CUTTING EDGE - A guide to personal branding

When was the last time you purchased because someone gave you a free pen?

WE’VE FORGOTTEN the basics, and got caught up with the fancy tools.

So, let’s remember: Pens and mousepads won’t buy you clients. Logos won’t buy you clients. And no, taglines won’t buy you clients.

Don’t get me wrong – these things are part of the equation, but only a small part. They’re generally only useful when someone is ready to buy, credit card in hand, at that particular moment.

One part of the branding process is simply thinking about why your clients would choose you rather than the next guy.

ONE: THE PURPLE COW

What’s going to make an individual stand out?

Author Seth Godin has a wonderful philosophy that puts marketing into perspective:

“While driving through France a few years ago,” he writes, “my family and I were enchanted by the hundreds of storybook cows grazing in lovely pastures right next to the road.

“For dozens of kilometers, we all gazed out the window, marveling at the beauty. Then, within a few minutes, we started ignoring the cows. The new cows were just like the old cows, and what was once amazing was now common. Worse than common: It was boring.”

Indeed, cows, after you’ve been looking at them for a while, are boring. A purple cow, though? Now, that would really stand out.

The essence of the purple cow – the reason it would shine among a crowd of perfectly competent, even undeniably excellent cows – is that it would be remarkable. Something remarkable is worth talking about, worth paying attention to.

The boring quickly becomes the invisible.

So, as a broker, what can you do that is different? Do your homework. Research your competitors. Do the opposite.

If you can’t tell the difference between you and your competitors, your clients won’t be able to either.

TWO: THE RELATIONSHIP

Unfortunately, your purple cow is only valuable if it’s valuable in the eyes of your clients and the only way you can make it valuable is through recency, frequency and relevancy of contact.

As ugly as that phrase is, it’s a simple fact: we buy from those who are recently in contact, most frequently in contact and most relevant to our needs.

The key things to remember are:

• Be reachable via social media when you know clients are looking for a person like you. For business to consumer communication, it’s probably Facebook; for business to business/professionals, it’s without doubt LinkedIn.
• Reach out to prospects – don’t be shy. As long as you’re polite and it’s personalised, you will get a response.
• Pick a strategy – test it, get it working, then expand it.

Step two is all about identifying the medium that will allow you to stay ‘top of mind’ with your clients and prospects.

Some simple ideas are:

• Join online groups/communities with relevant prospects – start the relationship online. Qualify prospects here then send them a personalised email (not sales, just engagement).
• Grow your network online and offline, then leverage it – growing your connections on LinkedIn isn’t going to increase your clients tenfold. Make sure you leverage your network by keeping in touch with important players – even if you’re just sharing interesting articles.
• Promote your expertise regularly – people believe those whom they see regularly online are likely to have more expertise than those whom they don’t. But don’t just publish ‘salesy’ updates that hard sell your services since this will discourage people. If you give them valuable information about your industry, they will click through to your blog.

THREE: CONSISTENCY

If you take just one thing away from this article, take this:

• Find something that works.
• ‘Rinse and repeat’.

Clients need to know, trust and like you (yes, we’re not always rational). The only way to get them to do this is through consistency.

So, if you like sending chocolates to your clients each month and it works, by all means! If you like writing your blog and are getting valuable enquiries from it, keep it up.

But, to take a leaf out of Nike’s book, ‘Just Do It’. Or hire someone who knows how to do it.

By Toby Marshall, CEO, Lead Creation

Toby specialises in online lead generation and B2B Marketing.