Personal Branding for a Startup to Improve Business
Breaking free from the shackles of the 9-to-5 norm, you are excited to start this new journey. But there is just one stumbling block — you seem lost.
Now what?
A new professional identity has just emerged, and it is demanding the birth of your new identity to take charge. Hey, you are the boss now.
Starting a business is a lifetime job and often an overtime one. It is common for every business owner who is at the helm of startup to experience some form of burnout such as continuity, adapting to a new identity, finding customers, and gaining trust.
Questions start to bubble up in one’s mind. So, what do you do when your business is new and has no resources and no track records?
“I am the Brand.”
We all know that clients look for service providers that they are familiar with based on word of mouth, trust, and mutual connection.
Every theory that you have read about customer relations is still the same old. But what has changed?
With the benefit of hindsight from the cultural shift and the advent of digital trends, here is just one vital strategy that has surfaced for a new startup — Personal Branding.
With big names, the top-of-mind brands get noticed through branding and massive advertising. They also have clocked in reviews or accumulated reputation over the years. But for a new startup, a connection deeply rooted can hardly be separated. (Tip-off!) It is incredible to see that a network could bring multiplies to customer loyalty.
We want to be sharing how you can make your voice robust enough to result in a significant market impact. You want to be saying, “I am the brand. I am the person behind this company that I named — for a brand story relating to my life — that led me to experiences from which I practised, get associated with, due to an area of interest and expertise.
How?
Personal branding is not just making you look good. It is not a quest on aesthetics; it is progressing with the aim for revenue growth. It is about ‘raising the bar’ to put yourself in a positive light, elevate your credibility, gain trust, and showcase your skillsets to achieve monetary growth.
Remember this formula:
You = the Business; the Business = You.
Get started to Define your PR Universe
The digital world gives us a fantastic opportunity to allow for one-way broadcast that let people feel like they know you. So, get started and define your PR universe.
1. Reputation Management
Your reputation will precede you.
They don’t say “Google is your new best friend” for no reason. Gone were the days when we sought opinions and information from friends, colleagues, and mentor. Data coming from people are nothing like those on the internet as with today’s search engines technology. Data are preserved for an ‘awfully’ long time, sometimes forever.
Keeping that in mind, managing an online reputation has become an integral part of branding campaigns.
Numbers aside, you want to start by optimizing your profile that reinforces your area of expertise. Before you generate any content, start by having a quick audit on your search results and clean up any material that no longer relates to your redefined identity.
Stay consistent in the upkeep of quality content and drift yourself away from the most damaging subjects such as negativity, vulgarity, extremist, polarizing views or even tending towards a bigoted behaviour.
Reputation management does not only involve the monitoring of the personal reputation, addressing to damaging content, but it also participates in constructing one. Think of it as a valuable intangible asset that could give you a competitive edge.
2. Your Social Media Image
There are just things one must do to have the kind of captivating attraction. Consider associating yourself among your area of practitioners and increase visibility in the related social circle.
If your area of expertise involves photography in the food industry, will your social media platforms demonstrate to your clients that you can take pictures the way business owners want to capitalize on it?
Do’s
Displaying the latest photography gadget that you got at the latest IT show
A ‘foodie’ in check on the newest restaurant
A highlight of an interesting article on “Epicure” magazine
Don’ts
Drifting yourself away to gossip about an incident you saw at the IT show
Criticizing on a dish at a restaurant
Talk about a beauty feature on “Cleo” magazine
Besides building social media content, you want to pay heed of any mention of data on other platforms to be in-sync with the growth of your online reputation:
- Optimize search engines links with published materials of positive customer testimonials
- Proactive in associating your services to prominent reviewers
- Respond to all feedback and step up your presence in the platform
- Get positive mentions on third-party sites that rank highly on Google
A well associated personal branding goes beyond any relationship a company could reach, and positioning is just part of the process. It is like finding the jigsaw to the puzzle. Do you prove to be the right fit?
3. Your Personal USP
Discover what you want to be perceived today. Redefine your new identity by documenting your genuine distinctiveness. That involves establishing,developing, managing your profile and amplify the topic to present it in your unique individuality.
Sharpen your pencils, as we have work to do here. You want to start building a checklist for the following pointers, brainstorm and screen the list for the specifics.
- Pen down the desired persona that you want your profile to present
- Start the thought process of identifying the accomplishments to feature
- Gather the top three testimonials to establish the credibility
- Gain assurance by publishing on well-respected and high-quality platforms
- Be convincing but not sugary of your unique qualities and talents
- Be an active thought leader by producing speaking gigs or even business exchange
4. Trust and Reliability
Do you have moments when you feel like you have the skillsets, but you are not given the opportunity in employment? Likewise, clients do not give you the project just because you are technically competent. They entrust the project to someone they are confident with, for deliverables that it will be as technically brilliant as it is to suit their business needs — the way they want it.
Question. What are the elements of trust? We all know that humans trust the known and fear the unknown.
Yes, we tend towards familiarity, and we usually repeat transactions from whom we are comfortable dealing with. Statistics have shown that having a troop of loyal customers may make up to no more than 20% of your customer base but, will contribute to more than 50% of your sales.
Trust gives businesses a tremendous upside to transcend it into a revenue-generating hub. It can apply to any company in any sector.
5. Competence
Last but not least, demonstrating your skill and win them over. Create the most powerful and positive impression of expertise by showing the results you have helped or impacted your past clients. When it comes to showcasing your core competence, be bold and avoid modesty. People could search for weaknesses and shortcomings as they browse from page to page, platforms to platforms.
Share good news and maximize your success stories. Be specific in your deliverables and manage expectations at the same time — one of the keys to display your expertise is having it in high-level presentation and confidence. Pin your accomplishments, past achievements, and some case studies that you experience from your recent projects.
