by Nnadozie Egeonu

No matter your line of business know that there exist competition, and like you, your competitors are working hard to garner the majority of the market share. Know what you do better than others, if you don’t have, try getting one.

Just like any other human project, especially one that concerns business and making more profit, it is pertinent to understand the project and its framework completely before churning in funds or committing energy into it. Personal Branding could be an easy exercise if only you understand what makes up a strong brand. Thus, knowing them will help you set succinct direction in branding your personality for business and will surely help so much in achieving set business objectives.

OK! The components of a strong Personal Brand are:

EMOTIONAL STIMULATION: Do you and what you present have a positive feel on your audience or market? Brands are targeted mostly on the emotions of the market; your personality has to connect with people’s emotions, this helps in rousing passion about your brand.

VISIBILITY: If your target audience has not heard about you, or seen you then you do not exist. You have to put up plans to take your brand to the door step of your target audience and let them know you are out there How well you communicate your presence matters a lot. Don’t just focus on them seeing or hearing about you, but on leaving a good memory. You have to be a constant pop up on their brains.

VALUE: This is the core benefits your target market / audience stands to gain from associating with you. Don’t stop at giving value, bring something different. Customers don’t buy products or service they are buying a solution, so in thinking out your values for your business, think about solutions.

PROFESSIONALISM: Negotiation in business is mainly a mental transaction. Your appearance in front of a potential client sends an abstract signal in his brain which evaluates your person and concludes on whether to go ahead and do business with you. So, if you are a personal brand you have to understand how to use style, good communication and calculated corporate composure to convince a potential client. Further more, know the whole detail of what you do, that which you call work (job) and be able to understand what the client wants and how to professionally enlighten them on what they do not understand about the task.  Know that even the ignorant client can also detect unprofessionalism.

CREDIBILITY: How believable do you seem? Trust is always a major factor in establishing your personal brand. If your market trusts you then you are in for a smooth cruise, but if they doubt your authenticity then you have a huge challenge in breaking through. No one wants to work with some one with vague personality. So don’t put your personality in situation of doubt. Be genuine and see how your integrity will do the magic.

UNIQUENESS: What stands you out from the rest? This is where your creativity and strengths come in. Use your distinctiveness to convince people. No matter your line of business know that there exist competition, and like you, your competitors are working hard to garner the majority of the market share. Know what you do better than others, if you don’t have, try getting one. It may be from filling a void others left or doing an extra work for a client. Be a different specific, be the guy who offers the best alternative and not the one who still gives the usual stuffs.

RELEVANCE: Know your target market and recognize clearly if your brand is significant enough to attract patronage.

Guess these points will help you brand properly. Which component do you think is the most effective?

 

Op-ed pieces and contributions are the opinions of the writers only and do not represent the opinions of Y!/YNaija.