Personal branding simply refers to what you do to establish an image or make an impression on people’s minds about an individual. It’s all about what people think about you or your business whenever they hear your name.
Today, personal branding has become a leading career strategy topic which is deemed essential for thriving in today’s work environment. It’s what you need to attract business opportunities, carry on your self-promotion and show yourself as an expert or a professional brand in the services you render. The whole idea of personal branding lies in being able to create a good impression that will attract key clients or recruiters who can trust and depend on you to render your offered services or products to them.
Personal branding comes with a lot of advantages; however, these advantages are present only when they’re fully harnessed. One of the things personal branding does is that it can help you to showcase your expertise and become a thought-leader and influencer in your field. When you share valuable content, insights, affirmations, and solutions on issues using your brand, you’re demonstrating your knowledge. Hence, you’re positioning yourself as a thought-leader in those areas. With a personal brand already established and trusted, it’s even easier for your audience to buy into whatever you sell, knowing that you’re an expert at what you do.
So, do you consider yourself an expert in your field? Would you like to position yourself as one to become a thought-leader using your personal brand? It’s easy, the more your target market gets exposed to your brand, the more chances of having people in your market recognize you, connect with you, recognize you as a thought-leader and finally buy from you. Here are a few tried and trusted strategies that can help you highlight your expertise.
Create and publish free content
According to a report from HubSpot, after conducting a study using about 3,400 marketers across the globe, marketers who make their blogs a priority are 13 times more likely to get positive ROI from it. If you’re looking to highlight your expertise, and establish yourself as a thought-leader in the industry, the importance of creating content can’t be overemphasized.
The more you publish valuable content, the more you gain brand authority in your field. Create blog posts crafted to help your market get meaningful solutions to their problems. Create free eBooks, this will not just give you credibility but it will also help you build an email list that allows you to nudge them into buying your products.
Provide Unique and Valuable Opinions
Although anyone can get information with few clicks of buttons, some are hard to come by. Spinning the information to reveal new opinions and perspectives will get your audience hooked. For example, if you’re sharing information on email marketing, one can easily get thousands of resources from different sources online teaching them how to succeed. However, only a few can give you direct instructions, do’s and don’ts as an expert.
With so many experiences gathered from your business as an entrepreneur, you should have tons of practical guides up your sleeve which puts you in the position of an expert when shared. Find something peculiar to you or something you’ve experienced in the context of your business, and create a following by sharing your expert opinions on that. The key point here is coming out as authentic and vulnerable. This will connect with your audience on their level and make them loyal to your professional brand as well as your business.
Make your content very easy to access
Sometimes people are bored with the idea of putting their email, phone number, or even pay some money to access free content. But it’s no longer free if the audience has to pay for something to access it. I can understand the idea behind the email part if you’re building an email list, but even that is not necessary at all times. If you’re trying to build a following or position yourself as a leadership brand, the most important thing to do is to make sure that the content you’re offering has a huge value. Your audience will always come back for more!
Tell your story
Storytelling has gradually become a trending concept these days. This is because people find it easier to identify with personal experiences rather than brand messages. They are interested in knowing more about you so they can connect with you on that level. So, in addition to running your business, you can inject a few personal stories. It could be about your kids, those little things about you that sound like they don’t matter when it comes to business are the ones that can help you create a rapport with your audience.
Partner with other Influencers
One of the strategies you can employ to get your brand out there and position yourself as an expert is to align yourself with other existing influencers. Partner with them to create something new which will benefit both of you. By doing this you’ve not just done something that benefits you both, you’ve also put yourself on their radar.
Now they know you, they can easily recommend your products or services to their following who will also start to follow you. And gradually, with other efforts, you’ll start to come up as an influencer on your own. One of the ways to get influencers is to use BuzzSumo. This tool allows you to search for influencers using keywords. It ranks influencers by their size of following and also articles based on the number of shares.
Guest Post on authority blog sites
Content marketing is almost crowded. Everyone has something to say these days since it’s easy to publish something. The good news is, you can still set yourself apart from all that using guest posting! Get started by writing your content and pitching them to authority sites like The Next Web, The Daily Muse, Fast Company, Entrepreneur, Inc as well as other sites that have professionals in their audience looking for advice.
Leverage their space and wealth of audience to highlight your expertise as an intrapreneur or entrepreneur. Position yourself as a thought-leader by creating unique content with solutions the audience won’t see from another contributor on the website.
Be Consistent
Becoming an influencer or a known expert in your field is not a day’s job. I understand you’re probably swamped with work. However, never allow that deter you from continuing in your efforts to stand out as a thought-leader. Learn to delegate some of your duties in your team and focus on building your personal brand as a leadership brand, be consistent about it and never give up.
Creating a successful strategy for your marketing demands a deeper understanding of who your audience is. Therefore, the same thing applies if you’re trying to highlight your expertise with your brand and position yourself as a thought leader. You need to find a way to connect with these people on a human level, find out what their problems are and how you can buy them over by sharing valuable lessons. Show your wit and make sure your content is not just valuable but engaging and easy to access. Stay on this part and gradually, you’ll become a professional leadership brand and in turn, generate a constant following that will help you reap profits.