68. Strategies to position your Personal Brand
How to position my personal brand
Positioning your Personal Brand is key, if you want to:
Gain visibility
Establish yourself in a specific market niche
Have a unique value proposition for that niche
WHAT IS POSITIONING?
To understand Positioning you need to ask yourself: how does my brand stand in comparison to other brands in my market?
Because this is exactly how consumers will evaluate you when making a decision as to what product or service to purchase when choosing between you and someone else.
Whoever is closest in terms of the attributes that they consider important, will have a better chance to be chosen.
Think of attributes of your product or service, then decide how yours compares to others in the market, here are a couple of examples:
What is the first thing that will pull them in? If you said an image, you are correct!
But what kind of an image? One they can relate to; an image that shows either who they will be working with or that sets them in the place where they see themselves.
Images can be used all over your website and social media to show what you do, to bring people into your work life.
Think of attributes of your product or service, then decide how yours compares to others in the market, here are a couple of examples:
Think about Jewelry:
Cost: type of jewelry more expensive than others in the market? Is it luxurious? (gold/precious stones) or more everyday low priced?
Design is it: beautiful, original, unique, modern, minimalist, classic, or sophisticated?
If you wish to make the positioning more visual, you can draw two axes and assign two relevant attributes, then decide graphically where your brand stands in comparison to others, like this example below.
Is the jewelry that you sell more minimalistic in design and expensive? Then you are positioned in Quadrant 1.
Is your jewelry, more elaborate in design and expensive? Then you are in Quadrant 2.
Is your jewelry, minimalistic but more affordable in price? Then it belongs in Quadrant 3.
Is your jewelry, elaborate but more affordable in price? Then it belongs in Quadrant 4.
Now, let’s assume that most of the Jewelry in boho design, is somewhat elaborate in design, but fairly affordable. Most suppliers in this niche market are priced in the affordable category, Quadrant 4.
But how about if you come up with something that remains true to the boho style, more elaborate, but with very original, unique, one of a kind, very high-quality materials that allow you to position your product in Quadrant 2, higher-priced, and away from the rest of the competition in that niche market?
By understanding where your product stands in relation to the competition, you are able to identify opportunities for needs that maybe no one else is servicing.
Here it could be they want or need to own something truly special and original, for which people would be willing to pay more.
The same way that you can position a physical product, you can position a Personal Brand and to a service that you provide, by assigning relevant attributes to your product, service, or brand experience.
The benefits of marketing yourself as a brand, either as a business entrepreneur or even as an executive:
Positioning a Personal Brand helps to set yourself apart from others.
Positioning is how you decide which segment or niche you will serve and focuses on serving that segment really well.
Positioning allows you to compete in a different segment/level.
In other to position your brand, you need to have a good grasp on your Personal Brand basic strategy, understanding where your strengths & weaknesses are, understanding your ideal client, and what you have to offer them to resolve their problem, amongst others.
If you are unclear about your basic Personal Brand strategy, you need to go back and lay that foundation first. I created this Personal Branding Guide which can help you with clarity.
HOW TO POSITION YOURSELF AS A BRAND?
Think strategically about these three questions:
Who is your ideal client? Who are you serving?
What are others in the market competing for? Are they competing on price, speed, safety, quality, and accuracy? Think about it and write it down.
What do YOU want to compete for? What other different alternative can you offer? What are the strengths you can offer in comparison to others?
Do you identify a segment in the market which is not being served by anyone else? See this as an opportunity.
See if the mix of strengths and products or services you offer allows you to play in a different field.
Search the less crowded quadrant and determine if there is a viable market in that segment.
Let’s use another example, this time with a service: teaching Yoga.
You might be offering different kinds of yoga training.
You might even offer different levels of courses, for beginners or advanced. There could be people who have done exercise before and others for whom maybe this is the first thing they do.
After all, it is possible to modify the poses and adjust to the different levels, right?
You might be teaching from home, or at a park or you might rent studio space or even own your own studio.
As you can see in the chart these two attributes: Price and the level of fitness are the two we are using here for this example.
Here I will make the assumption that most yoga instructors/studios will position themselves somewhere in the green area.
But what about if you choose to position yourself where the pink dot is, by specializing in high-performance athletes and teaching yoga to that niche only?
And as one of your strengths is to have been a performance athlete yourself as well, you understand how much has yoga helped you to avoid injury and maintain mobility.
As you can see, by analyzing the market, it is possible to identify areas of opportunity to offer our products or services.
Once you choose the field you are going to work in, make sure to communicate it clearly. Make sure customers understand how you differentiate from other competitors and what you stand for.
Focus on communicating what you have to offer and the competitive advantage.
This article on clarifying your Brand Message can help:
If you feel like you don’t have a proper Online Marketing strategy, you don’t even know where to start, schedule a complimentary consultation call to discuss your needs and on how I can help you:
Not ready for 1:1 Mentoring? Want to figure it out yourself? Then this Personal Brand Mini-Course can help you get started with your strategy:
Hi! I’m Blanca!
I’m a Brand Photographer and Personal Branding Coach, helping female entrepreneurs to create a Personal Brand online that STANDS OUT.
I bring your vision to life, help you come up with one and take you by the hand into the online World if you need me to.