You can change people’s perception of you as a professional, and how you communicate your values to the world. Likewise, you have the chance to stand out among competitors, as well as having a unique identity if you can successfully build a solid personal brand. The truth is, in today’s increasingly digital world, a personal brand is no longer a nice-to-have but what’s expected.
What Is A Personal Brand?
Just exactly how a corporate brand is important in communicating a company’s shared values, how it projects those values and serves clients to the public, is a solid personal brand to a professional. A personal brand is what your story is about yourself. That is, the culmination of what you do, what you stand for, and the talents and values you represent to clients, colleagues, and other professionals.
Although a personal brand might seem quite a shallow concept at first, working on it helps you get control over marketing yourself. More so, it allows you to manage your actions and choices to build credibility, and become a better and unique version of yourself.
Steps To Developing A Marketable Personal Brand
The following steps are how to develop a marketable personal brand.
Discover Who You Are
Many of us in today’s fast-moving world do not take the time to reflect and focus on ourselves. But to build a marketable personal brand, a bit of introspection is crucial. Create a comprehensive list of your personal and professional strengths and weaknesses.
Ask yourself the following questions.
What motivates me?
In which areas of work do I excel? What do others compliment me on?
Which roles seem to drain my energy? And which projects can I spend hours on without feeling overwhelmed?
If you struggle to answer these questions, ask friends, co-workers, or family members how best they would describe you. Once you’ve established your personal and professional values, then you can decide how best to brand them.
Decide How You Want To Be Portrayed
After figuring out who you are, you can start to focus on how to improve your values in order to bring out the best in you. Assess your strengths/values as they relate to whichever industry or career you want to break into next. Doing this will help you to uncover the skills and traits that make you distinct.
Define Your Niche
Do not try to make the mistake of appealing to everyone. Because in reality, everyone is not your ideal client. So in order to attract your perfect clients, you must repel those who you don’t want to work with. Meaning you need to identify a definite target audience and build a brand that is attractive to them.
Hone Your Social Footprint
Once you’ve defined your niche, research where these people can be found and what their needs are. When you are done with this, start to build your online presence to cater for them.
Create An Irresistible Offer
To build a marketable personal brand, you must have something of value to sell to your target audience. Create an irresistible offer that helps your audience solve a specific problem or to have a specific result. And the formula to creating an Irresistible offer is: what you love to do + what you do best + what your audience wants most.
To Wrap It Up
The professional and digital domains are always changing, and your brand will need to evolve around them. Therefore, you’ll need to adjust your brand to represent who you are. But don’t forget to stay authentic and unique.
