How can you build a loyal following and increase customer retention through personal branding?

To cultivate loyalty and retain customers on LinkedIn, regularly post content that highlights your expertise and engages your audience. Interact genuinely with your network through comments and personalized messages. Utilize storytelling to connect on a personal level, and offer exclusive content to make your followers feel valued. Encourage feedback and adapt based on it to show commitment to your audience’s preferences. This strategy will build trust, encourage a faithful following, and elevate your personal brand as customer-centric on LinkedIn.

Personal Branding boils down to being YOU. It all starts with a strong foundation; Knowing your audience, where to find them and how they communicate. Engage with them in their language, and you′ll grab their attention. They will want to know more. Some great ways to achieve that? Social Proof: Who would you believe? Someone who′s experienced working with you or you? Storytelling: Your story, if crafted and told well, evokes emotion and recognition. Engagement: As mentioned above. Social media is a 2-way street. Build genuine connections. Consistency: I′ll never tell you you have to post every day. Your planning has to be feasible for you to keep showing up consistently. Schedule time to engage with your audience and plan your posts.

As I am building my personal brand, I find that being genuine, consistent, and engaging is the key to attracting loyal followers. It's like making friends – you should be yourself, offer value, and build lasting relationships. I've found that's how you keep them coming back.

To build a loyal following and increase customer retention, keep it real, stay consistent, and engage like you're talking to friends. Share your story, be the one who gives more value, surprise people through personal messages, and always be thankful and grateful for their support. Make people feel welcome, and they'll keep coming back.

Most people remember your personal stories more than your successes, simply because they can visualize and empathize with it. So while you think of sharing as a subject matter expert, it’s also important to understand what your audience is looking for. They are there to benefit from your experiences - how your perspectives delivered insights that made the right or wrong decisions and what you learnt. They are not there to celebrate your success.

The most narcissistic brand story is to just talk about yourself. The best stories are about what your followers gain as a result of them. For an example, people resonate when you share your grit facing challenges because it motivates them to face theirs. They don't care about your awards that make only you look good...

While a brand story should connect with audiences emotionally, it is not enough to rely solely on scripted narratives. True emotional resonance stems from the ability to empathize and understand the unique struggles, desires, and aspirations of our target audience. By immersing ourselves in their world, we can craft a brand story that genuinely speaks to their hearts and minds. It is through this empathetic approach that we can inspire action, sparking a genuine connection that transcends the boundaries of traditional marketing.

Nr. 1 rule when I help customers tell their story: Keep it real. Your brand story should be true, flow naturally and tell your story. Not the story you think people want to hear, but your story told in a way that is relatable and inspires to take action. You are not the hero in your story, your (potential) customer is, and you are there to guide them. Crafting a compelling brand story is like laying the foundation for a skyscraper. It's not just about what you do; it's about why you do it and how you stand out. Being genuine, consistent, and engaging is the key. It's not just about selling a product or service; it's about connecting on a personal level and building a narrative that resonates with your audience.

Although you’re trying to build YOUR personal brand, it’s not much different than a product. So even though you feel it makes sense to talk about yourself for the most part, don’t. Still make it about the challenges of your audience and the value you can bring to them.

Your brand story is a narrative which shares your experiences in the journey you have taken and why you chose to take it. Be clear about your personal purpose and how this has influenced your decisions across your journey. Some of them may be successes but some of them may be failures. Share a balanced narrative to connect with your audience, so they know at good and bad times during that journey, it’s to always look at their own personal purpose to continue to find inspiration.

A few good ways to do this: - video testimonials, hear others talk about why they work with you and what it brought them (much stronger than written) (I use VideoAsk) - focus on quality content over quantity - show your personality, make people like you and want to work with you. It’s fine if some might not relate to it, but your ideal audience will.

True credibility lies in transparency and openness. Rather than presenting a polished facade, we must be willing to showcase our journey, including both successes and failures. By sharing our experiences, lessons learned, and the evolution of our expertise, we humanize our brand and foster relatability. Transparency builds trust, allowing our audience to connect with us on a deeper level and view us as authentic guides in their journey.

Who doesn’t check the reviews before buying a product or service nowadays? Nobody indeed! Well, 91% of your potential customers do, and they’ll believe it in a heartbeat too. Why? It’s only logical, really. Who would you believe? The brand trying to sell you something or a customer with actual user experience. So, be sure to ask for recommendations, share content that resonates so others mention you and be proud of it. Secondly; Engage by leaving relevant, valuable comments. Third: Share valuable content.

Since brand building is about creating a gut feeling in the audience that matches the true you, then authenticity is key. People chose with minds and hearts (and gut) and the most foolish thing to do is to portray someone you’re not. Just doing you is besides much more fun, rewarding and easy. So just be you, do you, and the right people will see you. Consistency is of course important as well but here’s it’s not quantity over quality that matters. By teaching your audience how often and with what you entertain them, you’re setting the expectations. And then you commit to delivering on theirs expectations.

If consistency is the key, then authenticity is the master lock that opens the door to trust and connection with your audience.

Consistency is the most important one. Consistency in posting, consistency in your message and consistency in your visual presentation.

You’ve made promises to your audience, so now those need to be kept. If you have employees that deliver the value, make sure they are fully understanding what your brand stands for. If not, make sure that you apply that uniqueness of your brand in all aspects of the delivery. Do you stand for democratising a certain service? Then you need to reflect that in your pricing and transparency for instance.

The symbiotic relationship between feedback and referrals creates a cycle of improvement, trust-building, and sustainable growth - not only retain existing customers but also attract new ones through positive word-of-mouth. 1. Feedback Fosters Improvement > Insightful Information > Continuous Improvement 2. Enhanced Customer Engagement > Two-Way Communication > Customer-Centric Approach 3. Building Trust > Transparency > Trustworthiness 4. Referrals Drive Growth > Word-of-Mouth Marketing > Expanded Customer Base 5. Rewarding Loyalty > Incentivizing Referrals > Acknowledging Feedback 6. Retention and Customer Lifetime Value > Long-Term Relationships > Reduced Churn 7. Adaptability to Market Changes > Early Warning System

Exactly. As I mentioned in one of my previous answers: Social proof is gold. Not only will your customers know you value their input, it confirms that you are the expert and shows the value working with you brings like nothing else. Ask for it, be proud of it, share it.

More and more, customers want to connect with not just the brand but the people building them. They want authenticity, and acknowledgement that business owners truly walk the talk, care about their pains/needs and see them not just as meal tickets. This presents a unique opportunity for business executives, brand owners and leaders to tailor their offline and online engagement plan. Incorporating all of these and a very healthy dose of authenticity through their personal brand can unlock cut-like following, loyalty and retention (even when the going gets tough).

Trademarks can help take your personal branding to the next level and help build consumer trust in your brand. Legally protected trademarks (think important brand assets; specific colors, logos, stylized fonts, etc.) can ensure exclusivity to your brand. This will also help prevent competitors from using any similar elements in their marketing/branding. Additionally, consistent branding across platforms can further build a cohesive brand identity. In an ever-changing marketplace, trademarks can help distinguish your brand from competitors and foster consumer loyalty.

I would say, don't randomly copy and paste content. Instead, innovate, come up with your own content ideas, push the boundaries with fresh concepts, and explore different approaches. It's all part of the journey to success.

Segment the types of followers and consistently deliver quality content. Extreme Talents, Beauty, High Position, Fame, Power and Gender plays a vital role. 1. Follows for benefits ( industry's knowledge, updates, learning, job opportunities, etc..) 2. Follows for Entertainment ( funny, emotional and feel good videos and Pics ) 3. Follows for Health, Well Being, Motivation and Positivity. 4. Follows for Cause, Activism, Rights and Minority Groups. 5. Follows to Support Brand, Politics, Propaganda and Religion. 6. Paid Followers. Understand the reason why they follow and device the content strategies accordingly. Note: Have presence in multiple channel. Familiar faces are followed in multiple channels without any hesitation.

Only & only by offering value to your audience, can you build and retain your following. For eg: If your brand offers skincare products, share skin care tips above and beyond your product. Understand their concerns and provide solutions. People love authenticity and hate the feeling of being ripped off.