How To Brand Yourself (And Why You Should) |

How To Brand Yourself (And Why You Should)

Written by JT on March 2, 2008

Everybody knows the big names; Nike, Coke, Wall Street Journal, Doritos…you get the idea. These names are the leaders in their respective markets.

That being said, there are dozens, even thousands, of competitors who mimic the products with which these big names are associated. Coke is nothing but sugar water; Doritos are just deep fried corn tortillas; Nike is just another shoe.

But their brands generate millions in annual revenue, simply due to name-recognition. And the lesson here is that you too can be very successful if you learn to brand yourself. Here is how…

In business, regardless of what field you are in, the key to success is to stand out from the competition. It is particularly important in a world where you are offering the same products and services as everyone else…i.e. network marketing and direct sales.

I have said it time and time again; if you are with a company that has hundreds of other people, and everyone is marketing the same products/services/ business opportunity, what else would you expect to bring you tons of business?

If you are not thinking ‘personal branding’, then you must be relying on luck. And luck never made anyone prosperous.

I write often about the power of positioning yourself as a leader. People want to follow someone with vision, with experience, and passion. And almost without exception, the leaders in any business industry got to that level by branding themselves.

So how can you go about branding yourself? Here are some suggestions you can use to begin making your mark…

Establish Your Identity. You do this by first telling your story. Like I say again and again, people don’t buy your company, they buy you. So tell them why they should buy you and not someone else offering the exact same opportunity.

Tell your unique story. And tell it in a manner that allows people to relate to you. The way to do this is by being conversational in your ad copy. Speak into a tape recorder and transcribe it if necessary, but tell your story and tell it in your email, your “who is?” page (more on that in a second) and in your capture pages.

Once you have established your identity, you can begin to…

Build Relationships With Your Audience. You do this by giving value to the people who check out your site. Give your knowledge, give your experience, and give resources. A great way I have seen this done is by publishing a newsletter (giving your knowledge), providing direct coaching and/or mentorship (giving your experience), and offering free e-books or other downloads that provide useful information (giving resources).

The big thing to take away from what I am saying is to be transparent about what you are doing. Do not have hidden agendas; if your purpose for being in business is to serve people, then it will come out in your words and actions.

Trust is huge, and hard-earned, but once you have established yourself as a person of competence and integrity you will begin to see the floodgates of prosperity open wide.
As you are building relationships with people, remember to…

Sell Yourself First, Your Business Second. It is easy to lose focus on this, so I felt it was worth repeating. So how do you do this?

First of all, build your own capture page vice using your company’s duplicated site. These sites are great, but they are usually too generic and don’t sell you. They sell the company, and a prospective client has no way of seeing who you are if you use the same capture page 1,500 other people are using to market the exact same opportunity.

If building websites isn’t your thing, outsource it!

Second, build a “who is” page. A “who is” page is simply a self-branding website that tells your story. It usually has some personal pictures, goes into your background, and ultimately has information about how and why you do business the way that you do at the bottom to allow your readers to connect with you on multiple levels.

In addition, your “who is” page will have links at the bottom to other personally created websites, for instance a “resource” page that lists a summary of the business opportunity that you are involved in and the link to it.

Essentially, people are sold on you first and then close themselves in regards to what business opportunity with which you are involved.

Yet another link you could include at the bottom of your main “who is” page is one for tools. This is a page where you might list the links to the tools and websites you found to be most useful when building your business. Again, remain “service oriented” and you will find your customers will keep coming back.

And obviously, the domain should be www.whois(yourname).com ; in fact the next point I want to make is to register for your own domain name. Register for www.(your first and last name).com.

While you are registering for domain names, get one for a blog and then set the blog up! This blog is hosted by www.WordPress.com, and is hte best system I have ever used.

And finally…

Become A Subject Matter Expert In Something. Don’t worry that there are tons of “gurus” out there; most of them are full of crap. The best thing to do is find something that interests you and learn as much as you can.

Be a student of the game, and you will soon find people flocking to you for advice and…your business opportunity. I still say the best way to learn is from a true master in his or her field.

Take your time and learn all you can about branding yourself; it is a skill few people learn…but the few that take the time to master it generate incredible income consistently.
See you in the next post…
~JT