People are more willing to buy goods and services if they feel sympathy for brand owners – they admire their personal qualities and business successes. That is why many businessmen “come out of the shadows”: they communicate warmly and openly with their target audience in social networks, share with them the details of their lives and interesting facts about their business – they create a personal brand.
We tell you what personal branding is and who needs it, and we give you useful advice on how to do it.
What is a personal brand
Personal brand is the image that is formed about you by your target audience, business partners and investors. It is formed by your image, reputation, personal and business qualities, ideas and values.Read more https://bernd.ru/
Competently built image works to increase sales and recognition of products and services. Also people-brands often become attention leaders – they are listened to, they are imitated. Let’s take a look at what a personal brand is by way of example:
Jeff Bezos. The founder of the online retailer Amazon is known not only as a successful entrepreneur and one of the richest people in the world. He is an active public speaker, promotes ideas to protect the environment, donates billions of dollars to charity, and generously shares his business smarts with entrepreneurs.
Bill Gates. Another American Internet entrepreneur and public figure better known as the creator of Microsoft Corporation, which gave us office products and the Windows operating system.
Who needs a personal brand and why
Creating a personal brand is useful for any professional – hairdressers, bloggers, designers, psychologists, finishers, doctors – the list goes on and on.
It helps you gain long-term credibility with your target audience and business partners, and:
- establish yourself as an expert;
- to find like-minded people;
- to gain credibility;
- to distance oneself from competitors.
To build a personal brand, use your knowledge, business competencies and accomplishments, and personal charm. Present yourself sincerely and brightly.
How to create and promote a personal brand
Self-marketing involves six basic steps:
- Finding a niche.
- Drawing up a portrait of the target audience.
- Identification of unique features.
- Work in the information field.
- Development and implementation of a content strategy.
- Further development.
Let’s consider them in detail.
Search for a niche
The basis of the personal brand of any expert or Influencer is an idea. In order to formulate it correctly, you need to analyze your values, interests and skills, and then compare them to the needs of the target audience.
Let’s say you are a professional photographer and videographer who shoots events. You know that most competitors use hackneyed subjects and scenery and give clients tedious 5-hour videos that are impossible to watch without yawning. A fresh, bright idea is an opportunity to quickly stand out from them.
Think about what unique selling proposition you can make to your audience. For example, short atmospheric videos – selections of the most touching and memorable moments from the celebration.
Developing a portrait of your target audience
The main purpose of a personal brand is to make a loud statement and convince potential customers that you can be trusted. To do this, you need to research your target audience.
First, establish:
- Who needs your product?
- Who is most likely to encounter the problem you want to solve?
- What do these people care about, what are they more receptive to?
Then move on to a more detailed analysis – determine the age, gender, ability to pay, geography, and interests of your target audience.
Based on the results of the analysis, choose the platforms on which your target audience is present: social networks, thematic forums and blogging platforms.
You can start blogging on your own – experiment with content and monitor statistics, analyze profiles with a similar audience. But it is often difficult for an uninitiated person to create a personal brand from scratch on their own – mistakes are inevitable. That is why it is better to entrust the task to an internet marketer.
Identifying your unique features
A personal brand is a reflection of your personality. Focus on what makes you different from others: your values, attitudes, principles, and personality traits. Among other things, such an approach helps to set you apart from your competitors and cut off non-targeted audiences.
Show what you are: energetic and cheerful person – a source of inspiration and positivity, or phlegmatic with an analytical way of thinking, which will help to understand yourself and solve a long-standing problem. Tell them what you believe, what is important to you, and what is unacceptable.
Important: Don’t try to flirt with the audience. Be sincere and genuine.
Working in the information field
After developing the concept of personal brand, start to promote it. Different platforms are suitable for this, for example, accounts in social networks. They will help you maximize your audience’s reach and build an emotional connection with them.
Don’t try to be everywhere at once: choose 2-3 sites that are interesting for your target audience. Create a profile, post photos and videos, leave contact information and links to other resources. Users pay special attention to text content – product descriptions, reviews, expert articles.
You will also definitely need a personal website. If your budget is limited, start with a colorful 7-page website. You can design it yourself on Tilde, without having to call in specialists.
Customers will appreciate it if you give them an opportunity to choose an appropriate way to contact you. To do this, place a Calltouch multi-button on the site. Thanks to this widget the user will be able to order a callback, leave a smart request, or write a message in a social network or messenger.
Content strategy development and implementation
Expert, useful content is a key tool for gaining the trust of your target audience.
- Alternate between posts and articles, detailed product or service descriptions, photos and videos, pricing and testimonials from real customers.
- Share stories in which you are an ordinary person, not an entrepreneur or expert. Don’t be afraid to sound funny. On the contrary, make jokes when it is appropriate, share funny stories from life, because humor disposes.
- Prove your expertise: tell how you create a product, share your tips for overcoming difficulties, show your workplace.
- Write articles for guest posting and post them on sites that are guaranteed to be of interest to your target audience.
Don’t limit yourself to text content – record videos and podcasts, conduct interviews with interesting guests, offer your target audience useful webinars, guides, checklists.
Further development
In order to strengthen and develop your personal brand, develop as a businessman and as a person, look for ways to expand your target audience, learn and follow trends.
Track how your target audience reacts to different types of content and activity formats: analyze how many people left comments or rated a new colorful post, what percentage of visitors makes reposts and conversion actions – calls, requests on the site, and so on. Based on the facts, you can make targeted adjustments to your personal brand promotion strategy and improve conversion rates.
A convenient tool for collecting and analyzing statistics is the Calltouch end-to-end analytics. In particular, it is suitable for those who use different advertising platforms to promote your site. The system automatically collects information about all traffic channels and combines it into easy-to-understand reports that help optimize your budget.
