10 Basic Steps to Create a Personal Branding Strategy

10 Basic Steps to Create a Personal Branding Strategy Do you think that it is possible to have a strong presence in the market without creating a brand for your business? The odds are not in the favor. Read on to find out how to formulate a strong personal branding strategy!Branding is not just about having a cool logo or a well-placed advertisement rather, it is defined as the overall perception of your business by your customers.evalThere is immense competition in the market and for smaller businesses, it is nearly impossible to match the stature of the giants in the industry.One of the most valuable assets which your company holds includes a loved and recognizable brand identity for itself.Personal branding is a process and doesn’t happen overnight. There is a lot of effort which is required to establish strong relationships with your clientele resulting in increased sales, more projects, and successful word of mouth referrals.Here are some of the simplified steps explained for you to build a successful personal branding strategy:1 . Determine Your AudienceDefining a target audience forms the foundation for building a brand so this is the foremost thing which you must be focusing on. It is not possible to be everything to everyone so you need to figure out a segment of the audience that your company will be focusing on.You would need to tailor your mission and message to meet the needs of the target audience. With the passage of time, the brand loyalty increases as the reach of the company expand.2. Define a Branding Mission StatementAdding value to your business is integral to building a strong brand for the audience. It basically emulates the soul reason behind the existence of your business and will facilitate other aspects of brand building.evalOn the basis of this mission, you will be creating an identity for your brand and defining a marketing strategy for it. If all this doesn’t conform to your mission, it won’t be fruitful.3. Outline Your Key Qualities and BenefitsYou need to dig deeper into your p otentials and find out what are you offering which others aren’t. There are numerous brands in the industry with some of them having a stronger presence and more resources and money as compared to you. They can easily command the market but you need to find out the way to outdo them.It could be anything including providing a better customer service or making the product/service more affordable for the people. Give a very strong reason to the target audience so that they can choose your brand over the rest.4. Research Your CompetitorsNever even think of imitating the other brands in the industry but always be aware of what they are up to. Study how all your main competitors or the biggies in the market are building their brand.evalFind out their strengths and weaknesses so that you can devise your own personal branding strategy accordingly. Follow the reviews of their customers to find out what are they liking or disliking about them.5. Come up with a Great Brand Logo and TaglineTh is holds immense importance as the piece of writing and graphic will appear on each and everything which relates to your business one way or the other. This is the visual recognition of your business so make sure that you come up with something which is unique and represents your business and its mission in the best possible way.Invest your time and money on something worthwhile because this is going to be the ultimate identity of your brand.6. Show YourselfIt is the desire of the people to connect with other people and not just brands so show yourself more often. Presenting a photo of yourself or letting others know about you through social media or other platforms will help in building credibility and establishing trust.Capture yourself and your team in action so that people feel connected to the brand as they are exposed to all the behind the scene efforts.7. Build a Circle of InfluencersThere are a number of “popular people” in the crowd who seem to garner more attention fro m the masses as compared to others. There is simply no harm in shaking hands with such people coming from different walks of life and letting them help you promote your brand.These can be journalists, bloggers, motivational speakers or anyone else who is excelling in his respective field and will help in creating a strong influence for you.8. Have a Strong Online PresenceWe are in the twenty-first century and if you want to be there for the people, you need to be available online. Maintaining an online identity is essential for your business given that it is the medium with the widest reach in today’s world.evalYou can have social media accounts and build a website for yourself so that there are multiple domains where people can find you.Another important thing is to keep updating yourself with the changing times so that your presence conforms to the present principles and doesn’t appear to be out of context.9. Stay True to Your BrandAs cliché as it may sound but consistency is the absolute key to success. If you keep changing your branding strategy, you are most likely to confuse your customers. This doesn’t mean that you cannot improvise yourself to increase your appeal to the masses.The essence is not to deviate from your true path that will make it impossible for the loyal customers to connect with you.10. Remain a Student of Your IndustryYou might think that you have known it all but still, it is not enough. Trends keep changing and people keep putting forward newer innovations.evalThus, the process of learning never becomes obsolete making it absolutely necessary for anyone to keep discovering the industry and improving their personal branding strategy as they move forward with their business.Through a strong personal branding strategy, you can actually make yourself a lot more appealing to your audiences. This is one sure shot way of winning more customers and increasing your reach.