged Customers
Delivering valuable, informative, relatable, and rich content to your audience will help you go a long way. Instead of focusing too much on self-promotion techniques.
Your brand can focus on content creation that offers an opportunity for real-time engagement with the customers. Read: How to Develop a Customer Engagement Strategy That Actually Works?
This way customers will get a sense of personal touch and relation with the brand. And the brand will, in turn, get much more conversions than expected.
Marketing these days is not just plain advertising, it’s about creating an experience. Sparking a conversation. Not just between the brand and the audience, but between the audiences about the brand. And that’s what you should focus on.
The New-Biz lesson
As a new business, be it small or midsize. It is expected and imperative that your goal is to get as many customers as possible and convert all of the engagements into sales.
But the law of the new-age marketing world doesn’t work like that. Nothing will repel your potential customers like a constant self-promotion ride. Even if you are delivering a solid, class apart quality product or service if you are constantly telling everyone how good it is.
That doesn’t mean you can never talk about your product. You can always give out subtle shout-outs or soft glances here and there.
But creating an overall brand experience for your customers should be your priority. And too much self-promotion can turn tables in a rather distasteful and opposite direction, so decide wisely.
Successful Business Owners Learn From Mistakes Others Make
The secret to success in business isn’t doing what other successful people have done; it’s by avoiding the mistakes made by businesses that have failed. Instead of repeating their mistakes, now we can learn from them and best ensure business growth and commercial success.
17 Reasons Why Businesses Fail brings the cautionary tales of mistakes made by many businesses that ultimately led to their failure and which other businesses should avoid at all costs if they plan to survive and grow. Get your copy.
Other Interesting Article You Might Like!
