Why You’re Not Signing Autographs (Yet) – 2

Sat, Aug 22, 2009

Niche Marketing, Personal Branding, Why Coaches Fail

In Part One of this post I spoke about making ‘you’ your brand. The key to a strong personal identity brand is effectively telling your clients who you are, what you do and how you do it.

What I mean by that is your personal identity branding must use a consistent visual vocabulary, establish your personality, build recognition and awareness, and set expectations, or your “brand promise”.

Get Your Clients To Recognise You

As with most brands, the look and feel of your personal identity is communicated online by how your web page looks, what the content says and how you say it.

The key to a strong personal identity brand online is effective communication using words and images. Your approach should provide relationship-building experiences, articulate the emotional and self-expressive benefits of the brand and it should be based on your core attributes.

Ask yourself some common coaching questions and apply them to the subject of your online personal identity brand:

• What do you stand for?

• What do you want to achieve?

• What are your strategy and values?

The Internet is still a gold mine of opportunity, especially for those who use it to create a recognisable identity. Create your own indelible identity online and you will soon be known, seen and accepted as a leader in your field.

7 Tips To Help You Carve Your Personal Identity Brand

1. Define your brand up front: View your website through the eyes of a new visitor. It must be immediately obvious what you do so that visitors know exactly who the site is for.

2. Make yourself visible at all times: Don’t hide behind your brand. Speak to your clients like you are having a conversation with them. Nothing creates mystery and distrust more than a site that is void of a human contact.

3. Put what you do ahead of who you are: this may sound like a contradiction, but new visitors are firstly interested in what you can do for them. Then they want to be convinced that you are the best person to give it to them.

4. Get admirers instead of visitors: Visitors go to your web site, subscribe to your newsletter or buy your products and services. On the other hand, admirers respect what you do, rave about you to their friends and eagerly track everything you do. Create a ‘hot gossip’ mentality and generate interest in ‘you’.

5. Make good use of words: Even with my background in graphic design, I will happily admit that content is more important than graphics. To connect with your admirers and convert them into clients, deliver useful niche-driven information that speaks directly to them.

6. Make sure visual elements reinforce your identity: While ‘Content is King’, the look of your website must complement what you’re saying and who you are. Find the design scheme that best suits your identity.

7. Become the ‘Go-To Person’: Set yourself up as the leading expert and the primary resource for all things relating to your field. Your expertise online must filter out from your website to all relevant online communities and portals.

FURTHER ASSISTANCE

Are you a Life Coach, Business Consultant or Trainer who needs a website, web content and/or information products? Is your website too hard to update or is it costing you too much? Maybe you need copy and design on your website, blog or social media pages. Or perhaps you need an ebook, audio/video script or coaching tools created from your notes. Whatever your needs, we ensure you (a) connect with prospective clients and (b) provide quality resources for your existing clients.