“I’ll have what she’s having!”
We’ve all experienced it, seeing an endless line of people waiting for days just to get their hands on the newest gadget, hours to experience the latest restaurant or over-investing to get their daily fix of coffee.
And we’ve all wondered “why the wait, the inconvenience – the bother?”
When we dig into what ‘they’ve got’ and how it moves people to do whatever it takes to ‘buy’ -the answer is as simple as it is complex – effective brand positioning, a valued offering and clever marketing.
Brand positioning and marketing exists at the insatiable intersection of art, science and human behaviour. Leading brands globally in this exciting area for over 25 years, I know effective marketing is a critical driver for any successful brand to thrive. In fact, studies suggest most companies invest a significant portion of time, money and people in marketing their brands and products.
A recent survey conducted by CMO on the top 3,000 for-profit companies in the US, found that average marketing budgets experienced a spike in growth last year, and are set to increase further to 2020.
Spend in Social Media Marketing has also seen a rapid increase in 2018 due to social platforms‘levelling the playing field’ in spreading brand awareness. It’s predicted social media marketing spend will increase to 66% over the next 5 years to 2023.
Marketing isn’t a destination. It’s a continuously evolving process. Through the decades, the world has been swept up in the rise and fall of various marketing strategies and campaigns.
A powerful marketing strategy can be the silver bullet to brand success.
One immortal example of this is Apple’s Mac vs PC campaign, featuring a series of quirky and funny conversations between a PC and a Mac, catapulted it as one of the most successful product marketing campaigns in history. It supercharged Apple’s sales and drove the stock price up 79%.
Marketing Strategies for Personal Brands and Thought Leader Profiles.
Historically marketing strategies have advertised, promoted and sold tangible products and
valuable services for decades. Yet it’s only in the last handful of years, we’ve seen the surge of
marketing strategies used to promote personal brands and profiles.
So, is it possible to successfully market yourself just like a product or service positioning your
personal brand for maximum impact?
Absolutely!
As a Brand Strategist specialising in personal brand and thought leader profiles, I know we’re just seeing the tip of the personal brand iceberg in leveraging marketing frameworks, and the
personal brand mecca LinkedIn, to promote your most valuable product in the market – YOU.
Ultimately, people trust people. People buy from people. People invest in people. It’s human
nature and leveraging this just is simply smart ‘business’.
So, where to start? Working with hundreds of personal brands and key people of influence to
clarify and communicate their value with confidence for cut through, here are my top 5 expert
steps to effectively market yourself as a product – and you can’t skip any for ultimate
effectiveness!
1. Know your True North – your ultimate ‘why’.
Take a moment. Ask yourself
- Why do I do what I do?
- What’s the unique value I offer?
- Who values what I’m passionate about and excel in?
- What problem do I solve, and who do I solve this for?
- What ‘business’ am I in, and why?
Your clarity in the above – is your True North. Once you nail this, everything else radiates from this grounded ‘truth’. This is the remarkable and solid foundations – the blueprint for your personal brand.
Your personal brand’s True North is your compass point to confidently move forward from, refer to when exploring and return to when you’re off course.
My initial step when working with any brand is to focus on the essential positioning of the brand by deeply exploring the questions above – in micro detail and embedding the True North back in brand narrative, team and operations.
It’s no different when exploring the essence of personal brand to position a person for maximum impact.
Your brand positioning is how you affect the way someone thinks and feels…positively.
As famously quoted by world-renowned thought leader Simon Sinek,
“People don’t buy WHAT you do, they buy WHY you do it.”
2. Captivate your audience through Storyselling
Your next step in marketing yourself as a product is to captivate your audience with a compelling story of your True North, or your ‘why’.
People are drawn to stories as they ignite our imagination, help visualise and experience our world through feelings and adventure. Your story invites others in, to become a part of your narrative, so make it relatable so they can be one with your journey.
Jerome Bruner, an influential name in the field of Psychology, profoundly noted that people are 22 x more likely to remember a fact that’s been told in a story, making storytelling a powerful personal brand marketing tool. It ensures you’re memorable in the senses and emotions of your audience – so aim for left and right brain activation!
When storytelling has an injection of human reality to sell a concept, product or service, through experience, it becomes powered as Storyselling.
To lodge your message deep in the hearts and emotions of your audience, you’ll find it valuable to identify your personal storyselling archetypes. I’ve created the top Storytelling Archetypes to inspire your own story to ignite your brand.
There’s something innate in us as human beings that responds to stories. That’s why story and storytelling is such a powerful tool for building a company or personal brand.
Glen Carlson – Dent Podcast EP.70 Build Your Story Brand with Nicole Hatherly
- The Comeback
- The Transformation
- The Discovery
- The Mastery
- The Customer’s Shoes
- The Insider Secrets
Storyselling is what connects people to humanity. By harnessing this, you’ll be guided to position your brand story in a way that is as unique as you are.
3. Position yourself for maximum impact
Now you have your Personal Brand blueprint in your True North, your powerful Storyselling, and your audience is all aboard in your journey – your next step is to position yourself for maximum impact using the invaluable question “What’s in it for them?”.
This personal brand positioning step is your architecture.
When strategically developing a brand, many people get stuck here and feel like they’re in an endless pit of quicksand. This ‘how long is a piece of string’ stage is notorious for causing angst and frustration for brand owners, but with the ideal strategy and plan, this stage can be positive, fruitful and lead to great outcomes.
Below is my simple 3 step strategy for creating your personal brand architecture:
- Consistently use your blueprint – True North and Storyselling
- Draft your Personal Brand profile with a focus on your audience and the value they ‘get’.Essentially, this is your ‘promise’.
- Build your Personal Brand thought leadership content as now you have their attention with your ‘promise’, you need to confidently deliver the proof of your promise. This is the equivalent to a brand selling their products and services.
Your personal brand profile
Be clear when writing your personal brand profile, or narrative, and craft it in terms of impact for your audience.
Rather than listing what you’ve done, delivered, studied, slayed and nailed – focus on what I call‘WIIFM’ (what’s in it for me?) from your audience’s perspective. Also, weed your “I” garden and re-write as many sentences starting with “I” as possible.
Rather than saying “I have spent 25 years in marketing, advertising, communications and digital delivering strategies for brands to position themselves in market”, try “With over 25years of experience in marketing, advertising, communications and digital, I offer deep value in delivering award-winning strategies that position brands for maximum impact”. Boom.
Your personal brand thought leadership content
Building your thought leadership content can be as simple as knowing what type of articles you’ll share to your audience in LinkedIn or Facebook relative to the value you add.
It can move into a full content strategy for social media, a book deal, your keynote and panel topics and media commentary.
Once you have your personal brand and thought leadership positioning and strategy – time for step 4.
4. Create compelling collateral
The deepest challenge in marketing yourself as a product is selling something that’s not tangible, it’s basically like selling air.
So, how do you do it? The answer is by making the intangible into tangible through compelling personal brand collateral.
Traditional brand collateral, according to Lorraine Carter is the “collection of media used to promote the brand and support the sales and marketing of a product or service. It’s the tangible evidence of the brand, designed congruent with the brand’s core values and personality.”
Investing in well thought-out and professionally crafted personal brand collateral is key.
It attracts your ideal audience, offers them a way to follow you and positions you as an influential and trustworthy expert, a valuable resource, and an industry thought leader.
From a compelling LinkedIn profile and “About Us” page on your business website – where you’re front and centre of the story – to a personal brand focused website, social media profiles, thought leadership blog posts, a speakers’ kit, media kit and press releases – it’s imperative to bring your personal brand to life with the tangible evidence designed with your blueprint and architecture in mind.
5. Deliver on your personal brand promise
None of the above is as valuable as this final – and ongoing – step in delivering your personal brand promise. As Simon Sinek’s shares, in his best-selling book Start with Why,
“Trust is maintained when values and beliefs are actively managed. If companies do not actively work to keep clarity, discipline and consistency in balance, then trust starts to break down.”
Effectively positioning yourself is the initial milestone to successfully marketing yourself as a product.
Once you’ve made a promise and established trust between you and your audience, it’s vital to maintain this relationship by delivering your brand’s promise consistently, by staying true to your ‘why’ and keeping it alive.
YOU are the most exciting project you’ll ever work on. Make it matter. Make your impact and share your legacy for generations to come.
The key is to start now. There’s never been a more exciting time to ride the wave of personal brand and positioning YOU for maximum impact.
If you need help or support, my Thought Leader and Profile True North program is a perfect place to start. Email Nicole@brandtruenorth.com to book in a 30min chat anywhere in the world to tailor the program for you.
Nicole Hatherly is a leading Brand and Profile Strategist, international keynote speaker, facilitator, published writer and podcast producer, offering over 25 years’ experience delivering award-winning strategies for iconic and international brands.
As Founder and Director of Brand True North, she works with business leaders, thought leaders, founders and entrepreneurs to position their brands for maximum impact and their personal brands and profiles for high credibility and trust to deliver invaluable media exposure and prestigious business awards.