For everyone who is starting a business or has been cultivating a business for some time now, investing in personal branding is a must. The process of developing a "mark" that is created around your name or your career is an essential part of turning your business from mediocre to extremely successful. Through proper personal branding you are communicating your values, skills, and personality and - most importantly - attracting customers who share the same values as you do and are after what you’ve got to offer.

How can I be sure my business has matured enough to be branded?

Everyone who works hard and invests in their business – money-wise, intellectually, emotionally, etc. deserves to have their brand-name trending. Unfortunately, many great brands have suffered plenty of fails relying on word of mouth marketing only (not the paid kind, but the real one); the word on good quality travels really slow which is why you need to pop it up and put some effort into getting the visibility you deserve.

Why does personal branding hold relevance?

When you do your branding well, you are giving your firm the chance to stand out and be unique. Your personal brand should be about what you have to offer, who you are as an entrepreneur, the extent of your visions and your long-term goals. No matter how young your business is, it is mature enough for personal branding – no doubt. Just remember - if you don’t develop your own personal brand others will do it for you – and you don’t want to risk being viewed in a way that’s not even close to your desired trademark.

What is more, a strong brand will impact your ability to advance, develop and increase your aptitude to attract talent and capital.

What is the best way to successfully develop my personal branding?

You should adjust your methods to your line of business and mold it after your own and your customers’ expectations. However, some basic things to cover are:

Craft Your Personal Brand Persona 

This is achieved through:

Identifying your specialty: Everything you offer in your business as well as ways your brand is the it thing the customer needs. Make a statement on why you are better than everybody else in the same/similar line of business and draw attention to yourself.

Identifying your emotional appeal. This trait covers your brand’s “personality” features and reflects on why people are attracted to all you do. This one means knowing your target audience and “manipulating” their expectations.

Build Your Internet Platform

Internet visibility is crucial for people working on establishing their brand as influential and worthy. The best way to reach the customer is through social networks whose popularity is not even close to a decline. If anything, with every new year we obsess over a new social media platform that allows us to communicate and share information we find interesting.

So, start by creating your virtual platforms on:

• Facebook

• Instagram

• Twitter

• LinkedIn

Each of these platforms serves a particular purpose and cultivates a specific kind of audience, so you’ll be able to communicate everything about your brand with people of all profiles. Dig a little on the type of audiences populating these social networks and craft your pages by their expectations.

Certainly, these platforms will be the means of sharing your voice and product.

Create Your Own App

For everyone whose business is linked to them alone and the skills they personally offer, building your own app is the best thing to do. If you are a personal trainer, vocal coach (or any other coach), singer, advisor, therapist, etc. – the easiest way is to find a good app maker, and build an app that will give your potential customers the opportunity to find and get to know you quickly and easily. And also contact you and order your product or employ your services.

Create and Curate Great Content

Once you’ve created your network platforms and launched your app, key is to generate content that will attract the audience. Things you post should be catchy and thought-provoking, although simple enough for everyone to understand them.

For instance, if you are a personal trainer, post a video of yourself doing workouts every day. Share them on all of your social networks for the extended visibility. Follow up with motivational notes encouraging the audiences to start working out and share helpful advice on what the most common mistakes in working out are. The clients can sense if you are engaged in your work or not, and when they see you are – your focus and dedication will definitely solidify that branded position among readers and followers.