Building a brand online? Don’t have millions of dollars to waste on marketing and advertising? Personal branding might be the solution for you. Keep watching to find out how creating a personal brand can help get you more clients.
Should I build a personal brand?
Last week, I talked about how to build your brand on YouTube. Before you get started creating a profile, setting up your channel and/or creating videos, you need to make a big decision.
Are you building a personal brand or a company brand?
I’m going to help you decide. The correct answer for you is a personal brand.
Why a personal brand?
So, why am I telling you to build a personal brand? The short answer is I assume that you’re watching this video because you’re a solopreneur or small business. And if you’re one of the 2, you have limited funds for marketing.
People buy from people. Or I like to say, people fall for people. The best example of this is celebrities. Most of us are guilty of stalking our favorite celebrities.
We do fall for brands. For example, Apple, Samsung, Channel, YSL, Tarte, and so on. But those are big companies that spend millions of dollars on ads and marketing. Not only that, but those brands had to experiment to find out what their customers like and brand themselves to fit that image.
People fall for people.
As a small business, we can only depend on ourselves. AND as a personal brand, you just have to show that you’re a real person and that you can help your audience.
Since we’re talking about YouTube, I’ll give an example of a YouTube star. One of the first people I started following on YouTube was Andrea of AndreasChoice. I found her because I was searching for something like ‘how to grow your hair faster’. At that time, I went through a traumatic haircut. Like it was almost a bowl cut. (sigh)
When I found her, I binged all her videos and watched her new videos every time they were uploaded. Because I loved her, I would buy everything that she tried. That is the power of personal branding. After watching her videos, I felt like I knew her and could trust her, so I bought all the hair products she recommended and even some other things that sounded interesting.
As a personal brand, you just have to show that you’re a real person and that you can help your audience.
Personal branding made simple
I’m not going to speak about personal branding for too long. I just want to reiterate that people fall for people. Like I said before, we love following celebrities, YouTube stars, athletes, radio personalities, authors and the list goes on. It’s also why big businesses pay celebrities to market for them.
So how can you as a small business or person create a personal brand?
The answer is to be yourself. No, a better version of yourself. Because if I was being myself, I would have my hair up in a warrior bun, wear sweats or pajamas, and have dark circles from lack of sleep. I would also ramble on about shows I’ve watched and stories I’ve read.
So, be the best version of yourself or the style that represents your brand.
The reason why you want to be yourself and not create a whole other personality is because if you’re a service-based business, you’ll most likely interact with your clients. After speaking to you, you don’t want your clients to think, “Man, Paigon is totally different in real life.” You want them to feel like they know you and can rely on you for their projects.
So, be yourself, but better.
Need help branding your youtube channel? Sign up for my free email course ‘Brand Your YouTube Channel’ by clicking here!
I don’t have time for this, tell me why I should build a personal brand…
If you want to build social proof and authority, building a personal brand is important. It’ll help your potential clients feel like they know you before they even work with you.
Who are some people that you love to follow online and why? Let me know in the comments below.
