How to Maximize Your Personal Brand
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What comes to mind when you think about your brand? Your logo? Your tagline?
Those are part of it, but they’re certainly not the whole picture.
Your personal brand includes the values that define you, your unique story, your personality, and many other factors. The way that others perceive your brand is influenced by everything you do!
Being clear about who you are and what makes your business unique will help you to make strong connections and build lasting relationships with ideal clients and prospects.
Your personal brand isn’t just about what you do; it’s about who you are.
“Branding is about CLARITY! Clarity in understanding your purpose, your mission, your voice, your style, even your readers and clients. It’s a process of identifying the unique aspects of both you as an individual, and your business, and weaving those attributes together in a way that is consistently expressed in everything you do, say, and create.” ~ Andrea Beltrami
There may be a lot of people who do what you do, but there is only one YOU.
Your uniqueness is the number one thing that sets you apart from your competition! And one of the things that makes you unique is your story.
I’m not saying you should share your life story with the world. There are lots of things that you want to keep private, and rightfully so. In most cases, your clients and prospects don’t need or even want to know the nitty gritty details of your childhood, your marriage, or other personal information.
However, explaining the turning points that led to where you are today, and weaving that story into your marketing, will go a long way to letting potential clients get to know, like, and trust you – and to building your personal brand! Your story will be especially engaging to those who find themselves in similar situations to yours.
Speaking of potential clients, you need to have a clear target market.
Don’t make the mistake of marketing to too broad an audience. It might seem that you can help anyone and everyone, and maybe you can. But not everyone is your ideal client. Some clients are a better fit for your business than others – and those are the people your marketing should be directed to.
If you try to appeal to the whole world, your true personality won’t shine through, but when you have a clear personal brand, your ideal client will be drawn to you naturally.
When you are passionate about what you do, it shows, and people will remember you when they or someone they know has a problem that you can help them solve.
Photo © Maridav / DepositPhotos.
Janet Barclay
I eliminate stress for my clients by hosting, monitoring, and maintaining their WordPress sites so they don’t have to worry about security, downtime or performance issues. When I’m away from my desk, I enjoy reading, photography, cooking, watching movies, drinking tea, and spending time with my family.
I love your wisdom and how you highlighted that while many of us may do the same thing and offer the same services, we are each unique. And it’s that uniqueness that should shine in all of our marketing and branding. I’ve always felt that there are many fewer organizers out there than there are clients that need our help. But it’s always a matter of finding that right fit. Clients are uniquely different, as are organizers. So allowing your “self” to be known is helpful in attracting that right client. Thank you for sharing. And good luck with your new personal brand challenge.
Thanks, Linda! This is one area where you really shine. Through your blog, I’ve come to know your daughters, your husband, your mother, and your home – not to mention you! Keep up the great work and thank you for your ongoing support.
If you want people to connect at a personal level, authenticity is very important. To be honest, this is one of the reasons why I leaped into video this year. I think followers get a better sense of who I am when they can see me and watch me talk. I agree with Linda that we are all different, and strong client relationships emerge when people feel a good “fit.” It takes a bit of self assessment to understand who we are, and to let that shine through to the public, but it is worth the investment. Love this direction you are taking in helping people discover this.
Thank you, Seana! I really admire you for stepping out of your comfort zone to do a video series. Seeing you and hearing you talk will go a long way to making that important connection with your readers. It is scary to put ourselves out there, but it’s definitely worth it. Anyone who doesn’t like what they see would probably not be a good fit as a client anyway.
This post is an excellent reminder for the new year. Thank you for bringing this topic to the forefront. I found that being yourself and not creating an “online personality” works best. Some of my clients tend to be too cold in their posts and other correspondences online. Some years ago, it was considered more professional to speak this way to clients and prospects. But, times have changed. Prospective clients need to get to know you “before” they get involved with your services. It’s a topic I bring up often to many of my older more established business owners when they want to get more exposure online.
Yes, blogging and social media have really changed the “rules” of marketing. As Bryan Kramer so aptly puts it, there is no more B2B or B2C – there is only H2H (human-to-human). And so, we must embrace our uniqueness that makes us human!
I have struggled to narrow ideal client. After 8 years I finally feel like I have a handle on it and it helps the branding so much!
That’s fantastic, Andi. I’m sure it will help you take your business to new heights!
“Your uniqueness is the number one thing that sets you apart from your competition! And one of the things that makes you unique is your story.”
So on target. Creating a Unique Selling Proposition (USP) that highlights your brand’s unique qualities is super important and really helps to differentiate you from your competitors. Btw, I agree, H2H is the way to go. =)
I mentioned that (H2H) again in a talk I gave last night. I really can’t think of a better way of putting it!
So, from one human to another, thank you for reading my blog! 😉