All brands should have a personal dimension. All brands need a human element.
I do not care whether you are a personal brand (coach, consultant, author), or business. The same rules apply.
Not sure if you agree? Indulge me...
Branding exists to create an emotional connection with your target audience and build a relationship with them.
It is the emotional connection that makes someone choose your brand over your competitors.
Think about it for a moment.
Imagine you are standing on the edge of a cliff and two people are hanging over the edge screaming and about to plunge to their deaths.
You only have time to save one of them!
On that clifftop, staring down into the abyss, you have a hard choice to make.
Whose hand would you grab and save?
Now if I told you one is a complete stranger; the other is someone you have a close emotional bond with, your partner, or one of your children.
Whose hand would you reach for now? Would it influence your choice?
It would, it is the way we are wired, there is no escaping it.
“It is the emotional connection that makes someone choose your brand over your competitors.”
An extreme example, granted, but the principal is the same whether the decision is life and death, or deciding which brand to buy.
I am not talking logos here.
For the record, a logo or mark is just the symbol that visually represents the emotional and experiential connections associated with a brand.
The mark/ident/logo is the shortcut that evokes the emotional feelings in our brains. It is important, but not as important as the reason you have a logo.
Your emotional connection with your customers is why they reach for your hand when you are hanging off the cliff, and not your competitors.
Now that is cleared up, back to the script.
People do not make emotional connections with inanimate objects (mostly) they make connections with other people.
There is a saying that people buy from people they ‘know, like and trust’.
Logic follows that by working on the human element of your branding, you will make it easier for people to connect with you and your business.
Sure, there may be several people saying similar things to you in your field, but they are not you.
You and I, along with every one of the other 7-point something billion humans that inhabit this planet, are unique.
Every single one of us is different; this is your strength. Use it to your advantage.
Two people can say the same thing, but no two people can say the same thing in the same way as you.
You are the best person in the world at being you.
To illustrate, think of your favorite actor and visualize them in the different roles they have played.
Note how they have transformed from role to role, but they are still the same person.
Take Han Solo in the movie Star Wars, played by the inimitable Harrison Ford as an example.
Sure, another actor could have played that part, read the same lines and be witty and likeable, but they could NEVER be Harrison Ford.
He brings his uniqueness to every part he plays.
The same is true with you. You are unique, and you need to bring YOUR uniqueness to your brand and your business.
If you want to succeed in business, you cannot escape it.
Your life story, personality, values, sense of humor, these all contribute to you as a person, and they are the foundation of your personal brand. They can be leveraged for your business brand too.
You need to bring YOU to the foreground of your brand.
Often I will have a conversation with owners of small but well-established businesses struggling to understand what makes them unique.
How are we different from our competitors when we offer the same products?
It is not until we dig a little deeper into their personal origin stories that the personality of their brand and their unique positioning becomes apparent.
How do you put this to work in your business?
Simple. Craft your story of connectivity and credibility.
If you are a business brand with multiple personnel, inject their humanity into your brand too.
Publish your personal story everywhere. On your website, in your company literature, and do not be afraid to get personal when speaking at events or networking.
Start making those emotional connections and see how it makes a difference to your business.
Next Steps
Crafting your story of connectivity and credibility is one of my Ten Steps to Conversion Marketing Success.
These are the exact steps I use with my VIP coaching and consulting clients to help them get stellar results in their businesses with conversion marketing.
You can download the checklist for free here.
Create meaningful emotional connections. So your customers reach for your hand on the clifftop, and not your competitors.
