3 Spring Self-Promotion Ideas

Although some regions are still experiencing snow-dumps, spring is on its way. Time to break out the sunglasses and sandals. Before you begin dusting off your beach umbrella though, think about how you are going to pay for that summer vacation time. Maybe it's time for a little spring self-promotion to help increase your bottom line? Here are three self-promotion ideas to test out this spring. These tactics are easy to implement and focused on getting new business, convert more business online and make existing customers happy. 1. Spring clean your website A clean, minimal homepage tends to be more user-friendly and conversion-friendly than a page with lots of bells and whistles. To convert more web visitors into leads or customer, be sure your web page has a call to action. For example, "Sign up for a Free Design Consultation," or more simply "Hire me!" Then take a page out of Google's book and make the entire page focus on the action you want visitors to take. Minimize distractions that lead users away from that desired call to action by limiting the navigation choices and amount of images or links on the homepage. Be sure that when someone lands on your page and wants to talk to you or possibly hire you, they can see right away how to do that. 2. Offer a sale to existing customers Sometimes when you don't hear from a client in a while it's tough to find a way to check-in and get the relationship going again. To encourage existing or past clients to get back in touch and give you more work, create a spring promotion. Send a personalized e-mail or postcard to clients with a discount on design work for "loyal customers." Use language such as "Thank you" and "Exclusive" that lets the clients know the sale is available only to valued customers. The discount amount is up to you, but be sure to include a hard deadline to further encourage clients not to wait, but to get in touch now. 3. Spring social It's rare to find professionals who are active on all three of the big social networks: Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. In fact the only people I know who use all three are social media marketing experts themselves! But with Google adding lots of social search features to its SEO algorithms and more and more users coming onto these networks every day, it's a good idea to expand your social horizons. Which network do you lag behind in? Is it Twitter? LinkedIn? Use the spring season to set up an account on that network. Visit sites such as socialmediaexaminer.com to read up on ways you can market yourself using social media. Try to spend 30 minutes each day monitoring and improving your presence on the new site. You never know which social sites you'll find traction and new customers in, unless you actually give them a try. What are your plans for spring marketing promotions? Leave any tips or suggestions in the comments.