Personal Branding Tips – How To Build Your Personal Brand With The Five P's!
If you are not sure on how to build a personal brand then use these personal branding tips. Create your personal brand today with this ultimate guide.
Hi Trish Davies here, founder of Build Your AU to share some powerful personal branding tips.
You might not realize it, but everything you do and say is part of your personal brand. The way you dress, speak, act, and behave all contribute to how others see you.
Whether you’re looking for a new job or searching for career advancement opportunities, developing a strong personal brand is an essential part of the process.
A personal brand helps set you apart from other job seekers or colleagues in your field. Your brand defines who you are, what you do, and what value you offer as a person and employee.
Your personal brand isn’t just about what jobs or roles you have now. It’s about where you want to go in the future and how you can get there.
Building your personal brand requires self-reflection and identifying your strengths and weaknesses.
Also you must take time defining your voice along with creating an image that aligns with your goals. Finally focus on communicating your brand to others through words and actions.
Personal Branding Tips – The Importance Of Having A Strong Personal Brand
As we mentioned above, a personal brand helps set you apart from other job seekers or colleagues in your field. It defines who you are, what you do, and what value you offer as a person and employee.
If you’re thinking, but everyone has a personal brand. What makes mine stand out? It’s true that everyone has a brand, but not everyone is actively building theirs, which can put you at a disadvantage.
Some businesses and individuals have even gone as far as to trademark their personal brands and logos. A strong personal brand not only sets you apart from others, but it also helps you put your best foot forward in every situation. It acts as a guide for what you should say and do.
Defining Your Brand
As we’ve seen, a personal brand is everything that you are and everything that you do. It can be hard to nail down specifics, but this is where self-reflection and goal-setting can really help.
Ask yourself, what do you want your personal brand to be? Once you’ve nailed down some specifics, it’s helpful to take them a step further by breaking down each aspect into subcategories.
For example, if one of your personal brand aspects is your expertise in health and wellness. You can break that down even further by listing specific topics or fields of expertise.
This will help you make sure all areas are covered and you’re not leaving out any important parts of your brand. The more specific you can be, the easier it is to create a brand that accurately represents who you are and what you do.
Let’s look at the 5 P’s of branding to see if yours is underdeveloped or even non-existent!
Personal Branding Tips – The 5 P’s of Branding
A brand isn’t just a logo or marketing slogan. It’s a promise about the experience someone will have when they interact with you or your business. Think of your brand as an elevator pitch that can be summed up in one sentence.
It should explain what you are and what you do, along with what value you provide. Your brand should be consistent across all your social media accounts, website, and any other places you’re representing yourself professionally.
- The first P is your promise. This is what you’re promising the world, and it should reflect the work you do.
- The second P is people: who your customers are and what they value. This is who you’re promising and what you’re doing for them.
- The third P is place: your location and context. This is where you’re doing it.
- The fourth P is process: how you do what you do.
- Finally the fifth P is product or service: what you produce. This is the end result of your work and what people get from your promise.
Knowing Your Audience and Why They’ll Care
Before you can create a meaningful brand, you need to know exactly who you’re branding for. Your brand is only useful if it resonates with your target audience. Think about your ideal client, the kind of person you’d like to do business with.
- What do they like?
- What do they care about?
- Finally what would make them excited about working with you?
These are good questions to ask yourself as you’re developing your brand. You can also ask your existing clients for feedback about how to better reach them or create a persona to represent your ideal client.
Using a persona helps you put yourself in your customer’s shoes so you can better understand what they’re looking for. Also what they need, and what they want from you.
What Is & Isn’t Included In Your Brand
Brand building is a lot like cooking: you have to include the right ingredients and avoid some of the unnecessary ones. You want to make sure all aspects of your brand are meaningful, relevant, and valuable to both you and your audience.
Keep in mind that your brand includes much more than your logo or company name, although those are important parts.
Your brand also includes your tone, your approach to communication, your social media interactions. Also your website, your email communications, and much more.
Your brand is the way you interact with others and it is the way they see you, even if they don’t realize it. If you’re not sure how to start building your brand or what to include, think about your favourite brands.
- What makes them so successful?
- What do they do that you want to emulate?
Who You Are (Your Strengths)
As you’re developing and defining your brand, you might notice that the biggest aspects of it are what you are and what you do. However, you should also consider what your strengths are, or what you’re good at.
Your strengths and weaknesses both play a role in your brand and in how others perceive you and your brand. Your strengths are the things you do well without having to put in much effort.
- What are you good at?
- What do you enjoy doing?
This is something you should be sure to include in your brand because your strengths give you an edge. They also show potential employers that you’re more valuable than someone who has to put in effort to learn new skills.
What You Do (Your Expertise)
Building on your strengths, you also need to consider what you do.
- What are some of the skills you have or things you’re experienced in?
- What are the services you provide or products you sell?
- Finally what are you working toward becoming an expert in?
This is another important aspect of your brand, especially if you’re changing careers or trying to break into a new industry.
You can’t just say “I’m a nurse.” You need to say, “I’m a trauma nurse and I specialize in caring for patients who have experienced cardiac trauma.”
That’s a big difference and it shows people that you’re knowledgeable in a particular field.
What Value You Bring To Others (Your Skills)
This is where you get into the nitty-gritty.
- What skills do you have?
- What do you know?
- Finally what have you done?
This is where you get more specific about what you do and experience you have.
- What skills do you have that make you employable?
- What skills do you have that make you valuable to your clients?
Think about the skills you’ve acquired over the years, both through education and experience. What skills have helped you throughout life?
There are many skills that go unacknowledged but can be very useful in the work force. Skills like time management or organization can be just as important as technical skills like computer programming.
Where You Want To Go (Your Goals)
Setting goals is an important part of any career process. However, many people only focus on their short-term goals and never consider how they tie into their long-term goals.
Setting personal goals that tie into your brand can help you focus on what you want to achieve in the long term. It can also help you evaluate how well your brand is helping you achieve those goals.
For example, if you want to become a manager at your job, but your brand focuses on being a good nurse, it might not help you achieve that goal.
- How can you show that you’re ready for a promotion?
- What do you need to do to prove that you’re ready for a management position?
Your brand should reflect those goals and be able to help you achieve them.
Personal Branding Tips – Conclusion
You now know 5 principles of personal branding along with understanding other important aspects of personal branding.
For more personal branding tips check out my free training program called Build Your AU.
Register for the program here.
Helping you build your authenticity, authority and audience.
Trish Davies
Build Your AU
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