13 ways to market your personal brand
That personal branding ‘stuff’ is for the big wigs of business, celebs or sports stars, right?!
Not anymore.
Gulp! I know. It can be hard to accept that today we need to be our own personal brand.
Personal branding is critical for everyone in business if we want to stand head and shoulders above the crowd in our niche market… if we want to get noticed… if we want to achieve the vision we set for our business and lives.
But don’t worry, creating your own personal brand isn’t about getting out there and having everyone in town and across the world know about you. No.
Your market niche could be a small area of your local city. For instance, if you live in London, you might only want to be found in (say) the Borough of Bromley. Then again, you and your business might be able to serve customers across your city, county or state, and therefore, want to be found more widely. You might be able to serve your customers across the country in which you live… or the world.
What is it for you and your business? Who do you want to find you and where are they?
The question then is… HOW will they find you?
The key with personal branding is to promote YOU the owner of the business/the entrepreneur as the expert/authority in your market niche or industry.
It’s about creating a marketing strategy for BRAND YOU – THE ‘go to’ person in your niche!
The digital world has made getting noticed a level playing field. No longer are big advertising budgets required. All you need is marketing savvy, consistency, and time.
In developing your personal brand marketing strategy, you’ll have to work out what platforms you want to use.
Here are the 13 marketing platforms most in use today. Which suit you the best? Remember, a combination of on and offline strategies are important.
- LinkedIn – a fully optimised profile is NOT NEGOTIABLE if you want to be ‘seen’ within the world’s largest business social marketing and sales platform. Get to know how to maximise LinkedIn, including writing blog posts on Pulse, doing advanced searches, participating in groups, creating your own group… and much more.
- SEO/Keywords – a must for Google searches – what short and long tail keywords do you want to be found for on your website and other online media, and how will you be found? Will you use organic reach, pay-per-click, YouTube keyword optimisation so you’re found in Google?
- Networking – always a must so long as you ‘do’ networking properly. What will you do with the business cards you collect from the networking events you go to? How can you give before you receive, and build credibility along the way?
- Blogging – a fantastic option for many business people. It enables you to share your knowledge widely. Can you syndicate your blogs to leading blogs sites or online newspapers? How about guest blogging too?
- Webinars – they’re all the rage at present and are a great way to teach your target audience what you know.
- You Tube – videoing is the way of the future and a great way to ‘teach’ your knowledge too.
- Social media – pick the platform(s) that suit you and your business best (Twitter?, Business Facebook?, Instagram?, Pinterest, Periscope?, Snapchat?, Google + etc).
- Public speaking – get on the stage if it suits you and your niche. Public speaking presents a fabulous opportunity to get seen at local, national and international events. They’re especially good if you can video the event and then upload the footage to your website and YouTube using your keywords.
- Podcasting – also all the rage at present as listeners can download your podcasts, and listen in while commuting.
- Get published – write books, e-books, white papers. Anyone can write and self publish these days. Plus, if you’re good and you have a significant community following you, you may also seek out the traditional publishing companies to publish your book(s). They’re always on the look-out for the ‘next best seller’.
- Traditional media – TV, radio, magazines, newspapers, PR – it’s there for all if you’re considered an authority in your field.
- Advertising and sponsorships – there’s still a place for this traditional marketing activity, depending on the nature of your business.
- Email marketing – a goodie and a must once your prospects enter your sales funnel.
Phew!!! … and so it goes on. Excited? 🙂
What might your personal branding marketing strategy look like for 2016?
A word of warning… don’t try and appear on all platforms, otherwise you’ll never get any work done. Select those most appropriate to your industry or niche.
And get help. Get help in creating your personal brand marketing strategy and outsource some of the ‘doing’ activity.
Do all that and I promise, after a while, you’ll get known as the ‘go to’ person in your market. Now, you’d have to agree, that would be exciting. 🙂
ACTION: Which of the marketing platforms suit you best as a place to build your personal brand in 2016? I’d love to know. How about sharing your thoughts in the comments below?
Could some guidance from me be helpful to you? If so, please arrange a free 30 mins Skype strategy meeting with me. Here’s my calendar to book a meeting. I’d love to support you in some way to gain ‘seductive clarity’ in any aspect of your business or life.
