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“Build a personal brand.”
You hear this advice a lot. Cliche, right? But what is a personal brand exactly? And why do you need one?
First off, a personal brand isn’t just a logo, font, color palette or your useless “vision board.” Your personal brand is what you show (and tell) your audience about who you are and how your audience perceives you.
In a recent training on Digital Marketer, my colleague and I broke down how to build an intentional personal brand that actually works to position yourself as the solution to your audience’s problem. Bottom line is: Your branding is on point when your audience’s perception of you is in alignment with your message.
But why is this important? Why bother building a personal brand? Here are seven important reasons.
Related: Why Personal Branding for Women Is More Important Than Ever
1. To increase your visibility
If your audience doesn’t see you regularly, they forget you. People need solutions to their problems, and you provide the solutions. But your audience doesn’t think of you if you aren’t visible. This doesn’t mean though that you need to be on every social media platform, but you do need to be where your potential customers are.
2. To stay top of mind
This goes hand in hand with your visibility. This is why big corporations spend billions of dollars on advertising to stay top of mind. But you don’t have to spend tons of money on advertising. A strong and intentional brand will get you there. If you’re in a very competitive niche, having a personal brand can be the difference between getting the business or watching it go to someone who’s more recognized in your industry.
3. To increase your authority
It’s important to be seen, but it’s not enough. Authority is the reason why people choose you instead of another person that offers the same services. A personal brand defines your authority in your niche, and authority differentiates you from the rest. Having authority gives you more power not only in bringing in more revenue, but by allowing you the ability to demand premium pricing.
4. To grow your audience
The size of your audience doesn’t define your revenue. You may have a small audience but earn more revenue. Or you can exemplify the opposite: have a large following with very little income.
Whether you have a small or big audience, you need some kind of audience. If you build your personal brand, you position yourself as the solution to their problems. Everywhere you show up (offline or online) is an opportunity to grow your audience and build a thriving community of raving fans.
5. To increase your relevance
Being visible and relevant are two different things. Just because you’re on every social media platform doesn’t mean anything if your audience doesn’t relate to your message.
A strong personal brand can help you be relevant and relatable. These are important factors in developing that “know, like and trust” factor. People do business with people. Being relevant means that people see how you could fit into their life and business to achieve their goals.
6. To build relationships and attract opportunities
People like people who are similar to them. If you have a good and reputable brand, you will attract like minds. This is good for business because you’ll see referrals and recommendations come your way. And the good thing is, you can also recommend other businesses that you trust. It won’t only be you receiving opportunities; you can also become a channel of opportunities for others.
Building lasting relationships in life and business is important. When you form strategic relationships with colleagues and business partners, running a business will be more meaningful (and not so lonely).
7. To build your influence (and shape the buying decisions of people)
Having some level of omnipresence means people see you, but having influence means you can persuade them to do something. It’s a superpower.
A strong personal brand establishes trust which is the number one factor in sales. All the eyeballs in the world mean nothing if they’re not converted to revenue. Without conversions, you have no business, and that’s why it’s so important to develop influence. With influence, you can shape the buying decisions of others.
Related: The 5 Vital Rules of Personal Branding
You’ve already started building a personal brand the moment you started your business. Most people build their brand unintentionally through their results. But now that you’re aware of how important it is, you can be more mindful, intentional and successful.
