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As a business professional, company owner, sales expert or public speaker, an effective Personal Brand gives you an edge to achieve your professional goals.
It's the first thing people experience about you and the last thing they remember-whether you're meeting people in person, online, or introducing yourself solely through your work!
The following "Five Tips and Tricks for Packaging Your Brand" will help you present your brand for maximum effect, starting from the inside out.
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Focus Your Brand Attitude
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Establish a Brand "Look"
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Develop and Maintain Your Work Materials
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Know Your Brand–and Use It Consistently
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Keep Your Product Strong
1. Focus Your Brand Attitude
When preparing for interaction with a key audience – such as your management team, your coworkers, or your clients – psyche yourself up for it. This part can feel like “work” if you are not in the frame of mind that supports your brand, but it’s worth it to present your best self to the groups that are important to you. Developing a Personal Brand that really resonates with you will make it easier for you to “put on your game face” when preparing for any communication experience, so it helps to have developed a Brand you really love.
2. Establish a Brand “Look” for yourself that you can maintain
From your facial expression to how you carry yourself, to your clothes, shoes and accessories, how you look shouts out your Personal Brand before you even say a word. When purchasing clothing or accessories for public appearances (or even for a day at the office), think about your Personal Brand. If you want to project “sophisticated” and you’re dressing in baggy sweat suits, for example, you’re not doing anything for your Brand.
3. Develop and maintain your work materials
There’s that “maintain” word again. A Personal Brand gains its strength in consistent, repetitive use. Nowhere is this truer than in your work materials. If you are an entrepreneur, this includes your marketing materials–whether you have a website, business cards, bookmarks, postcards, stationery, or reader/bookseller giveaways, keep your Brand colors and “look” consistent across all of your materials. This could include having a standard logo for how you present your name, standard colors that you pick up in all of your materials, and of course consistent use of your brand slogan. If you are a member of an organization, your materials are the reports, emails, conversations, and work product you create. Think of "that guy" who always writes the long-winded emails…or who types in all caps. Or think of the emails you receive that are always concise, positive and engaging. That's packaging, and it can powerfully affect how your message is received.
4. Know Your Brand – and use it consistently
If you have taken the time to develop a knockout Brand, use it whenever you can. Dress for it, communicate with it in mind, seek out opportunities and supporters who help you express it. Use it in speaking engagements, work it into conversations and include it in your official bio. If your Brand includes "engaging"… engage. If your Brand includes "tech-savvy"… keep up on the latest developments.
5. Keep Your Product Strong
This is perhaps the most important element of your brand, and it is almost completely within your control: your work. No matter how stylish or well-executed your branding and promotional efforts are, the work is what will really sell you to your audiences. So keep up your efforts to produce outstanding work, every day—it’s the best way to showcase your Personal Brand! |
What's In Your Brand?
What are the elements that make your Brand work for you?
1. "Why" Are You? Before you can best express your Brand, you have to understand the "Why" behind that Brand:
- What are your goals – personally and professionally?
- What promises do you make?
- What makes you different?
2. "Who" are you? At its most basic, your Brand is a statement of who you are. The "Who" portion of your Brand communicates your goals and part of your Brand promise:
- What is your title and role within your organization?
- What do you "do" or "make"?
- Where do you work (your office, your company, your community)?
3. "How" are you? The "How" of your Brand is the sizzle to the steak. The "How" part of your Brand communicates the second part of your Brand promise, and what makes you unique:
- How are you packaged-in dress and personal space?
- How do you present yourself–your style and demeanor?
- How do you get the word out about yourself and your work?
Upcoming 1/2 Day Class on Personal Branding:
Oct. 18, 8:30 a.m.-noon
Personal Brand Management for Organizational Success helps you define, develop, and consistently present your Personal Brand for maximum impact. This high-energy half-day workshop goes beyond the basics of Branding to help you create a Personal Brand strategy that you can immediately put to use in every communications opportunity.
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