Use the Personal Branding to Promote Your Business
From the marketing classes we know that a product of a well-respected brand knows to communicate its usefulness, benefits, market value so well that allows to be sold at a higher price than competing products, to gain customers loyalty, to increase the company’s value with more than the value of the owned assets and to maintain its top position even during this economic crisis. The same thing happens in the labor market.
The competition based on qualifications, experience, salary makes you a “commodity”; dozens of people have done the same schools, have the same experience and are happy with a lower salary. If you are a “commodity” , you lose when you negotiate the salary, you are put / set on the dismissal list easier and get promoted more difficult, and your results are never seen as exceptional performance. If you are a “brand” many of the problems disappear: “The branding does not mean that the audience choose you after a comparison with your competitors, but it sees you as the only solution to its problem.” (Rob Frankel).
What is the secret of a good brand? I could mention 1000 and even more: for each brand at least one secret. Attributes such as consistency, clarity, reliability, superior quality, distinctive positioning, relevance, credibility, visibility characterises equally a product brand or a service, a corporate brand or a personal one. Let’s stop only to the three basic rules: create, communicate and improve.
1. Create
There are three levels at which you can build brand:
- The level of the objectives
- The skill level
- The level of the environment
Clarifying the career goals is the first step to success. Do you want to be No. 1? Now you can be if you choose the right expertise niche to work on. For example, if you design websites, a niche is using the search engines and SEO to promote those websites. For specialists in marketing, the direct marketing would be a niche for products and IT services and another niche could be the direct mailing of the CRM products in the medical field. The more narrow is the niche, the better the chance to become known as the best. Choose a position to differentiate yourself and ensure you benefit of a maximum visibility.
Further explores the key skills to achieve that goal and choose which 3-5 attributes to concentrate on. If you were to present yourself, these attributes will have to be highlighted and sustained them with evidences and examples. Finally, what completes the portrait of you and your business includes the environment with everything the brand image contains: how you project outside the space you live or work, what leisure activities (hobbies, volunteer) do you prefer and sustain, what circle of friends and acquaintances you have (this includes also the companies you work with), what are the professional organizations that recommend you and so on. All these details must be related to the brand identity: from hairdressing magazines you read, to the car you drive or the relationships you have with other people and companies.
2. Communicate
The best way to make yourself known as a respected brand is to be proactive in building networks and establishing communication channels. You can contact specialists whose articles, achievements, websites, ideas, organizations you like and thus create relationships. You can participate in interesting discussions on the Internet. You can publish articles, participate in different conversations with other people or organisations and initiate projects with foundations and associations who feel the same as you regarding an idea or a thought. As the number of communication channels multiply, the more you become known.
The public that interests you is complex and includes colleagues, superiors, subordinates, recruiters, potential customers or suppliers, mentors, potential disciples, friends with common hobbies, known and unknown, domestic and foreign. Define the categories of people with which you want to get in touch and want to know you and establish the strategies to reach them. Inside the organization, you can be known by your success in difficult projects, new, unusual, while on the outside of the organization, the cultivation of the media presence (advertorials, press releases, interviews) can gain you popularity.
The communication is nonverbal or verbal, through image and style (manner of behavior, gestures, clothing, accessories, car, interests) or through ideas. The credibility, authority, superiority are based on both visual impression, and arguments. Depending on the talent that we have to express ourselves written or verbally, you can choose writing articles, reviews, press releases, attending interviews, panels, providing lectures, seminars, courses to promote yourself and your business.
If you are not up in the hierarchy or do not to work in consulting or training, you probably smile at thinking to apply these communication strategies. But remember: there is an environment where anybody can become somebody: the Internet. What will I find on Google if I write your name?
3. Improve
Develop your personality based on the central ideas of the authenticity. You manage to communicate to the public, but the environment or your interests change, so your niche disappears or is invaded by competitors and need to get it from the start again. The ability to remain relevant in any conditions is very important, so always be prepared for changes! Regularly read, write, discuss ideas, methods, cases in your area. Only in this way, you can become the best. If you read a specific article per day and two books a month, three years later you will be read over 1,000 articles and 70 books and you get to know almost everything about a certain domain. And if you get an outstanding achievement like writing a book, creating a specialized computer application or making an annual sales figure of 20 million dollars, the objective of becoming number one on your specialty niche is done.
