Regardless of what industry you are in, it has never been more important to have a personal brand.
This is where clients find you and get to know, like and trust you. Helping you to be more profitable, connected and gain exciting opportunities.
No matter what you do, your personal online brand matters. People are watching.
When we first start out in business, we are taught about sales and marketing but very little of creating a personal brand.
I have been running my photography business now for over 13 years and along the way I have built up my brand from nothing, its been a very slow road but after many mistakes and successes im now loving helping other female business owners to build a powerful personal brand.
When we think of a brand, many of you will just think about logos and the colours we use in our marketing. But Personal branding goes beyond that.
In Sales and marketing training, they will often talk about finding your unique selling point (USP). But there are hundreds of people out there that doing what you do or selling what you sell. There is nothing 100% unique about your business.
Except you!
You are the only 100% USP in your business.
So here are a few tips to help you start to build your personal brand.
1, Know who your ideal clients are.
This is one of the most crucial things you can do for your business. Before you start anything else, you need to know who you are aiming your message at. If you try and speak to everyone, no one will hear you.
2, Share your story.
Why do you do what you, what are your values. How you started. Whats led you to where you are now.
3, Network.
Find out where your ideal clients hang out online and offer help and advice when needed. Show that you are an expert in your field.
This helps to build relationships with potential clients. Remember to nurture those relationships, keep replying when someone comments on your post.
4, Be consistent.
Show up online at the same time every day. Make sure that your audience are hearing from you an a regular basis
5, Get visible.
If you want to build trust and for people to get to know you, they need to see you. Stop hiding behind your logo and graphics and get your face out there. Share photos of you working, behind the scenes, You enjoying time out, you having a bad day, you winning at life, your kids driving you crazy
And im afraid to say it, GO LIVE. I know this is scary but it does get easier each time you do it. People can get a sense of your personality, which of course helps build the know like and trust factor.
I want to see the people im dealing with, i want to get to know them before i decide to buy from them and theres noting worse than going on someones instagram and all i see are graphics. Theres not one single image of them. Are they a real person? Are the genuine? Will they just take my money and run?
This is what potential clients are thinking when they are checking you out.
Get yourself out there and build that know like and trust with them.
