How To Build A Personal Brand That Gets Results: 7 Simple Steps

If you were to imagine your personal brand, what would you envision? Is it a logo? A business card? A website? I would argue that you have a personal brand already. Your personal brand is a powerful thing. It’s the way you present yourself to the world. Building a strong personal brand takes time, dedication, and intentionality. Putting yourself out there is a lot easier when you have a robust online presence. By utilizing the right strategies, you can take your professional brand to the next level. Here are seven steps that will strengthen your credibility and build a personal brand that your potential clients, investors, employers, and employees will find attractive.

1. Make a plan

Decide what sort of personal brand you want to build and set goals. If you plan to monetize your personal brand, it's a good idea to explore the right platforms for growing your presence and social media for outreach. Reflect on your career journey. Learn from your professional experiences to incorporate them into your personal brand. The internet is littered with personal brands created by people who did not work in the professional realm. Make sure that your personal brand is authentic. Understand your unique skills Everyone has unique skill sets, so make sure that your online presence incorporates these assets. Do you have a knack for graphic design, are you an excellent marketer, are you a super-successful blogger, are you a financial adviser, are you a business coach?

2. Define your brand

Your brand is a description of who you are and what you stand for. With the appropriate definition, you can create clear, meaningful goals and purpose statements that express your personal brand, and give a clear snapshot of what it is and how you create value to the world around you. When you have a solid understanding of what you want to accomplish in your business, you can focus on working toward specific, achievable goals. Identifying your target audience and brand can help you start to define what your personal brand is. This can help you figure out what types of media you should spend your time on and how your brand should communicate with your target audience.

Is it highlighting your super-specific skills? Every person you meet will have a very clear impression of what your personal brand is, so it's important to get your brand straight. Write down your most memorable traits, and use them to define your brand. For example, the first few minutes of a conversation with one of my clients is always the same: Me: "So, what do you do?" Client: "I'm a consultant. I help businesses get more sales and get customers who want their products and services.

3. Define your target audience

A strong personal brand strategy comes down to knowing your customers and addressing their needs. Find out who your target audience is, and make sure you're speaking their language. This helps you make a consistent effort across your brand. As your target audience becomes more clear, you can narrow in on what you want to communicate. If you are building a personal brand for your product, identifying your audience will help you understand the needs they have and the products they are looking for. Identify your social media presence If you haven’t already, you will need to create a presence on social media. Make it easy to find by using the most current hashtags and posting content relevant to your target audience. Use LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram to gain exposure. Create a LinkedIn page to market your new company or one of your past companies. Use the right photos and videos, and add the right context to your content.

4. Develop a social media presence and stay consistent

When you Google yourself, what pops up? What did you find? Were the results satisfactory to you? What you see in Google search results is what everyone else sees. What about the hiring manager for your next job? Would they find them attractive? Do you think your prospects will like them too? As I Google Danielle Asah Mantho, the first page of the Google SERPs is dedicated to my online presence. You can find my social media accounts, my book on Amazon, my social media pages, and others here.... It does not take a single click to comprehend that my brand is related to Digital marketing. Because I have taken the time to develop my brand online through my social media presence. This is why I am able to make an impact.

At the heart of your online brand is your online presence. So, make it a priority to get your name out there and engage with potential clients, investors, employers, and employees. The key is to leverage your best online assets to develop a comprehensive profile that delivers exceptional content. If you take the time to build a killer online presence, you will increase your credibility with clients, investors, employers, and employees. Earn a reputation as a thought leader A word of caution: Be sure not to overshare on social media and create profiles that are too often negative. This is not the place to spread gossip or share someone else's unfiltered opinion. Keep your content focused on the value you can add to your ideal client's journey.

5. Build your credibility

       “If people like you they'll listen to you, but if they trust you they'll do business with you.” ― Zig Ziglar    

Whether you agree with me or not but as a fact clients turn to trust individuals more than company brands. As a starter or an entrepreneur with a startup, you'd need to share some stories since we all have great stories with your audience. This can be through your subject matter expertise. First, you'll need to become as trusted as possible. If people see you as the real deal, they'll take you more seriously. So, you'll need to be regularly sharing content that is meaningful, professional, and above all, factual. It may be a small detail, but a strong online presence will highlight what you have to offer.

Your online presence can tell a large story about who you are and what you do. Create content that your audience will want to see Next, you'll need to determine the type of content that you want to create, and it needs to resonate with your audience. You should consider what would be helpful to your audience. This should be done by communicating your values to your audience, based on your experience, skills, or beliefs. This will enable you to be established as a go-to expert in your niche. Sharing your knowledge on a consistent basis build trust and credibility.

6. Make yourself an expert

Knowing everything there is to know about your field of expertise makes you an authority in your niche and an expert in the field. When you are perceived as an expert, you will be able to position yourself to help others in the industry and in the community. Create blog content that communicates your expertise and knowledge to your target audience. Produce educational articles and in-depth interviews. Share your knowledge with the world and make yourself a go-to expert in your niche. Create social proof your audience wants to see that you have real results and are solving a real problem. Customers want to know that you can help them grow, save money, make more money or solve a particular problem.

7. Be authentic

As the leader of your professional brand, you need to be true to yourself. Be truthful, approachable, honest, and focused. Reputable companies don't spend time and resources to create fake personalities. Be yourself, it will be more effective in attracting people who share your values, goals, and vision. Show and share what you've done share examples of what you do. This will demonstrate that you have the skills, competence, knowledge, and experience to do what you say you can do. Set examples for your team and show them that it's OK to share what you've done with others. Your team is the most valuable asset to your professional brand. Listen more and talk less Don't talk so much that you stop listening to others.

A personal brand is simply the way your business or work is seen by the world. It’s how you present yourself and your skills, what you stand for, and what you want people to remember you for. It’s also an important part of any career, whether you are a freelancer, an entrepreneur, or an employee. A personal brand is more than just a logo, a tagline, and a business card. It’s a persona that you curate and cultivate and that represents who you are and what you do. You have a personal brand already. And if you want to get more results in your life, it’s time to get intentional about your personal brand. Building a personal brand is a process and not something that just happens. It’s something that you decide to make happen. Just like anything in life, it can seem overwhelming if you don’t know what you’re doing.

Connect with me here for more to learn more on how to build a powerful brand and how to stand out as a top-notch leader in your niche!