There is no denying that brands influence our decisions every step along the way. I would go a step further to proclaim that everybody has a personal brand, including you who is reading the article. It’s the first thing that pops in people’s heads when they hear your name, it’s what your social media profiles talk about you and what Google comes up with when someone types your name (when I typed my name on search, my social media profiles and blogs came up in the search).
Research by Mckinsey indicated that strong brands with an undeniable presence outperformed their less recognised competitors by 73%. Another important statistic is that 64% of the customers are belief-driven, they want to support brands that are an integral part of change and development. The same applies to a personal brand. A personal brand would take a lot of time and effort to build, but the endeavours are worth all your energy when people relate to you and want to buy your product/service or collaborate with you.
Now that we know the importance of building a personal brand for yourself to build your profile and serve as a potent tool to sell your product/ service, here are ten actionable steps that would take you closer to the task of building your brand:
1. Figure out who you are, what you want to be and accomplish over a period of time
Your personal brand must be an honest portrayal of yourself and the business you represent. Being authentic helps prevent doing promises you can’t keep to your target audience. Be mindful that your goals should be reflective of your personal and professional life to achieve balance. Introspect and ask yourself the following questions:
What are the goals I have envisioned for my personal brand?
What are the areas in that I want to excel in?
What are the characteristics that have helped me in my growth and development?
What are the valuable insights and skills that I can share with a larger network?
Apart from finding the answers to these questions, in addition to your existing skills, try to further understand your weaknesses to chart your journey as a brand for the next 5-10 years and the steps you need to take to achieve your dream.
After understanding yourself, it is important to determine your audience to determine the people you are trying to reach. It is initially hard to choose your niche because you might not want to put yourself into a box. But it’s important to zero in on certain niches and as your brand evolves, you can always change and expand your niche. Using social media and existent research on your skills and profession will help you build your audience persona and target methods.
2. A positioning statement and unified theme
After understanding more about yourself and the required skills, the next step is to draft a positioning statement. The positioning statement starts with a simple question “What are you?” When writing your positioning statement, keep your target customers in mind. Express to your target customers what sets you apart from others in the industry and what are the varied solutions you offer to their problems. These are a few tips to perfect your positioning statement:
Make your statement concise and informative
Use verbs to illustrate your stand rather than using nouns to explain titles and accomplishments
Avoid common terms like motivated, driven etc
Avoid phrases that are hard and maybe industry jargon.
Constantly try to reinvent yourself by working on how to build an interesting and unique point of view. Understand how you present yourself by answering these questions:
What do I do better than anyone else?
What value can I offer to my community/industry/network?
How is my brand tone and voice?
Create a consistent theme by considering all the important aspects of a brand’s visual identity. Fonts, logos, colours, images, and messaging should be the same across your social accounts, website, portfolio, blog, or other channels.
3. Research your industry and follow the experts
Finding out the thought leaders in your relevant industry helps you understand the steps that generally work when building a brand as well as the setbacks they have faced. The best way to learn is to not repeat another person’s mistakes and learn from them. You can also understand your competitors and craft a unique persona that sets you apart from the crowd.
4. Make networking an important part of your strategy
As you are on the journey to build your personal brand, it’s important to network regularly (and effectively) to grow your professional circle. Connect with peers and industry thought leaders by going to formal and informal networking events. Working based on cross-networking and making collaborative partnerships where you can help each other in marketing and advertising your product or service in their respective circles.
5. Tell your story
People want to connect with individuals, not companies. Personal branding helps you show what you truly are to the world. To tell your story, you can write a post about your journey in your specific field of expertise and make a video about your skills and how they can help your audience. But always understand that there is no perfect story. You keep inventing and tirelessly working towards perfecting it. Some questions will help you write your story and have helped bring out great narratives:
What is your biggest achievement?
What is the bravest thing you ever did?
How did you come up with the idea for your business?
What is the most challenging thing you ever had to do?
What fact about you most surprises others?
What experience do you value most?
Who inspires you the most?
What are the things others say about you?
These five steps can be seen as the foundation or the building blocks towards building a personal brand with clarity, authenticity and the willingness to constantly change and adapt to needs.
We help you on your journey towards building a personal brand through comprehensive brand ideation and building, helping you fulfil your brand vision and leave a lasting impact on your customer’s buying decisions. You can drop us an email anytime at studio@auroara.com to further discuss ways in which we can collaborate!
