How to Promote My Talent

Know your target audience when promoting your talent.

Whether you can sing, dance, juggle fire or tell funny jokes, no one but your family and friends will know about your talent unless you have the ability to promote yourself. Unless you have the money to hire a public relations representative to run media campaigns for you, it is up to you to get your foot in the door and make yourself known. Promoting your talent can seem overwhelming at first, but time and persistence will get you noticed.

Instructions

1. Set goals. Figure out what you want to do with your talent and how you want to promote. For example, if you want to showcase your jokes as a stand-up comedian, you may choose to create a website to promote yourself. The way you choose to promote yourself can help you refine your goals. Using the previous example, if you have a website you want to promote, you can focus your goal on bringing traffic to the site. Other ways you can show your talent include promoting a show you are in or a music single others can get on CD or download online.

2. Know your target audience. You cannot please everyone. However, you can try to please a specific audience. For example, if you want to show your ability to sing children's songs, promote yourself in community newsletters, local parenting magazines, radio ads and local newspapers for upcoming shows at, for example, a library, the children's area at fairs, schools and so on. Knowing your target audience and reaching out to them appropriately can help you save time and money when it comes to promoting yourself.

3. Create a promotional package. A promotional package is what you give others when they want to know more information about you, especially if these people are considering hiring you for a gig. Items to include are a short biography about yourself, a copy of a press release that highlights news about you, a CD or DVD with a recording or video of you displaying your talent, copies of any press coverage you have had, a photo of yourself and your contact information.

4. Stand out from the rest. Competition is fierce when it comes to the talent business, and there are dozens of others with the same goals as you. Consequently, these other hopefuls are also promoting themselves in the same manner as you. Making yourself stand out from your competition and making others want to know more about you is one of the best ways to promote your talent. Take Marilyn Manson, for example. If he had not created a unique persona, he most likely would not have attracted as much attention.

5. Do giveaways. Giving away promotional items with your personal brand can help you make new fans and keep your current fans happy. Giveaway ideas include giving those on your mailing list a free music or audio download from your website or free raffle tickets to those who sign up for your mailing list during a show so they can win promotional T-shirts or your CD.

References

• CNN Tech: How to Gracefully Promote Yourself Online
• Vector Tuts: Selfless Self-Promotion: How to Promote Yourself Without Talking About Yourself
• Doing it for Me: How To Promote Yourself (When You Don't Want To)

Resources

• Wired Magazine: How to: Promote Yourself