Personal branding has become one of the most important foundations for entrepreneurs as they build a business and professional reputation to promote their image to their ideal clients and there are three crucial keys to ensure personal branding success. Unfortunately, if these are not part of the initial business strategy, it can derail the best laid out plans since personal branding is much more than color combinations, fonts, and a cool logo. It is, in fact, an essential ingredient for every aspect of marketing a business that includes websites, social media posts, advertising, and everything digital.
Ross B. Williams, founder of Modern Profits, is a Personal Branding Strategist and he says, “When personal branding is done correctly, it will differentiate you from your competition and elevate your reputation, but business branding is very different from personal branding. Not only do you need to understand the difference between the two, but you also must understand why you need both. You can be successful at your business but if your personal branding is not aligned with who you are, you are missing opportunities that ultimately affect your bottom line.”
Williams, who was recently interviewed on Tampa Bay’s Morning Blend, the local ABC-TV station, has a unique background as a personal branding strategist. He has contributed multi-seven–figure sales revenue to several companies with his mastery of sales and uses his business building skills and digital marketing expertise to help successful business owners dramatically increase revenue by transforming their personal brand. When he works with his clients, he incorporates three crucial keys to ensure personal branding success.
1. Personal branding should reflect the entrepreneur’s authentic self. A personal brand should be an accurate, yet authentic, version of who the entrepreneur is so they attract the types of clients with whom they want to work. According to Ross B. Williams, this is crucial for ultimate success, “I see a lot of successful entrepreneurs promoting their lifestyle on social media, for example, but I have no idea what they actually do, what business they’re in, or how I can help them by referring business. If people don’t know what you do, they can’t refer business to you and that is why a personal brand is so important.”
Ross continues, “The ultimate point to keep in mind is that people buy from people so your personal brand is a reflection of you even when you’re not the face of a company. Since you are promoting yourself, you need to create your branding assets according to your personality. If you are selling something that’s not true to you, others will feel it.”
2. Entrepreneurs must build their personal brand alongside their business brand. Today, more than ever, it’s not enough to build a business brand, but entrepreneurs need to build a personal brand in tandem as they build their business. Why? Williams advises, “It’s imperative that you begin with the end in mind. If you have an exit strategy when you build your business to sell it five years down the road, you only want to be the ‘face’ of a successful business without having your name tied to the brand because if you do, you can’t sell your business as a separate brand.”
Ross goes on to say, “If you choose to sell your business someday without a personal brand developed alongside your company, you’d have to start another business from scratch and cannot use your name on your business.”
3. The logo and color combinations are just “gift wrap” for a personal brand. Many entrepreneurs start their personal branding with a logo and branding board, but it is much more complex and scientific, according to Williams, “Personal branding starts with how you make people feel with what you do in your business, how you want to be portrayed and have others see you, then you wrap it in colors and design. The graphic designer understands the creative color combinations, fun fonts, and logo design, but most don’t understand which colors, and even fonts, trigger emotions and attract clients to buy from you before they even get to peek inside the box. These are psychological touch points that can dramatically increase sales and ultimately revenues.”
Content creation for personal branding can be overwhelming for most business owners and that’s why Ross B. Williams has put this all together in a done for you package that’s simple for any business owner. The key is not to build a little bit at a time and then try to bring it all together since that’s chaotic or doesn’t match. “Effective personal branding demands that social media, photos, graphic design, and media are cohesive and congruent so that it extends your digital footprint and your omnipresence.” Ross concludes.
Ross helps coaches, consultants, entrepreneurs, and business owners build their personal brand with his brand accelerator package. This helps entrepreneurs perfect their messaging and expand their digital footprint with a website, funnel, social media, and press that seamlessly work together as a cohesive brand that people remember and buy from.
Ross B. Williams works with clients based in the U.S. and around the world to develop personal branding strategies that get results. He is available for Personal Branding Strategy sessions and can be contacted at RossBWilliams.com or connect with Ross on Instragram.
