About a year ago, I started a company called Great Pro Speakers. It is a site that helps professionals transform their expertise into additional income via professional speaking and informational marketing. A large piece of the site explains the importance of speakers building their brand. However, brand building is not just important for speakers; it is critical no matter what your industry or profession is. This article will teach you effective strategies and techniques that you can use to build your personal brand, which will help you market your professional skills. This can also aid in a job search.
Why Brand Building Is Important
Competition is more fierce than ever and individuals are not just competing with their neighbors for opportunities; they are also vying with people all across the world. Pareto’s principle is in full effect in the business world. The vast majority of the money making opportunities go to a small minority of individuals or companies. A key component that separates the two groups is how each develops their brand and lets others know about their expertise. Brand building translates into the following actionable results:
- Increases your value in the minds of customers or employers – The more that you are viewed as an expert in a particular field, the more people will be willing to pay for your knowledge.
- Increases your credibility – Building your brand influences people to trust you more. Business is based off of trust and no one likes to make a wrong decision when hiring or choosing a service provider. By improving nearby rankings you increase your online credibility which leads to less risk on the side of the consumer to choose you for a task.
- Guarantees top of mind status – In today’s marketplace, there is always an abundance of choice. Branding helps you stay at the top of a customers mind. One thing that we strive for with Ujamaa Deals — another one of my companies — is to one day be synonymous with black commerce. That means being among people’s first thoughts when they think of the phrase “black business.” The same should be true for you in your career.
Discovering Your Niche
Before thinking about tools to use to grow your brand, you need to figure out your niche. Your niche is important because it is impossible to become an expert on all topics. It is much better for brand building for a person to choose a specific niche and dominate it.
A niche is the intersection point of your credible expertise and your target market. With Great Black Speakers, my expertise is in professional speaking and marketing. My target market is educated African-Americans between the ages of 18-49 years of age. When I decided to combine the two, I was able to create a unique area for myself in which I could dominate and create my own blue ocean. Think about the things that you are great at and the people that you would like to serve to discover your perfect niche.
The Three Pillars of Online Marketing
There are three pillars that you need to focus on while building your brand online. In combination, they provide a powerful force to accelerate your reputation and influence.
Content: In today’s knowledge based economy, the majority of employees are selling their mental expertise to their employer. You can do that yourself to develop your own audience and core of customers. Sharing your expertise through articles, podcasts, infographics, and webinars is the primary way to excel above your competition. To start creating content, I recommend that you write at least one short blog post or record one two-minute YouTube video every week related to your niche. Over time, you will notice that more people will start looking to you for guidance on different topics. I recommend Content Rules and Made to Stick to learn more about creating excellent content.
Distribution: It does little good to have wonderful ideas if no one ever knows about them. Therefore, you need to develop a process to make sure that your content gets seen by the right people. To start, invest time in building up your social media outlets. One of the best ways to do this is to form partnerships with other blogs/news sites that need content from capable individuals. Also, being involved with professional or fraternal organizations will give you an immediate platform for you to share your ideas. Don’t try to focus on too many distribution tools at once. It is much better to fully use one tool before moving to the next.
Design: The packaging of your thoughts influences others to listen to what you have to say. Bad packaging would be similar to a renowned college professor delivering her lecture dressed as a hobo. The ideas may be phenomenal, but no one will listen to you if you are packaged the wrong way. Therefore, invest the money in getting your website professionally created or learning WordPress yourself.
Building your brand is a long term strategy that usually takes a while to pay dividends. When it does, it becomes a capital asset that will allow you to make more money and gain new opportunities. It is definitely worth the investment.
Lawrence Watkins is the founder of Great Black Speakers, Great Pro Speakers, and co-founder ofUjamaa Deals, which is a daily deal site that promotes black-owned businesses. He graduated in 2006 from The University of Louisville with a B.S. in electrical engineering and earned his MBA from Cornell University in 2010. Lawrence currently resides in Atlanta. You can follow him on Twitter@lawrencewatkins.