Branding yourself?

There are many, many active ways you can brand yourself. I will just mention two:

1. Always put out the very best content and products you can. I think it's important that people in your niche expect and rely upon you for the highest quality products. You want to brand your personal name and your company with quality - nothing else should be acceptable.

2. I think it is important to associate your company with high quality customer care and assistance. Your customers deserve your best and if you give them the type of care you would give your best friend you will be paid for it in return. Customers always want to feel that they are important and it's difficult for them to make that connection if they never hear from you. Get customer service right and your company will stand out from the mass of businesses that don't really care.

The best to you,

Steve

1. Use your real name (or brand name) in all your accounts

2. Put your face/brand logo as your avatar in those accounts

3. Put your face/logo on your website, products, social media, splash pages, etc

4. Create good content worth sharing

5. Be Yourself!

Actually, the point is in giving value to your target market. The higher the value you can offer, the higher your credibility will be, then that will be a solid basic of your branding. Branding will happen naturally this way. Think, to whom you want to brand yourself, then position yourself there. What you'd want a leader to do to you in that position?

Cheers,
eL

Thanks everyone for the advice. Is starting blog to deliver the content a good way to brand myself?

Branding is HOW you choose people will see you.

Be deliberate with how you want to be known.

Branding is also positioning.

If you position yourself just right, you'll get yourself in front of the people who will actually benefit from what you're saying.

And yes...

Value, value, value...

You need to offer your audience 411 that solidifies you as an authority.

If you can't do that; if you don't have a new spin on old 411, you won't make much of an impact.

Mark

P.S. You're the mouthpiece of the brand. Be audacious about your IM perspectives and present proof whenever possible - to back up your claims and elevate your credibility.

Aside from using your real name you can setup twitter and facebook accounts with your info and details. Personalize your youtube, facebook, and twitter background you can hire someone on Fiverr to do this for you. Get a blog going yourname.com or something to that effect. These things will help you brand yourself quite nicely.

You don't even need to use your own name. "That Canadian Guy" is a branded comic. "The Resume Girl" is a branded resume writer.

What do you want to be known as?

That's your starting point.

Good advice about being yourself and giving good value.

I would like to add something different to that...

Yes! You can plaster with your photo, video and putting your face everywhere. That gives your audience good awareness and retention.

But give some thoughts about this.... are you just serving one niche?

Can you be the same authority person in the Health, Relationship/Dating, IM, Slimming niche?

Eben Pagan used the pen name David DeAngelo in the dating niche....

Even Frank Kern used Dean Rankin for his dog training business!

The truth is you don't have to be your real self when you are creating a brand.

You are Not your brand.

And get this... Having a logo or your face everywhere doesn't mean that you have a brand.

The moment you understand that, you begin to build a real brand.

How do you build a real brand?

First... A brand must be interesting.

Instead of focusing on the value of your product, connect with your audience - emotionally. What is your hook? What do you stand for?

Look at the big brands offline

Nike/Adidas - they doesn't focus on the value of the shoe, they stand for "Just do it" / "Nothing is Impossible"

Apple - it doesn't focus on the quality of the design, it focuses on "Think Different" / "Designed by Apple in California"

A good online example will be:

Daegan Smith - The King of Never Calling a Single Lead.

If he doesn't stand for anything, all the awesome products that he produced will be lost in a sea of great products...

Don't get me wrong. I believe in value and quality. It is very important. But thousands of bloggers out there churn out great valuable and high quality content consistently. But they a good brand? Nope... they are forgettable.

You can be honest and authentic... and be yourself in your brand... but you will be lost in the thousands of honest and authentic marketers.

Don't get me wrong again.... I am not asking you to fake it. Or to be someone you are not.


Look at another great examples of branding:

The Rich Jerk - "I'm not here to make friends, I'm here to show you EXACTLY how I make millions." / "To be a Lazy Millionaire" (Kelly Felix was not a jerk when he created Rich Jerk)

Or when you think about David Wood you think of a millionaire who was homeless and lived in a van / or "Guru Slayer"

Matt Lloyd is a lawn mower before he becomes a millionaire.

I can't remember the value of their products, but I remember the branding/hook.

So the real questions are... How can your brand be interesting? What do your brand stand for? What is the hook? What is the promise? what about your brand that you want to connect with your audience?

And the last thing that is most important.... what is different about your brand? What makes it stand out?

Having just a logo or your face everywhere and about creating value - that is just the beginning. And everyone should do that.

You have to find what is different about you. And make yourself stand out among the sea of greatness.

Brands are carefully thought out, designed and manufactured.

That's what I know about branding.



Your Wingman

Branding free .pdf files is a very good way for branding yourself!

Branding yourself works the same way as branding a business.

1. Your name is your business name.

2. Your photo is your logo and should be used everywhere.

3. You need to be seen in various places around the community. Brand awareness.

Once you have the ideas and need help with actually putting it all together into design, pm me. I have branded a few WF members sites. I think my ad/portfolio link is in my signature.

I 100% agree with the previous posters. Delivering quality and excellent customer service goes a LONG way when it comes to properly branding yourself. Be known as the AUTHORITY in your niche, but to do this you have to do what you do, very very well.
Stick with ONE design concept throughout your branding material. Have "brand colors", Use them in all your marketing and online materials. Everywhere: Facebook, Twitter, your Website, Youtube, etc, etc. Own your niche. This may sound harder than it actually is. Competition is a good thing as it allows you to shine in the midst of so much talent.

Good luck! Branding is a FUN process. Running your business successfully and effectively is the hard part.