Creating your own personal brand is a great way to get noticed, land clients and gain an edge over the competition. Suppose, for example, that your business has excellent products and services to offer. You spend time and money on advertising and marketing to produce leads, pay attention to customer service and use the latest technology. And yet you aren’t the “go-to” person or business in your field.
The problem is that you haven’t effectively branded yourself, says personal-branding expert Tim O’Brien. The idea is to formulate an effective personal brand. There is good reason to do so. For professionals and many other types of small-business ventures, YOU are the product. Clients buy into your personal brand more than anything.
Here are some of O’Brien’s tips for building a strong personal brand:
1. Focus, focus, focus. Avoid trying to be everything to everybody. That’s a recipe for mediocrity. Instead, focus your message to hit a select target audience like a battering ram, while competitors spray their marketing message lightly everywhere.
2. Build around benefits. Your brand will appeal to prospective customers only if it offers them the benefits they are looking for. In other words, they’ll buy into your brand if there’s something in it for them. Put the message in terms that translate to what your target audiences wants and needs.
3. Have a personal “catch phrase.” This won’t be appropriate for all professions, but for many small businesses a well-crafted slogan can convey a tremendous amount of information about your personal brand.
4. Make those around you successful. While some personal brands are built at the expense of others, the most highly regarded personal brands are built on the success they create for others.
5. Hire a coach or mentor. This is one of the single best investments you can make in building a powerful, sustainable and respectable personal brand.
6. Invest in continuing education. You can only create and grow your personal brand if you continue to refine and advance your skill sets and competencies. Never sacrifice or forgo learning because you think you don’t have time or worse because you think you already know it all.
7. Become media savvy, or hire someone to help you. When it comes to the media, you can try and remain invisible, but anonymity won’t help you build a brand. •
Daniel Kehrer can be reached at editor@business.com.
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