How Sweet Is Your Personal Brand?

Be Patient

On the way to Dhara Dhevi we got lost and had to make no less than three U-turns. We almost gave up and decided it wasn’t worth it and we’d go home. What a mistake that would have been!

The funny thing was, we were only five minutes from our destination, stopped on the roadside checking Google maps when we were considering turning back.

When you build a brand it seems to take forever. Yes you have wins, but most of the time you are head-down bum-up, working away at it. Delivering your services while also promoting and marketing them. There are endless meetings, pitches, asking for speaking gigs, writing books, giving presentations, running events, writing bog posts, creating content and social media, building websites, landing pages, working on lead generation…

Building your profile takes time. Don’t expect it to happen overnight.

The key here is consistency. Stay focused on your end goal - becoming well known for what you do and keep broadcasting the same message, staying on brand with your imagery, activity and tactics and follow the direction of your strategy.

You will get there, your brand will become well known, your authority will grow, it just takes time.

Make sure you celebrate the wins, because that will keep you going.

Temptation

The first thing you see on entering the teahouse is a long tables topped with the most delightful, delectable, bite-sized, mouthwatering desserts and cakes.

Of course, they were all tempting, but some are simply more attractive than others. The fruit salad cups were hardly touched, but the macaroons were being constantly replenished.

Know exactly who you want to attract into your business and what is going to tempt them to try your services. It's far more important that you create a brand to appeals to the right audience than creating a brand you love.

It’s funny how most professional service providers tell me what they want in a brand, what’s most important to them and what colours/images they like. There is very little consideration of what the ideal target audience needs, wants and likes.

Stepping into your ideal clients shoes is vital when you develop your personal brand. That way you know exactly what message is going to connect and engage with them. What sort of images will catch their els, which headlines and native content is going to get their mouth watering for more.

In order to get them to ‘taste’ your brand and take a bite out of the services you offer, make sure your brand appeals to the right sort of person you want to attract to your business.

Your brand will get judged by appearances and the first impression you create needs to make them hungry for more.

Flavour

Is your brand just for show, or does it truly reflect what your prospects get once they become tuck into your services?

The cakes that make Dhara Dhevi famous are totally delicious, but it is difficult to tell what flavour they are by their colour. It's not until you bite into them that you get that distinctive taste.

Have you decided what flavour your brand is? Is it exciting, fun, serious, dependable, happy, reliable, steady, independent, creative, innovative…

Once you know what experience you want your prospects to have each and every time they interact with your brand, you can ensure all your marketing and promotional activity has the same flavour.

When a prospect visits your website, membership area or event, do they experience the same flavour as your advertising and marketing?

Remember, it takes just seconds for a prospect to click off your website if they feel uncomfortable or feel they are in the wrong place.

What happens when these prospects turn into clients? Have you oversold and under-delivered?
If your external and internal branding don’t match, you could end up leaving a very bad taste in their mouth.

Creating a flavour for your entire brand and all your communications will create a recipe you can stick to for all of your communications, making it easy to live your brand.

Favourites

Not everyone is going to be your ideal client, you just won't be their flavour.

Don’t panic!

Not everyone loves raspberry, or chocolate or vanilla, and that’s OK. You really want to work with people who totally love your brand and everything you stand for.

Trying to convert those who don’t really fancy you leads to disaster. They will be difficult to captivate, they’ll struggle to communicate honestly and it will feel like you are ‘pushing custard uphill’ with them.

Remind yourself constantly who your ideal client is, keep working on their target avatar so you know them inside-out and focus on creating treats that appeal to them, not to everyone.

Even chocolate brands have their own distinct flavour, many chocoholics can tell you the difference between Lindt, Cadbury and Nestle chocolate bars. So make sure your brand is distinct and attracts raving fan followers who savour every mouthful of your brand.

The best thing about being a favourite flavour is that your clients will remain loyal to you and, chances are, they will know others who will like your brand too and it won’t take much to get them drooling over your offer as well.

Impact

Just like some of the tiny treats at Dhara Dhevi, your business doesn’t need to be huge to create a massive impact with your brand.

Some of the mouthwatering tastes came from the smallest delicacies.

Many consultants, agents and coaches are solopreneurs and believe they either don’t need a brand, or they simply brand themselves with their name because they are not large enough to warrant a ‘big’ brand.

A brand can become a valuable asset for your business, no matter how big or small you are. It makes you instantly recognisable, unique and respected.

Creating a brand also doesn’t need to take a lot of money or time. Once you have clarity around your single minded purpose and what you want to be recognised as the expert for, delivering marketing becomes much more straight-forward.

A brand actually saves you time and money on your marketing.

Branding yourself with the right strategy adds another layer of trust to your brand expression, it’s like the cream on top, communicating the level of expertise and experience you deliver with ease.

Make your brand enticing and you will create a huge impact no matter what size of business you have.

Full

Have you ever followed an expert on social media and all they seem to talk about is themselves? How many of their posts do you see from them before you’ve had enough?

Perhaps you network and now avoid certain people because every sentence starts with “that happened to me…” Perhaps you’ve caught yourself doing this?

Just check the last few posts you made and count how many times you used the words I, me or mine…

Check your website while you are at it. How often do you talk about yourself, and how often do you talk about the prospect and their needs?

If you want to temp prospects to taste your services, the number one topic that will get their taste-buds watering, is them.

Put them first and focus on their interests, talk less about you and more and more about the outcome for them.

Foundation

Dhara Dhevi has the most extraordinary architecture, magnificently built and maintained, with a royal wing and many celebrity guests. After our sumptuous (and glutenous) afternoon tea we went for a walk around the resort grounds and had a tour of the facilities.

In one particular spot I found myself standing on some beautifully intricate tiles and I hadn’t noticed them as I was too busy looking at the furnishings, ceilings and gardens!

Often when you build your brand you consider how to make it look, applying great design to your logo, endless hours on your brand name or tagline, developing websites, social media channels and landing pages, it’s easy to forget where you started and the foundation of your brand.

You have a depth of expertise that should be infused throughout the culture of your business, flowing over from your personal brand.

Don’t forget where you have come from, your sense of purpose and why you are so passionate about what you do.

Blend these aspects into your brand message and incorporate them into the processes and systems that hold your business together as well as the tangible tactics and material you develop.

Our visit to Dhara Dhevi will be remembered as a highlight to our trip and if you are in Chiang Mai you must go to afternoon tea there, it’s the experience of a lifetime.

I hope these tasty personal branding tips have sated your appetite for now.