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Let’s get the basics out of the way first:
What is a personal brand?
A ‘Personal Brand’ is a type of persona that you create for yourself that helps an audience identify who you are.
It is the conscious and intentional effort to create and influence people’s perception of ‘YOU.’
The aim is to position yourself as an authority in your niche industry, establish credibility, and differentiate yourself from your competitors.
You would want to be known for something you’re good at and something to help people.
It doesn’t matter if you’re an individual professional or you’re in a B2B business; building a personal brand can help in either of the situations. After all, it is the humans who conduct the business, and hence it is crucial to create a good image of yourself.
If you can create something recognizable about you that people trust and look towards you for, then most of the selling you need to do is already done before you even have a conversation with someone.
That is the power of building a personal brand.
When will someone opt-in to your Book Funnel?
There are entrepreneurs who use a book funnel to drive more people to their real product or service. It helps to get their attention, retain it and build trust, but it is not easy. It takes time and effort. First, you must show up consistently. Second, you need to put out content regularly. The more frequently you show up online, the more likely they are to engage with you in front of people. It will start creating a perception about you in people’s minds and build your brand.
But remember that there is a difference between showing up with valuable content and showing up for the sake of it. So make sure that each time you publish content, it adds value to the person consuming it. And don’t forget to plug your book once in a while, so people know it. Then, slowly but surely, it will lead to people being interested in what you offer.
That is how personal branding will help you get more leads through your book funnel. But, of course, now you know that personal branding is an umbrella strategy, and it will gain your attention and trust from your audience. But you still might be wondering how you should go about it?
Tactics to Gaining Trust & Attention
When you’re building your personal brand online, there are certain things you must keep in mind. These actionable tactics below are specific to social media, as that is where you will find most of your potential clients.
Optimizing your personal profile on social media platforms will be one of the best time investments you will ever make.
Why should you optimize your profile?
- When someone searches for a particular position that you’re looking to work towards, your profile must be optimized with those keywords for you to rank and be found on the platform.
- The social media search section works similarly to a search engine like Google or Bing.
- So profile optimization can be considered as an SEO activity to help your profile rank better.
Your profile is a landing page, and similar to a funnel, you need to optimize it with all the correct information for you to convert visitors.
The 3 significant factors that’ll help lead to a well-optimized profile:
1. Searchable
Optimizing your profile with keywords you want to rank for and be searched for.
2. Clickable
Optimizing profile appearance to attract prospects and make them click.
3. Approachable
Optimizing in a way that when a prospect lands on your profile, they feel motivated/confident to reach out and talk to you.
How do these 3 factors help you?
- Increase search appearance.
- Increase profile views.
- Convert inbound traffic to customers.
SEARCHABLE
So, where should you put the necessary keywords in your profile? These are the factors that help you rank?
Different social platforms have different layouts for your personal profile. Therefore, fill in relevant information wherever necessary to make sure your profile is filled with up-to-date information.
It enables people looking for someone like you to be able to find you easily.
For example, if you were a digital marketer, mentioning critical details about your profession and positioning yourself on your profile as an avid marketing person is a great way for like-minded individuals to find you and craft your personal brand around this persona.
CLICKABLE
When someone sees your profile on their search results, there are certain elements that will make them click on your profile and want to know more about you:
- An Appealing Profile Picture – Not having a profile picture or having an image that is not very professional reduces the chances of someone wanting to know more about you.
- Headline – Your headline should indicate what you do. The more specific you can be, the better. No matter which social platform you’re on, everyone has a section to describe yourself in a few lines. Use this space optimally.
APPROACHABLE
It’s great to have optimized your profile to be searchable and clickable, but if no one approaches you, then what’s the point? Being approachable helps you to build trust and credibility.
There are many aspects to being approachable on social media.
Rather than posting just about work-life all the time, make sure to keep the ratio of content as ‘80:20’ for ‘work content: personal content.’ After all, you’re building a personal brand.
You can have a cover image on Facebook and LinkedIn that encourages people to take a particular action, such as reaching out to you for a specific service or consultation.
Other Things to Keep in Mind
Anything and everything that you do online that other people can see will affect your personal brand. The things you talk about, the people you engage with, the pages you like, the comments you leave on other people’s content, all of it.
Each action is a touchpoint that people use to measure your validity and create a perception about you in their heads. All of this will affect how much attention you get from people, how much they trust you, and ultimately whether or not they decide to get your book or not.
