The business world is irrevocably competitive, and with the advent of technology and great marketing strategies, standing out from the crowd is the sweetest gift you can give your brand. One key strategy you can use to do this is personal branding, building your identity for business growth gives you an edge.
Personal branding has a lot of benefits, which ranges from credibility, competitive edge, business profitability, and so on. As an entrepreneur, you have to build a unique identity because it’s part of building a business. So, how do you do it?
In this article, I will discuss personal branding, it’s importance, and valuable tips on building your brand.
Table of Contents
What is Personal Branding?
Personal branding is the process of building and promoting your unique identity, values, and expertise to differentiate yourself from your competitors. That’s the general definition, anyways.
For me, tailoring yourself to be a unique entity that resonates so well with your business that potential customers see you as a connection to the products and yet a standalone person.
Here’s what I mean.
Justin Welsh, the founder of The Official Justin, is known for his successful career in the sales and SAAS industry. He created an online persona on various media channels, coaching marketers and offering sales tips to anyone that wants to listen. In various interviews, Justin discussed how he didn’t even know what product to sell yet, but he knew that whatever it was, he had to gain an audience that would want to buy them because they believed he’d only sell the best.
A business owner trying to build a personal brand must showcase their strength, talents, and experience in a way that connects with their audience. Like Welsh, improving your personal brand helps you establish yourself as an expert who happens to be selling what your audience needs.
Why is Personal Branding Important?
Now you know what personal branding is, but why do you need it to boost your business growth? These are some reasons why promoting your brand is a sure check-mate move:
-
Establishes credibility
Imagine there’s a candle maker that’s constantly popping up on your TikTok For You page. This person discusses tips on preserving your candle or making rose-scented candles without roses. They’re not pushing their business into your face, but they’d probably be the first on your mind when you need some rose-scented candles.
Their brand lets them demonstrate their expertise, showcase their achievements, and even give people tips, which ultimately helps them build trust and credibility with their audience.
-
Increases visibility
It’s also one of the best ways to build visibility across various platforms. Justin Welsh leveraged LinkedIn, Twitter, and podcasts. Engage your audience, talk about relevant stuff, and watch how your company gets visibility across your niche. Visibility makes it easier for potential clients to find you.
-
Creates opportunities
A solid personal brand can spike more prominent companies’ interest in a partnership. The reality is that most big companies rarely have time to talk online, and they might need your intimacy with your audience. This intimacy can open doors to new partnerships, collaborations, and job opportunities for you.
-
Enhances customer loyalty
Customers that read your tips, chat with you in the comment section and see your videos on YouTube and Tiktok are more likely to stay committed and loyal to you. It’s possible you get many referrals from these people.
-
Gives you a competitive edge
Personal branding sets you apart. It positions you as the industry’s go-to expert willing to solve the audience’s pain points. Feeling like they can relate to you is enough for customers to choose you.
11 Tips to Build Your Personal Brand
Like most successful marketing strategies, nothing happens overnight. Building your brand requires consistency, hard work, and determination. If you have that, these are ten tips for building a successful personal brand;
-
Define your niche
Personal branding is all about niches. Whatever you want to talk about online must be related to a business you already have or intend to start. Hence, you must identify your skills and expertise to determine the niche you want to target with your personal brand. Research your preferred niches, and study how your personal brand can help you sell effectively.
-
Develop a clear value proposition
Knowing your niche is the starting point, but setting yourself apart from competitors is the real deal. Why should people like you be better than others? What do you have to offer? Is it experience or a willingness to share everything you know and learn with others? Figure out what you have to offer and how you want to provide it in a unique way.
-
Create a professional online presence
Build a polished and consistent presence across relevant social media platforms, websites, and blogs. This part might be tricky because what you sell determines which platforms to enter. If you’re into marketing, LinkedIn and Twitter may be your thing. If you’re into fashion, it could be Instagram and TikTok. Whatever it is, figure it out and create content consistently on these platforms so you’re one of the people the audience looks out for
-
Leverage content marketing
This is where the work lies. You already know where and what you want to talk about. All that’s left is sharing this valuable content with your audience. Create a layout of how you want to share content online.
Would you do daily or weekly uploads? Will you be releasing more video content or releasing tips on Linkedin? You can watch videos and research content marketing strategies to understand how to market your business through personal branding.
-
Network strategically
Attend industry events, engage with influencers, and join online communities. It’s an approach that helps you expand your network and increase your brand’s visibility. Reach out to people with the potential to help your brand and business, get to know them, and be intentional about connecting with them.
However, it’s crucial to note that networking is easy when people already know you in the niche, so ensure you’ve already established a presence before reaching out to people. Anything else, and you’d be the creepy salesman stalking everyone’s DM.
-
Master storytelling
A UK study once discovered that 79% of adults believe that storytelling takes branding to the next level, and it’s true. Storytelling is a skill every business owner should learn. Why?
Discussing your experiences and what you learned from them while snuggling the importance of your product or service into the story is a great way to catch the attention of a potential customer. Share your journey, successes, and challenges to connect with your target audience on a deeper level, and also use storytelling to demonstrate your expertise and commitment to your customers’ needs.
Want to give your brand a boost? Sponsor your business on Insight Business and get good results!
-
Be authentic
Authenticity is a virtue that profoundly resonates with people. Be genuine about your values in your personal branding to help you build trust and loyalty. After all, what’s the point of creating a brand that audiences can’t trust?
-
Showcase your accomplishments
Don’t be humble when you talk about your accomplishments. Highlight your successes, awards, and testimonials to show your audience your capability and build credibility. Talk about how your brand reached a financial milestone by following or using your tips and products (if it applies to you).
You can also talk about your failures and how you learned from them to be a better entrepreneur but be careful. Talk about your failures only when you’ve reached a certain level of success so that you can paint yourself as a motivation and not a bad example.
-
Collaborate with other businesses
Identify complementary businesses or influencers in your industry and partner with them for joint ventures, cross-promotions, or guest blogging opportunities. This partnership will open you to their audiences, giving you a wider visibility range. It’s also a way to boost your credibility. Potential customers might pick interest in you if you partner with another credible brand.
Read Also: Rebranding Strategy: The Dos and Don’ts
-
Stay consistent
Staying consistent, regardless of setbacks and failed attempts, is how to achieve the brand you envision. Ensure you’re consistent in your messages, posts, vision, visual elements, and tone across all the platforms you leverage. That way, people can always go to you for their needs regardless of the platform they’re using.
-
Measure and adjust
Regularly track your personal branding efforts using analytics tools to measure your website traffic, social media engagement, and other key performance indicators (KPIs). You can adjust your strategies based on the data and feedback from these analytics tools to improve your personal brand’s reach and impact.
What Affects Your Personal Branding?
These tips can help build a good personal brand, but it doesn’t make this marketing strategy a foolproof plan. Some situations and habits can disrupt your personal brand, including:
-
Poor online reputation
Negative reviews, controversial social media posts, or unprofessional online behaviour can damage your personal brand.
-
Neglecting your target audience
Failing to address your target audience’s needs and pain points can lead to disinterest and disengagement. Don’t give tips on a different niche when your audiences and potential customers are in another.
That’s like telling an audience about Pepsi or Coca-Cola when they love your wine and alcoholic product reviews. What happens? They lose interest in your content/product on wine and alcoholic drinks and find another seller who won’t start pitching them soft drinks.
-
Over-promotion
I call this putting your products in a potential customer’s face without any helpful content diffusing the marketing. Engage your audience and offer valuable insights before pitching your product. That’s what makes you the real deal. Over-promotion can make your audience lose interest faster, it can affect your personal brand.
-
Inactivity on social media
Out of sight is out of mind. One sure way to make customers lose interest in your brand is infrequent or irregular updates. Create a schedule and stick to it. Don’t leave your audience waiting because they won’t wait too long. There are hundreds of other creators looking to steal your crowd.
Conclusion
Personal branding is crucial to elevating your business in 2023. Understanding these tips and factors that affect your personal brand can help you create a strong, authentic, and successful brand that attracts valuable opportunities.
It easier when you join a community to build your identity. Join our Whatsapp Community so that you can connect with our audience, they can be your potential customers.
About Author
- Adetola Rachael is a content and copywriter. With experience in tech, entrepreneur, and casino niches, she relies on deep research to create quality, original, and marketable content.
Latest entries
SpiceFebruary 7, 20246 Snack Ideas for Indoor Movie Date
Business InsightsApril 10, 2023An Insightful Guide to Personal Branding for Elevating Business in 2023
Business InsightsFebruary 6, 2023Steps to Sustainable Marketing for Businesses in Nigeria
