Self promotion and self marketing are the most important things you can do for your business. Many companies and freelancers still believe that their website will work for them. Rarely does this happen (for many reasons). Many companies know nothing about Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and fewer - those that do know about the importance of SEO - cannot afford to pay an outside company to optimize for them, so, in a nutshell, their website gets poor rankings. My point is not to get off the subject with SEO techniques, I will leave that for another day. Still, if you want to get noticed, promotion is the way to go. Whitepapers, press releases and newsletters are great ways to draw attention to yourself.

So, maybe you are a small business, consisting of one employee. The words “white paper” and “press release” may seem scary and too much for a small company to take on. The truth of the matter is that these are creations that have little to no monetary investment. If you can write, you can create these documents.

There are many articles written on writing white papers and press releases. For a nice run down of what a white paper should contain, take a look at Study Guides and Strateges:Writing:Whitepapers.

Though white papers are meant for divulging what a technology, product or service and do for potential clients, press releases are something entirely different. Press releases can be used for just about anything - new product launches, a website re-design, any type of interesting news about your company. For instance, lets say you are a freelance web designer and you landed a new project. Create a press release that co-incides with the launch of your client’s website. The benefit is two-fold. You advertise your client’s new site, and also yourself as a vendor for design. After you write the press release, you can post it on a release forum such as Click2Newsites or Pressbox.co.uk. There are many more out there, and this is an easy way to educate people about your company and services you provide.

In addition to white papers and press releases, newsletters are another easy way to get noticed - and, if you offer an area for subscriptions on your website, you can easily build your own marketing database the legal way. A newsletter is a good way to feature not only your company and services, but also your expertise. In a newsletter you can discuss current trends in your field in addition to discussing services or other company news. The sky is the limit on this one. By opening up to your clients (or potential clients) you are creating a sense of security by letting them in on your business. Newsletters are also a pretty good way of networking with other companies in your industry. You would be surprised how many graphic designers look at the competition for advice and inspiration.

Now you have some basic tools at your disposal - get out there and sell yourself!