There are a number of reasons why personal branding is important, and I intend to hammer home the point, so be warned.
To start with an opportunity that may seem brilliant today, may seem out dated tomorrow, and if you have built your business around this brand, you're in trouble. Imagine if Google had a free tool, and you build your entire business around teaching people to use it. All of a sudden Google or someone else brings out a better tool and your website is left as the solar powered gramophone. Interesting but completely pointless.
Now consider if you had concentrated on personal branding, and instead of your product or course, people came to hear what you say. If its you not your product you have built up, then when the next big thing comes out, they all rush to see what you have to say.
The internet changes everyday, piece by piece in small but definite ways. Either you are building a business based around your personal branding, or the branding of your product. The trick is to maintain the ability to be fluid like the market you are operating in. Be like Google who change as necessary, and not Bing who have left themselves no where to go.
Hopefully you now understand that if you are not working on personal branding, you are wasting your time. On the other-hand, if you build your business around your personal reputation then the changes that come to the industry will not affect you. I know … I know, you now agree, but how do you do it?
Personal branding really is not as hard as you may think. To start with you need to forget about promoting other guru's and so called experts, and seize that role for yourself. If you publicly continue talking about how someone else's product is so great, and how wonderful they are, then you just look a fool. If the other person knows so much, why are they listening to you instead of going to listen to the source. That person who did work on personal branding and managed to get you to so heartily recommend them, is not going to return the favor. They will not only sell to the customer, but also increase their reputation and hopefully sell again and again to them.
Personal branding lesson 2
One of the most important methods for personal branding you can use involves your messages to your list. Forget generic sales jargon, and try making it personal. Do not forget the old axiom "people buy from people," because it is as true online as offline.
If you use personal branding in your email campaigns, you will see an improvement in your sales ratio. So to achieve this personal branding effect you need to do several things.
- Include something personal
- Mention your family
- Talk about how you did something, instead of how they should do it
- Ask for their opinions
The trick with personal branding is to become a real person, and break through the computer barrier to your readers. Do not worry this is not hard, you just have to forget most of the sales rubbish you have learned from so called guru's. If you are on vacation with your family, do not be afraid to mention it. Often mentioning something from your day to day life that is similar to the heads will cause more of a connection than some brilliantly bullet pointed sales lingo.
Do talk about your family in your emails, and do ask for peoples opinions. Remember your aim with personal branding is primarily to let them know you are a real person.
Now when the market shifts and you are left out in the cold, it does not matter. If you have worked on personal branding, the first place your customers will come to look for something better is you. Seriously you will receive emails telling you that they would rather buy from you, but someone else is offering blah blah, and could you offer something similar.
Always build your name instead of the product you are promoting. If you have personally branded yourself adequately shifts in the market can not harm you, and if your product becomes inferior you can update it without a hitch.
So what does personal branding really mean? It means being you just as hard as you can, and letting people see. I am not suggesting something complicated, just that you allow your personality to come across in your words, and build a reputation with your list and website visitors.
