Building your Brand - The Power of Partnership

Understanding the Value of your Brand

Recently, I heard someone say, "When you create value, the money will come." The key to doing business well is to create value for others that builds your brand. A few years ago, another friend of mine who is the CEO of two successful biotech firms said he built his business off of finding out what people wanted and then creating a business that gave people what they wanted. The funny thing is that he studied communications in college and has no formal education (other than his GE classes) in anything science related.

At one point, he said to me, "never accept a 'no' from someone who cannot give you a 'yes.'" I am not a fan of people telling me 'no,' but I have learned the value of 'no.' Every 'no' is a brick you can use to build the house of success or break windows in that house. The key to doing business well is to listen to people, understand how you can add value to them, and build a brand focused on adding value to others.

Identifying your Buyer Persona

Now, please understand your audience is not your buyer persona. Your buyer persona consists of people within your target audience, while your audience consists of people within your sphere of influence. Your buyer persona is always part of your target audience, but your message will resonate with those people who are your buyer persona. It's important to know who fits into your buyer persona and deliver messages to them that will resonate with them.

There are two ways you can do this. The first works best for those people who have already worked in a certain field or industry. They already know who their ideal customer is. They may have started a business in this or a similar field that either didn't work, they sold, or let go of for whatever reason. And they want to start a new business that will better serve the buyer persona with whom they are already familiar.

1. Create one or more buyer personas
2. Identify the needs and pain points of each buyer persona
3. Develop products or services that offer them solutions
4. Create messages that will resonate with your buyer persona

Of course, if you want to start a business in a field in which you have no real experience or expertise like my friend who went from studying communications in college to owning two successful biotech companies, you probably won't begin with an ideal customer. The first group knows their strengths, understands those people with whom they identify, and offers them a better product or service. The second group may have an idea of what they want to offer, but they have not yet identified their buyer persona.

So, even if you don't start out knowing who your buyer persona or ideal customer is, you can find out. But know that even if you are in this group, everyone in the first group started out in this group. Here are some steps you can take to find and add value to your buyer persona.

1. Identify your gifts and talents
2. Identify your target audience
3. Determine what products or services your target audience will find valuable
4. Create products or services your audience will find valuable
5. Create messages that resonate with your audience
6. Identify your buyer persona out of those within your audience who respond to your message
7. Rebrand your products and services according to the needs and pain points of your buyer personas
8. Create new messages that will resonate with your buyer persona

Now, I know, this process seems similar to the first but longer. And it is. But the difference is those in the first group are the Michael Scotts of the world who are established in their industry or field. They know their buyer persona, start a new business, offer better products to their buyer persona, and go out and sell. The people in this first group will still run into the occasional 'no,' but they will run into less resistance because they are already established in their field.

However, the second group of people may start a business or offer a service outside of their industry of expertise. A well-known example of someone who started out in a field separate from their current field of expertise is Dorie Clark. She didn't start out knowing who her buyer persona or ideal customer was, rather she allowed those within her sphere of influence to help her determine her target audience and buyer persona.

For those who have an idea of the type of product or service they feel would be of value to their target audience, it is important to focus on building your personal brand. Those people within the first group already have a personal brand, and they have the buyer persona to go with their personal brand. They have already learned from thousands of people who told them 'no' to learn how to build their house of success.

For those in the second group, think of yourself as the rookie on the baseball team. The veteran on the team can walk out onto the field, look out into the stands, and identify their fans. They've been there before. They know where the season ticket holders sit. They know where the boxes are. They may even recognize fans from previous games. But you are the rookie, so your job is to identify your fan base.

Don't focus on your Brand Haters

Every once in a while I run into brand haters who go out of their way to tell me that Risen Writers is pointless and they would never 'farm out' their article or blog writing to a service like ours. I have learned not to engage those people because they are like leeches who suck the life out of people. I just delete their emails, messages, tweets, or whatever form of communication they used to contact me. And if they contact me again, I delete that message without even reading it. I don't have time for haters. But what I do have time for is learning how to turn haters into brand ambassadors.

Several years ago, someone told me when Jerry Rice was a kid, he played catch with bricks. According to the legend, what made him such a great receiver was that he learned to have soft hands by learning not to get hit by bricks. Those people who attempt to build their brands by engaging their haters are like if Jerry Rice tried to catch bricks by hitting them. Learn from every 'no' how to reduce resistance by creating value even your haters consider valuable. And remember, you are the window in your house of success. Your purpose is to have vision and cast vision. 

While you don't want to engage your brand haters, you do want to learn from them how you can create products and services that will lower their resistance. Our haters may want to write their own content, and I respect them for doing so. But that does not mean they will not find our research, editing, or other services beneficial in their branding process.

Add Value to your Buyer Persona

Another mistake I often see when people are branding themselves is focusing on their competitors. I made that mistake once. I know a guy who owns a digital marketing company whom I once considered a competitor. We're friends. We've grabbed beers together. We've worked together. But when it came to my former business, I thought of him as a competitor.

At one point, we were trying to win the same contract. He won it. He subcontracted portions of that contract to me, but I made far less off of him subcontracting bits and pieces of the work to me than I would have made from winning the contract. The point is that he won it because while I tried to convince the CEO of the company that what I offered was better than what he offered, he focused on showing her how working with his company would add value to her.

You see, you add value to your buyer persona by demonstrating to them that you are valuable. It's great to know who your competitors are. We know who our competitors are. But rather than being consumed with trying to create a better sales pitch than them, we simply create products and services that our buyer persona will find more valuable. That's what my friend and other competitors did. That's why I closed shop on my first business, and that's why Risen Writers is light years ahead of my first business.

Identify Brand Builders

Whether you are the CEO of a fortune 500 company, a successful solopreneur, a cashier at 7-11, or a soldier in the military, everyone has a brand. Your brand is not the services or products you offer to people, rather your brand is what other people think of you. Once you identify your buyer persona and determine how you can add value to you buyer persona, you will find people will gravitate toward you and want to do business with you.

I don't believe you are the average of the five people with whom you spend the most time. I believe that is a myth people believe because one person of authority (Jim Rohn) first said it, and it's been passed down through culture. There are plenty of examples of people who rose above or fell below the influence of the five people with whom they spent the most time.

But I do believe those people with whom we spend the most time have the power to build our brands. If a high school kid who is not in a gang hangs out with known gang members, then other people are more likely to think he is in a gang. Your brand is not what you tell other people it is. Your brand is what other people think of you. And since that kid has led other people to think he is a gang member, he has become 'gang affiliated.'

So, as you determine who your ideal client or customer is, it is important to identify those people who have the same or similar ideal clients or customers as you. They are people who will brand you better and whom you will brand better because you will elevate each other. You will not only elevate each other's brands and businesses but because people see you working together you will become elevated within your field of expertise.

Partner with Brand Builders

Once you identify who those people or companies are that will help you build your brand, the next step is to create relationships with them. The trick here is that you need to understand your buyer persona and their needs and pain points, so you know how to best serve them. This also means it will be important for you to connect and build relationships with those people whom you consider brand builders. That means you should set aside some time every week to connect with them at networking events, over coffee, on the phone, or in other ways.

In case you didn't read my blog last week (11 Ways Automating your Online Marketing Boosts your Branding), I talked about the importance of disconnecting from the Internet in order to connect with real life people. That means connecting with your audience in general, and it means connecting with people and companies that will help you build your brand. It's easy to become so ingrained with the marketing mindset that 'it's a numbers game' and think the path to success is to have the most Facebook fans, Twitter followers, and other social media connections. But the path to success is creating relationships that add value to your brand and to whom you can add value.

Make your Brand Valuable

Several years ago, I took a temporary position with a company that I wanted to work for in a permanent position. The day I was given the position, the CEO told me it was a six-month trial to see how I worked out. I knew my goal after that moment was to make myself indispensable and invaluable to the company's overall goals. I worked for that company for the next six months not with the mindset that I would have to find another project after those six months, but with the mindset that I would become so valuable to the company that they would hire me. You guessed it. They hired me.

Now, that's how Risen Writers works. We focus on creating value for our buyer persona, not on being better than our competitors. We know we are. We don't have anything to prove. And because we create value for our buyer persona, our buyer persona recognizes that what we offer is valuable to helping them build a brand for themselves. 

It's like that person I mentioned said, "When you create value, the money will come," and to add value to people you must become valuable. You make yourself and your brand valuable by knowing you who your buyer persona is, understanding their needs and pain points, creating relationships with people and companies that can elevate your brand, and offering your buyer persona solutions to their problems and pain points.

Now, go make your brand so valuable to your buyer persona that you turn your brand haters into brand ambassadors.