When we think of brands, the first things that spring to mind are generally distinct brand colors, brand guidelines, corporate logos, symbols, slogans, and the like. We immediately think of well-known worldwide brands like Nike, Adidas, BMW, Nestle, GE, and L’Oréal.

On the other hand, personal branding is becoming increasingly important in many facets of our lives.

The growth of personal branding has been relatively recent. Personal branding was once thought to be best left to sports, models, and Hollywood superstars. We believed that only prominent celebrities like Schwarzenegger, Trump, Merkel, Bruce Lee, Jennifer Lopez, and Kim Kardashian deserved to have a personal brand. So, how about you? What about the rest of us? Believe it or not, every one of us has a distinct identity. Any online presence, be it social media or otherwise, establishes our brand. We share bonds with our loved ones, close friends, and coworkers. “Your brand is what other people say about you when you’re not in the room,” Jeff Bezos famously stated but why is personal branding important?

Here is Your Complete Guide to Building Your Personal Brand

So, now that we’ve established that we all have a personal brand, we need to take care of it. We should take charge of our unique brand. If you were a recruiter, you would not want to employ someone with a negative reputation, ridiculous or insufficient internet images, or no online presence at all. Consider that for a moment. What is the first thing any of us does when we meet a new person? So, if you’re like the majority of us – indeed 99 percent of us – you’ll do your homework. That is, you will investigate that person’s web presence before letting them into your network circle, conducting business with them, or hiring them. This is a proven truth. That is precisely what recruiting managers do. They look for whatever negative information about you that they can uncover online. It’s strange if you don’t have an internet presence in any case. I mean, honestly, really strange.

Let us now discuss our customers

Let’s suppose you are a consultant, coach, sales or financial adviser, or other service-oriented professional. First, you must be present where your target audience – your clients – are. That is, of course, LinkedIn. LinkedIn is an excellent resource for service-oriented professions. Not only are your clients present, but LinkedIn is the most dedicated social networking channel for developing a personal brand. Let’s be honest. If most of us are searching for someone in the business sector, our first stop would be LinkedIn. Google is the second source. So, why use LinkedIn? Simply because it is the most trustworthy platform and search engine for business professionals. Please understand me. There are several bogus profiles on LinkedIn as well. But that is pretty obvious, and it also says a lot about the person. Keep in mind that our clients aren’t just interested in our services and our personalities.

So you work as a service provider. You name it: a coach, consultant, lawyer, IT expert, any form of a sales professional, financial adviser, real estate broker, insurance or mortgage broker, accountant, marketing expert, etc. You are, of course, selling your services. What are your thoughts on the preconditions that must be met for a potential client to conduct business with you? The primary step is to get to know yourself. If you put yourself out there, they will get to know you if you are present on the internet and offer your services there. You can now be more or less “known.” It is determined by your social media presence and total web presence. It also relies on how often you remind your audience of your existence, i.e., how often you publish content.

With such material, you’re also establishing thought leadership. When you develop content based on your area of expertise from your field of work, you begin to build your thought leadership. Thought leadership may persuade potential clients to approach you with a proposition or partnership request. Personal branding and thought leadership both aid in developing credibility since you will utilize the material to demonstrate your knowledge and skill in your field of work.

Service-oriented and B2B sales specialists must be visible on LinkedIn to create leads. Their brand will assist them in gaining more clients. Individuals conduct business with other people. Individuals purchase from other people, not from companies. You may have observed that B2B sales professionals with a solid personal brand who create content about their work sector usually outperform their counterparts in terms of contract wins. To contribute to their organizations, service-oriented professionals on the front lines and responsible for customer acquisition must have a strong personal brand and outstanding social selling abilities. They will be able to produce more qualified leads this way. Simultaneously, B2B executives must be prominent since their interactions and online exposure influence how clients view your company’s brand. In any case, if you do not establish your brand, your market’s impressions of you will do it for you.

By developing a strong personal brand on LinkedIn, you may cut the sales process in half, which would otherwise take considerably longer. If you already have a strong LinkedIn presence, with a large number of followers and connections, as well as an outstanding LinkedIn profile. You have already established your reputation by providing material, commenting on other LinkedIn users’ postings, receiving recommendations, having your talents endorsed, and receiving testimonials on your profile. You will also be recognized and contacted if you know who you are, who you serve, and how and what issues you address for your clients. As a result, when a potential customer lands on your profile, your sales process has been significantly shortened. Typically, it takes between five and twelve touch points with a client before he decides to buy from you. In this situation, you’ve effectively doubled the number of contact sites.

So the customer already knows you and based on the authenticity of your profile, the client may already trust you or your talents to complete the assignment correctly. But wait, there’s one more thing. Someone likes to conduct business with people they like. That’s why it’s critical to humanize your brand. Allow them a peek into your personal life. If you’re brave enough, tell them your tale. Demonstrate some vulnerability. Demonstrate some of your prior experiences or how you overcome inevitable setbacks. You will form bonds with people in this manner, with the people who like you. Let us be honest: you will not be liked by everyone. Someone will enjoy it, and someone will not. What’s the big deal? You wouldn’t want to conduct business with people who dislike you.

Let us return to the consultants. Stop putting things off. Stop wishing for everything to be and appear to be flawless. Stop undermining yourself. Fight the impostor syndrome that exists in all of us. Face your fear and do it anyhow. Just start, and you will progress. Could you make a choice and stick to it? Consistency and effort are repaid.

Disclaimer: Digitalz Pro Media & Technologies (P) Ltd. is a 360 Degree Marketing & Branding Company in Delhi NCR. If you want to take your brand to the next level, book your consultation now.

Also Read:

• 8 Best AI-powered tools to power up your LinkedIn profile
• The Importance Of Social Media Marketing
• Why Entrepreneurs Should Be Active On LinkedIn.