Are you getting ready to launch your new service? Before you do, there’s some housekeeping you need to do.
Personal brands are vital if you want to get business for your service or promote yourself for a job. An estimated 90% of people trust a message coming from an individual, rather than a company.
If you can position yourself correctly, you can take advantage of this.
But when you build your personal brand, it can be tricky. You can struggle with the process if you don’t know where to start.
Follow the tips below to help you through your branding journey.
1. Choose Your Audience
Before you start defining your brand, ask yourself the type of person you want to help. Do you want to help individual people, or do you want to target the leaders of companies?
You need to know who your target customer is so you can build your brand properly.
When you develop your messaging, you don’t want to target it to a general audience. You want your messaging to speak to the people you’re trying to reach.
Your messaging will work better to build trust and convert your audience to customers when they find you.
2. Brand Yourself as an Expert
When someone is deciding who to hire for a job, they want to hire someone who’s an expert. The question is, do you want an industry expert or a jack of all trades.
When you know who to target, you can brand yourself as an expert in that area. This will set yourself apart from others who are don’t have the same credibility as you.
Do you want to be an expert at a few things or average at everything?
3. Create a Website
If people can’t find you online, how do you expect them to see what you can do?
Sure, you can focus on a site like LinkedIn. It’s good for what it does.
But building a personal website for your brand can set you apart from other people. It allows you to tell your story in a way a social network can’t.
Professional sites have profiles that all look the same. With your own website, you can create something that reflects your personality.
If you aren’t technical, you can hire someone to build your website for you. This service can help you with your needs.
4. Create an Offer
You probably aren’t creating a brand just to be popular. You’re doing it so you can get noticed in your industry.
Whether you’re building your brand to position yourself for a job or to offer services, you need to have an offer for your audience.
If you’re going for a job, you need to show what value you can bring to an organization. What skills can you demonstrate in your portfolio?
If you’re offering services, what can you offer that will bring ROI to other businesses? Try to show how what you’ve done has resulted in an increase in revenue for other companies.
5. Start a Blog
Content marketing has taken over the web. 54% of marketers said that content marketing is their highest priority inbound marketing strategy.
Your content strategy shouldn’t be designed to show how smart you are. It should be to inform your audience about something that they didn’t know.
By giving your knowledge out on your blog, you’re positioning yourself as an expert in your field.
If your content is sharable, you also may have the opportunity to get exposed to people on social networks.
6. Collaborate With Others
If you’re trying to position yourself as a leader in your industry, collaboration is a must.
Your personal brand will help you build connections with others.
As you build your brand, try to connect with others in your industry and see if there is any work you can do together. Even if these people are selling the same services as you, that doesn’t mean you can’t work together.
Working with other people can get you in front of their audiences. You get to show new people what you can do and stand side-by-side with other experts in your field.
7. Launch Your Own Products
Have you gotten an email list and a good amount of returning website visitors?
Congratulations. You’re most of the way there.
The question is, how can you capitalize on this to build your brand even more? Try to create a product of your own.
It doesn’t have to be a physical product. Many people create online courses in their industry.
Being an educator in your field can add a lot of credibility to your brand.
8. Stay Consistent
When branding yourself, there’s a lot you can do. So much that you probably won’t be able to do everything.
Whatever you decide to do, be consistent.
If you decide to work on content marketing, stick to a publishing schedule. Your email subscribers should expect a new piece of content from you every week.
Are you publishing videos on YouTube? Stick to an upload schedule to keep your view counts up.
When your consistent, your audience knows that they can rely on you.
9. Be Yourself
In a world where it’s hard to determine if someone’s personality is real or fake, authenticity pays off.
When building your brand, don’t try to be someone else. Be who you really are.
Overselling yourself is one of the most common mistakes people make. Don’t do this. People don’t usually like it when you sell to them.
Instead, create an experience that allows your audience to see what you have to offer. If your audience likes you, you’re going to get sales.
Start to Build Your Personal Brand Today
If you don’t build your personal brand before you start offering your service, you’re going to be a step behind your competition. Your brand will tell your potential customers and employers who you are and why they should hire you.
Make sure you do this work beforehand, so you aren’t struggling to build your brand down the line.
After you build your brand, it’s time to promote yourself. Head over to our blog to learn about the best promotion techniques.