There was a time when only celebrities or big companies had personal brands. A time when famous singers, musicians, and actors got all the attention.
Was it even possible for an entrepreneur or a business coach to become a brand back then?
Luckily, things have changed dramatically over the last two decades.
A business building a brand for itself and making a lot of money is a common practice today.
Why cant you do the same thing?
A personal brand is almost like a corporate brand. Instead of marketing a business, you market yourself.
Whether youre an ambitious entrepreneur, speaker, or marketer, you can quickly build your brand and upscale your business like never before.
If youre willing to put in the right effort and time, you can become a brand that gets all the customers with great ease.
But it wouldnt happen overnight.
The secret to success lies in knowing where to invest your resources to get the desired results.
Nonetheless, its gratifying to convert your name into a reputable brand.
Need some inspiration?
Kylie Jenner used her brand to build and grow her cosmetic brand [Kylie Cosmetics]. Did you know she is the youngest self-made billionaire?
This post will dive deeper into why personal branding is essential and why its worth your time.
But lets first briefly define the term.
What Is Personal Branding?
Youve worked hard and sacrificed a lot to master your craft.
Do you know what people are talking about when youre not in the room?
Shes an incredible speaker. Hes an immensely talented entrepreneur. He has everything that it takes to reach the pinnacle of his career.
But have you ever tried to define yourself?
Building a personal brand means telling the world who you really are and what it is that you stand for. Its about influencing peoples perception of yourself and establishing your credibility as an expert or industry leader.
Ask yourself the following questions to further understand personal branding:
What do you want to be known for?
How do you want to show your magic to the world?
How do you want people to talk about your business?
What kind of reputation do you want?
Personal branding is all about how your message aligns and relates to your ideal target audience at a specific time, which is why the art of storytelling is super important because its the driver of all businesses.
12 Reasons Why Building A Personal Brand Is Important
Creating a personal brand can bring in numerous personal and professional benefits.
Do you know why Oprah Winfrey is a household name today? Because she has done a great job of establishing herself as a global media leader.
One more example?
Elon Musk.
We dont know Elon because of his contributions to creating groundbreaking business models like PayPal or Tesla. We know him as a visionary entrepreneur, as an individual who knows how to leverage innovation.
Here are 12 reasons why building a personal brand is important:
1. You Gain Name Recognition
Isnt it what most people want? Just think about it.
Wouldnt it be nice for people to know your name without ever having to introduce yourself?
Think of Oprah, Trump, Tony Robbins, Steve Jobs, Elon Musk, Gary V, for example.
What does come to your mind when you think of these brands?
Our agendas or professions can be different. But were looking for the same thing: name recognition.
Let me tell you a piece of great news. Youre already a brand. All you have to do is discover it within yourself.
Why do you think a person votes for someone? How do people identify a politicians name?
Let me tell you why.
Public figures create a certain amount of exposure through campaigns. They create awareness about themselves through various forms of advertising; such as making yard signs or posters.
But first, they have to establish why people should recognize their names. While you need to achieve exposure and high name recognition, its critical to tell your audience about your stance, philosophy, or objectives.
And this is where personal branding can come in handy.
Most people go to Google and type in whatever theyre looking for.
Lets say youre a business coach and your audience needs your services.
Creating a strong personal brand would drive your audience to go straight to your website or a social media because they recognize your name and what you do.
2. Your Ideal People Start To Find You
Everyone is struggling to get their share of attention on the internet. We know how difficult it is to find and attract ideal people despite the countless opportunities to connect.
As an individual, you can either go to your audience and tell them about yourself. Or, you can establish a powerful online presence to attract ideal people. Youre nothing unless you have a strategy to get peoples attention.
Lets face it.
Getting your audience to pay attention is an uphill battle.
We see thousands of businesses have a website or social media profiles. But they have absolutely no clue why theyre unable to reach their audience or vice versa.
Personal branding is a powerful tool that helps you rise above the competition.
I want you to make your audience fall in love with your business. You cant accomplish this goal unless you establish yourself as an authority.
3. Automatically Builds Relationships For You
We can only have so many one-on-one conversations which makes us limited in the number of people we can actually reach and genuinely build relationships with.
Solution?
Build a personal brand and begin to have fewer one-on-one conversations and more one-to-many conversations. Personal branding is successful when your people listen to you and interact with your content.
Unfortunately, many entrepreneurs and marketers are too busy to focus on personal branding. As a result, they fail to build relationships.
Hey, I understand time is a scarce commodity these days. Were in the same boat, being pulled in every direction. And its good to be busy.
However, the lack of time can lead us to neglect key relationships.
If you want to amplify your relationship-building efforts, focus on your personal brand.
4. You Become Exposed To A Larger Audience
I think it makes sense to stop waiting for people to stumble upon your social profiles or website. Just add a little magic to how you present yourself and get in front of your audience.
Here are some techniques to reach a larger but relevant audience:
Use Facebook Ads: Organic methods dont always work especially when youre just getting started with building your personal brand. This is where Facebook ads can be of great help.
Its tough to attract people on social media. However, when you create the right message and put it in front of the right people, it dramatically improves your chances of getting broader exposure.
Create Lookalike Audiences: Building lookalike audiences is another great strategy to connect with new people. Facebook allows you to build lookalike audiences or show your content to people who just like your existing customers or audience.
Write Blog Posts: Blog posts provide you with an opportunity to share your knowledge with the world and add value to whoever reads them. Neil Patel, for example, uses blog posts as a highly effective medium to connect with his audience worldwide.
Create Videos: Video is a widely used form of content that makes it super easy for us to get our message across.
No matter what you do to communicate with your people, effective personal branding helps you produce better results across platforms using different marketing techniques.
Pro Tip: If one of your content pieces produces excellent results, consider spending some advertising dollars to further boost its reach.
5. Build Trust And Confidence
Why do you think online reputation is so important? First, it creates trust. Second, it helps you establish credibility. And both of them are key elements when it comes to growing in a competitive environment.
Personal branding acts like a platform where you can easily build trust and confidence. It becomes easier for your clients or customers to be comfortable dealing with or doing business with you.
Since people dont want to waste their money on poor quality products, they tend to trust brands that keep their promise and stand for something.
Its not hard to understand that people are likely to do business with someone they like or trust. However, being a brand, you must establish first why people should trust you.
When you do so, instead of considering you as a last option, your potential customers will start seeing you as their first choice.
Again, why should people trust you? One easy way is to be genuine and authentic. Youll experience a huge amount of growth after you start engaging with your audience in a way that can be trusted.
6. You Become More Visible Online
Anyone can leverage new ways to market and operate. Unfortunately, so many businesses and individuals are stuck in their old ways because theyre scared of change.
Nothing can stop you from being visible online if youre not scared of transitioning to digital marketing.
Here is what you can do to improve online visibility for your personal brand:
Post at the right time: Its not enough to just create the right message. You have to show it to the right people at the right time. We call it the #3RMAT method.
While theres no standard time when you must publish your content, you can choose times when your audience is more likely to be online. Look at your stats to determine when your content produces maximum engagement.
Publish regular content: Consistency is key. Your branding success depends on your ability to be consistent and produce great content.
Get active on social media: If you want to build your image, stand out in your niche, and establish personal identity, dont miss out on social media. Its a critical branding tool that gives everyone a chance to get their share of attention. So, get active on social sites that fit your business nature. Instagram, for example, is a recommended platform for people building personal brand identity.
Optimize your content: Like other businesses, you need to optimize your content for search engines and your audience. While SEO best practices help you create search-friendly content, custom content engages the right people.
A personal brand is a manifestation of you on an individual level.
If youre struggling to brand yourself, social media is where you should be focusing on.
7. You Become More Memorable
Creating a brand identity isnt limited to making your products/services memorable. It makes your brand more authoritative in the market.
Are you worth remembering? Or, why should people remember you?
Some of the leading personal brands are truly unforgettable.
Have you ever noticed that memorable people are great at attracting others?
Its because they manage their impressions. We know from research that first impression matters.
So, be strategic when presenting yourself to the world. Your audience will remember you for what makes you valuable and unique. If youve nothing unique to offer, theres no point in creating a personal brand in the first place.
Memorable personal brands like Steve Jobs exercise consistency in how they look and communicate. This is what makes them special and unique among others.
The day when your audience instantly recognizes who you are and what you stand for all based on your name or logo, youll become a memorable personal brand.
8. You Become More Relatable
No matter your industry, you can either progress or cease business growth with the relationships you form.
As a leader, you should enable people to feel that you can relate to them or connect with them with ease. When you nourish relationships with the right people, you open up doors for positive interactions.
Do you know a relatable business person can easily win over powerful investors or make their employees do their best work? Likewise, a relatable salesperson can build sound relationships with potential clients.
People are naturally drawn to those who keep the lines of communication open, always.
Here is good news.
Relatability isnt based on some preordained quality or charisma that is impossible to change. Its a skill that can be developed over time. Here are habits that will help you cultivate this skill:
Constantly network: When you attend an event or any sort of gathering, focus on expanding your network. However, make sure to understand the difference between pestering someone relentlessly and staying in contact. When you meet new people, try to offer something valuable or interesting.
Be yourself: We often slip into a different identity, especially in a professional environment. Personal branding requires you to show your genuine self. So, make a conscious effort to be yourself with the people around you.
Dont hesitate to speak your mind while being professional. Youre likely on the right track if youre striving to bring value to your audience.
9. Your Business Starts To Sell Itself
Once you get content out there and create a brand story people will start to see your content online and start to lean into your message and story more which will eventually turn them into raving fans making them loyal customers.
If your personal brand has failed to tell a story, it would become increasingly difficult to keep your audience engaged.
Building a true narrative is probably the most effective personal branding strategy.
So, craft a story around your brand that your people can relate to and engage with.
The next step is to figure out how to tell your story.
Well, you can write content or make a video to engage your audience on different platforms. Video or live streaming is the most personal way to communicate with an online audience.
When you masterfully craft your brand story, your business starts to sell itself. You simply rise above your competitors who struggle to get noticed.
While its a challenging task to become a great salesperson, you must be good at telling your own story with confidence.
10. You Control How People View You
It sounds like a challenging task to control the way people view you. But personal branding gives you the full power to create any brand you want with any style and any messaging.
Thats the fun part of creating a personal brand because you can create your own rules.
When you dont have a personal brand, people create their own perception making it harder for you to build a relationship with them. A brand cuts out a lot of manual work because you have more opportunities to reach more people more places at more times.
So, how do you want to be perceived?
What story do you want to tell? What are your strengths or weaknesses that you want to share? How is your story or background relevant to your audience? How can you develop good connections with key audiences?
One way to control how people view you as a brand is to understand your audiences fears, hopes, frustrations, dreams, and achievements.
Learn about your people as much as possible.
Pay attention to social channels your audience is following. Feel free to have healthy conversations and ask questions.
Make sure if you use social media to add call-to-actions in your content.
11. Build Consistency
A personal brand builds consistency in your tone, messaging, content, voice, and overall image.
If you look at the top brands in the world, they do not change how they look or their overall core values very often because that is what people have grown to trust, know, and love.
Take Mcdonalds logo, as an example.
You can only be consistent when you have a narrow focus.
Isnt it easier to get recognized for one specific topic if you create content around it on a consistent basis?
Most importantly, your personal brand promise must stay consistent across online and offline platforms. You have to demonstrate consistency across your appearance, communication, and gravitas.
Dont undermine small inconsistencies as they can derail your personal brand effectiveness. Be consistent, both visually and personality-wise.
Do something unique and exciting that people can fall in love with.
Let me repeat it.
Consistency is critical whether youre a wild, entertaining brand or one thats a bit more conservative.
12. Get To Show Your Personality
This is what can set you apart from the crowd. You get to tell your story and tell it however you want.
Our personalities are what makes us unique and memorable and that is what gets people to like or dislike us. We want to show this personality in our brands.
You want to find the people who love and hate you. Its important to rid out the people who do not relate to you and your brand.
You are your brand.
Regardless of what projects youre working on, what products youre selling, or whatever your expertise is, keep in mind the impact you create on your audience.
A personal brand can be a life-long project that keeps evolving over time.
People who build the biggest brands in the business understand that there are no set rules for creating a brand identity or online presence.
How To Build A Personal Brand
It was easy to point out the advantages of creating a personal brand. I can identify 100 more reasons why personal branding is essential to sustainable growth.
But how can you build a strong personal brand?
If youre ready to create a personal brand, be sure to develop a powerful branding strategy.
If you dont have the necessary tools or expertise or dont know where to start, well be happy to help.
Wrap Up
As a founder, entrepreneur, CEO, or influencer, your personal brand serves as a precious asset that can grow your business at a dramatic pace. Its an opportunity to communicate with millions of people who admire your work.
What entrepreneur, coach, influencer, or marketer wouldnt want to utilize such a powerful asset to achieve their business goals?
Its important to build a personal brand because its the only thing youre going to have. Your reputation online and in the new business world is pretty much the game, so youve got to be a good person. You cant hide anything, and more importantly, youve got to be out there at some level.
Gary Vaynerchuk