I recently came across a saying by another entrepreneur on Facebook which asked: ‘Is it more important to work on your personal brand or to work on your marketing?’
In my opinion you can’t do the one without the other. For a successful marketing strategy you need to have a brand. And you need to do marketing to tell your personal brand to the world.
Any small business, ranging from webshops to freelancers should have a personal brand. Having a personal brand means that you are easily recognizable. Which in turn will make you stand out from your competition. That, is my opinion, is absolutely vital for your success as a business owner and on appealing to your own niche market.
What is a personal brand?
A normal brand is built around a specific product or company. Coca Cola for example is one of the most well known major brands around the world. You know it for its wide variety of sodas, being quintessential American on the one hand. And as being not particularly good for your health maybe.
The premise of a personal brand is basically the same, but instead of building a brand around a business or product, the brand is built around the business owner. In other words, around you.
Who you are as a person, your values, the way you do business and also your clients, those are all aspects of your personal brand. This is the way the world sees you.
Especially when you’re operating a small business, like for instance working as a freelance consultant, blogging, affiliate marketing or building a niche website, knowing your Personal Brand can be a great tool when trying to connect with your target audience.
The term ‘personal branding ‘originated in 1997 with marketer Tom Peters, who stated that we’re all the CEO’s of our own brands and that we should market ourselves.
Examples of personal branding
There are numerous examples of celebrities with their own particular personal brand. Let’s start with the world class footballer Ronaldo. He’s known, next to Messi, as the best player of his generation. He is talented, highly dedicated, but also as arrogant and maybe a little bit selfish. Aside from that he’s also doing much work for charity were possible.
Another famous example is entrepreneur/marketing guru Gary Vaynerchuck. If you don’t know him, check out this video.
He is one of the first highly successful internet entrepreneurs, has written various books on (internet) marketing and what it means to become an entrepreneur. He comes across as very dedicated to the virtues of the e-economy. I do find myself agreeing to much what he says, apart from his disdain of offline marketing. I do think ‘old fashioned’ offline marketing still has a place in the overall strategy of many businesses.
Whatever your own opinion of those two gentlemen might be, you can agree with me that you will immediately recognize what they are about. What kind of personalities they are and what they stand for.
And this also how you should treat your own personal branding: you must be recognizable to your audience.
Your Personality is your brand
This should be obvious, but as a business owner you personally are your own brand. Your personality is the biggest part of your personal branding. So, with that in mind what kind of person are you? Maybe you are a jovial extravert. Or you’re more of an introvert, but someone who’s very creative.
Or maybe your whole life you’ve been somewhat of a nerd. Whatever type of person you are, that should be part of your brand. So, don’t be afraid to show your inner nerd to the world!
Besides your personality, what are your values? Those should also be part of your brand. Do you truly believe in honesty and being social responsible as an entrepreneur? Then people should know this.
And also realize that while personal branding may sound like a cool buzzword mostly used by hip startups and millennial marketers, it is actually something that can and should be used by business owners of any stripe, demographic and age group. Let’s say your values are more conservative by nature. Then by all means, be proud of those! With the online world being what it is you will find many potential clients everywhere who will share your values.
And finally your personal history and career is part of your brand. What have you done in your career, at which firms have you worked or were your client? What were your successes and failures? Now, I don’t expect every detail of this be listed on your portfolio site or LinkedIn Profile. But the overall idea, story arch so to say, should be part of your personal brand.
Your clients make your Brand
Who you are as a business owner is one part of your brand. The other part is the type of clients you work with.
They can share the same values as you or be a great match to your personality. Or if they are proud nerds like you and like nothing more than work with a like minded entrepreneur.
Another factor can be clients in a certain niche market. I’ve written in this article why as a freelancer or small business owner you should always aim for a niche market. This will also work in favor of your brand. Let’s say you as an accountant mostly target small IT firms as you clientele. Then you will become known as the expert account for small IT firms. Meaning that companies like that will start to seek you out.
Realize that the type of clients you work for will be a reflection on you and your personal branding.
Be consistent in your values
With your personal values and client type sorted out regarding your personal brand the next step is staying consistent. Many beginning business owners will make the mistake of changing their branding and marketing strategy too fast. On a certain level I can understand this. It can be somewhat daunting knowing that you yourself are the face of the business and the brand.
But flipflopping, changing your personal brand and strategy every 6 months will be confusing to your potential customer base. In affiliate marketing we call changing your marketing too soon: shiny objects syndrome.
Now, I am not saying you shouldn’t be flexible. Any successful entrepreneur is flexible. Markets can change; the tastes of your clients can change. Or in the worst case scenario your whole customer base may vanish. As a business owner you have to be prepared for that.
But give your personal brand some time to develop.
Branding is not Sales
This is sometimes a misunderstanding, but branding (and marketing in general) is not the same as sales. Sales is actually the end of your marketing process, or sales funnel. It means that your potential client becomes an actual client and has bought your product or service.
Personal Branding is more the overarching umbrella under which the sales process takes place.
Using branding to stand out from the competition as a small business
The overall goal for using a personal brand as a freelancer or small online business is to stand out from the competition. In his book ‘Company of One’ entrepreneur Paul Jarvis talks a lot about the importance of having your own personal brand. According to him in order to become successful your personality, your own brand, must shine through in order to stand out from the competition. Don’t be neutral!
He states:
As a company of one, your brand should very much represent some distinct part of yourself, while taking into account whom you’re trying to reach.
Paul Jarvis
Especially freelancers make the mistake of choosing a neutral pose (or brand) online. I’ve written about this in my blog on how to improve your LinkedIn profile. If you as a freelancer or small business owner want to stand out from the competition you need to make a choice. And the right choice is letting your brand speak for you.
You can lose the interest of certain clients, but on the other hand you will be noticed by many others. People who will actually like you and your brand. So, don’t be afraid to use your personality to stand out from your competition!
Conclusion
Whatever business you operate, consulting, blogging, affiliate marketing, owning a small niche webshop, your Personal Brand should be part of your overall marketing and PR strategy.
Amongst other things a strong and unique Personal Brand will let you stand out from your competition. And be more visible to your ideal target audience, netting you in turn more and better paying clients. Don’t be afraid to stand out!
Having trouble developing your own Personal Brand? Read this article on how AI can help you research and find it.
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