I was seated in a room packed with learned people, staring at the lecturer who flawlessly spoke about “Beauty Tips” and wondering how did she (the lecturer) manage to get such a large following? Who made her an authority? Why is she such a sought-after person when it comes to talking about “Beauty Tips”? With such a large following, she must be earning one hell of a lot.
I put forth my naive questions to her and silently waited for an answer. “Personal branding,” she says. “It is all creating a Personal Brand, developing it. nourishing it and marketing it to such an extent that you become an authority and that always helps you in business”…
Like an aroused kid, I latched on the computer and punched a few keywords and did a complete research on “Personal branding.” Here is what I found.
1. What brand building?
Brand building is the strategic process of creating awareness about a brand, developing it, and marketing it using various tactics such as promotional campaigns and advertising. We can also say that it is increasing brand equity using promotional strategies like personal selling, advertising, sales promotion, direct marketing, and publicity.
Branding is crucial to a business because branding can change how people encompass your products and company. Branding helps elevate the name of the company and what it stands for. The goal of brand building is to create a unique image of the company among its customers.
2. Why Personal Brand Building?
Let’s say that you are an expert and you are building your business around your area of expertise. You may be a specialist, doctor, author, teacher, speaker or a consultant and your audience recognize you as the face of your business, in such a case Personal Branding Is practical and sensible.
Building a personal brand has its advantages. As an expert in your line of work, you can be an authoritarian person and be followed by many. You can build a community of followers who will support you like this follow other companies. Your followers will help you to increase awareness of your company. Your personal brand will help you to distinguish yourself from your competitors. This own compelling brand will help attract a target audience without which, and you may find yourself scrambling to build in a profitable business
Your personal brand is helping to form a lasting impression in the mind of your audience and customers.
3. Why is personal brand building so important?
Good branding strategy is essential for you because it will get you proper recognition and helps you to distinguish yourself from your competitors thus giving you more leverage than others. As an expert, you can have a following, and it can change the way people perceive your brand. A good branding strategy will help you to build your community and generate new customers and increase your sales.
Branding is essential to a business because of the overall effect it has on you and your company. A well-established brand can increase business value and help the company build trust with consumers, potential clients, and customers.
4. How to build your personal Brand?
Highlight the value you can generate
Your value is derived upon how good you are at what you do and not on whom you work for or your position. For example, you are a content writer employed by a top magazine on a freelance basis to write on a specific topic, and then it is your writing and advice that you need to brand yourself for.
Always encourage yourself to learn about your specialties and make yourself an expert in your line of work.
The more you understand your value, the simpler it becomes to eloquent and do it. Do not price yourself depending upon what you want to make, but instead, you estimate the value, your employer or client will receive from your service.
List the people to whom it will help.
It is all about what you can deliver and whom you can best help. You may be a health specialist writing about good healthy habits, and then your target audience is people who want to stay healthy. You can make a list of potential customers who will benefit from your expertise and advice, and you can build an audience around them with them. You are also helping the sales of the magazine and creating value for the publishing company.
You have to be specific about the kind of work you will provide, to whom it will benefit the most and value that it will generate. Only then you can position yourself to be a leader in that space.
Do a comprehensive study of yourself and your work, ask yourself some questions. Jot down all the answers, and list people who you can help and business value that you can generate.
Create a platform where you can connect with your audience.
You will need a platform to showcase your talents; otherwise people will not know where to find you. The internet offers many such platforms where you can connect with your audience and potential customers. You can choose a Website, Social Media, Video, and Podcasts platform to give people a chance to view your work. Do not hesitate to promote your capabilities which will provide you with some credibility
Ask your customer to give you testimonials.
Get testimonials from your customers and share them with other potential customers. Your satisfied customer will act as your brand ambassadors, and with their referrals, you will be able to build a network of people.
5. What is the personal brand building process
Step 1. Identify your target audience.
You need first to understand the services and the value that you are providing to your audience. You can then identify your target audience and then customize your services to meet their requirements.
For example, if you are a hairdresser or beautician that provides helpful beauty tips or helps you to style your hair, then your target audience will be mostly self-conscious women who are regularly looking to beautify themselves and improve their looks. You need to filter your audience by gender, age, interests, and likes. This will help you to create a niche market for yourself
Try always to customize your services so that you can provide the best possible value to your audience. Give your audience the benefits of your services they will come back for more.
Step 2: Define Brand Goals
Now that you have identified your target audience, you need to define your goals. What vision do you want to create for your brand? what purpose does it serve? And how will people perceive it?. You need to define the values that you want your audience to think of you. You need to present an image of what your company strives for.
For example, a finance consultant providing financial advice to his clients would want people to trust him and follow his advice. His goal may be to give sound financial information and investment with low returns. Instead of suggesting high-risk investments for maximum returns Depending upon his goals, he would prefer to advise less risky proposals and recommend inherently bankable investments, but he will avoid asking his client to speculate in the stock market.
Your brand should dictate your vision. Ask yourself what your goal is? What should people think of me?
Step 3: Competitor Analysis
Always look around and see what your competitors are offering. You need to do a comprehensive study of all your competitors and study what they have to offer. To be competitive, you have to provide more than your competitor and also an additional service.
Ask yourself – Is my service better than my competitor? You need to find out ways to be different from your competitors so that your product is better than theirs.
Step 4: Creating Value
It is imperative that your brand is unique and valuable that will set you apart from your competitors. You need to focus on those unique qualities that will make your brand attractive to potential customers.
Always emphasize your value proposition in all your marketing content, so people are aware of the advantages. People are always looking for tangible benefits and be sure to include them in your proposals. For example – Free Home Delivery, Zero setup fees.
Step 5: Brand Logo and Design
It is essential that your brand has an appropriate logo that symbolizes your work and what you stand for. Mostly all logos have a message embedded in them. It has a specific meaning which is communicated visually to the people.
Develop your brand guidelines, the logo colors, templates and set the standards. These standards should be consistent across all marketing channels, and this will make your brand more visible and recognizable.
Step 6: Market Your Brand
Marketing is not an easy job. It entails advertising and promoting on different channels and platforms and interacting with many people to making it viral.
First, start with preparing a plan or develop a strategy. You can use your stationery, packaging, office t-shirts, website, exhibition promotion materials, social media platforms, and any platforms to publicize your branding. You need to make sure that you display your brand wherever possible.
With the advent of newer technologies, you are open to new channels like Youtube videos, Podcasts, Affiliates, eBay, Amazon and many more, to promote your brand and products.
Conclusion
Personal branding is an essential marketing strategy to distinguish yourself from other competitors. If your brand is successful and much publicized, then this will help you to establish your business and grow at a faster pace than others. It will create an identity for yourself and of your products and services in the marketplace.
It is not easy to create a successful personal brand for yourself. We WorkThatWorks, a Branding Consultant, will help you to build your personal brand. WorkThatWorks, Mumbai is one of the leading branding consultants and have a decade of experience in helping people to create and design their brand and market it. We will develop an overall brand strategy that will work for you.
We will help you to set your value propositions, define your brand guidelines – your logo, your , and packaging, etc., identifying your target markets, analyzing your competitors and help you to market it.
This is all done after we conduct thorough market research on the current business trends and competitors. We will help you to identify your markets, advertising campaigns for different demographics and what medium is best for advertising,
Feel free to contact us at +91 98210 47703 | info@workthatworks.org