How to build your personal brand

We live in a world that is becoming increasingly connected; yet disconnected at the same time. While it has never been easier to communicate with anyone, anywhere in the world, we lose something when we stay behind the veil of technology – deeper relationships. 

We forget that relationships underpin every business transaction. The deeper the relationship, the more profound and profitable it becomes.

Your customers crave connection – real connection – from the businesses they buy from. They don’t want to interact with a faceless business, hear from general autoresponders or enquire only through a web form. They want a real relationship, a real person – they want you.

Whether you are B2B or B2C, online or offline, product or service based, personal branding has never been more important. But where do you start, particularly if you’ve been hiding behind your brand for some time?

Start by being authentic

So often in business, we play a role. While this can help us to keep boundaries between our personal and professional lives, these same boundaries can also stop us from being who we are and building deeper relationships with our clients and contacts. 

While you should keep a level of mystery about you, make sure you aren’t hiding the real you. It is alright to show vulnerability and humanity at times; it will often make you more relatable and accessible to your customers and followers.

Brand yourself

Day in and day out we market our products and services but what about ourselves? You are unique. No one else has the same knowledge, opinions and experience as you do. No one will see the world through your same perspective. 

Own it and use it to your advantage. Talk about what makes you different and what value you personally bring to the table. Share your opinion and experience. Answer media callouts where you (not just your brand) could give input. 

If you struggle to talk about yourself, or you are humble to a fault, have an opinion-based blog or a tip segment in your newsletter that is credited to you, not just your brand. Also, use your biography, LinkedIn profile and testimonials to do the selling for you. 

Give yourself a voice inside and outside your brand to showcase your personal experience and expertise. 

Be seen and heard

To build your personal brand, you need to be seen and heard (sorry introverts there is no way around this one!). 

While this does involve building your online presence and demonstrating thought leadership through blogs, articles, media interviews and social media, all of which you can do from your office, you also need to get out into the world. Spread your message through networking, speaking and building relationships with others.

Start seeing yourself as a product you need to market. Pinpoint your unique selling points and the problems you solve and launch yourself out into the marketplace. You’ll find it helps your business marketing too.

Amanda


Five ways to build credibility with your customers

Credibility is essential for converting contacts into customers. While you may have the better product or service, if you lack credibility, perceived or otherwise, chances are you won’t make the sale and your potential customer will go knocking on a competitors door. 

So how do you build your credibility in the eyes of your potential customers? Contrary to popular belief credibility doesn’t start by focusing on your experience and expertise, it starts by meeting your potential customer where they are, identifying what they need and want, then easing their frustration by solving their problems. 

To help you here are five ways you can establish credibility with your potential customers before you start talking about yourself. 

1. Know your audience

Knowing your audience isn’t just about having an outline of your ideal client. It is about having an understanding of what is important to them, where they are at and where they want to be. The kind of understanding that allows rapport to be built quickly and an emotional connection forged, resulting in your potential customer thinking “hey, these guys get me”. 

(Need a little help with this? Get a copy of the 25 must-ask questions to get inside the mind of your customer here)

2. Talk to them in their own words

Nothing can irritate or isolate your customers and potential customers faster than big words and industry jargon. Often business owners will showcase a larger vocabulary and introduce more complex concepts in order to prove they know what they are talking about, but it rarely has that effect. 

Instead it can be seen as being arrogant, egotistical and confusing, causing your target market to become annoyed and potentially lost. 

If you want to increase your credibility (and appear more intelligent) talk clearly and plainly. It sounds strange I know, but the role of an expert is not to make concepts complex or confusing, it is to simplify and solve them, explaining them in a way that is easy to understand even if you know nothing about the industry or topic.

3. Hit their pain points and give them clarity

One of the fastest ways to build credibility with your audience is to understand the frustrations and problems they are experiencing and be able to articulate them. 

While many people know they aren’t getting the results they want, they don’t necessarily know why. They haven’t been able to identify the real problem or issue that is holding them back or the way around it. 

If you can give your potential customers clarity around what is going wrong and why, you will have their attention and establish yourself as someone who knows, and has experience in, what they are talking about. 

4. Solve their problems

If after you’ve showed your potential customers what is going wrong and why, you can then show them how to fix it you immediately boost your credibility. 

People want to feel heard and understood, so if you can take them to the point of pain, give them hope and then follow through with a relevant solution, you will not only establish your expertise, you will dramatically improve your chances of making the sale. 

5. Offer them proof

If you want to increase your credibility, let someone else tell the story. Use stories or case studies of past or current customers who had similar challenges to the ones your potential customers are facing now and show what you did for them. Testimonials from real customers talking about real experiences with your business show your value in action. 

Once you have established credibility in these five ways then start selling your experience and credentials. View talking about what you’ve done as a way to seal the deal rather than start it.

Your customers want to know what is in it for them first, before they give you their time or money, so the more customer focused you can be in your marketing and sales, the more credibility and rapport you build with your customers. 

How do you build credibility with your audience?

Amanda


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