I recently met with a prospective client who has a wonderful story to tell.
We’re proposing an online branding campaign to place him above, and set him apart from a large herd of competitors in a saturated local service industry. Strong market differentiation is essential in a cluttered field
Upon sharing my enthusiasm for his potential brand and his reputation… people literally rave about him and the quality of his work… he responded by asking me, “Do you really think I can do this?”
I answered by telling him, “All you need to do is be who you are. You live and practice your brand every day.”
Which gets me to the point of this post. Do not be afraid to…
project your unique personality into your marketing:
- Be personal. Being a professional doesn’t mean you should only talk about business. Maybe you like to tango, mountain bike, or walk on the beach in the winter. Get this into your marketing. A past client invested over $6,500 in my SEO coaching after one phone call. He later told me the reason he jumped right in was because I teach tournament level chess to elementary school students. If I hadn’t shared this personal info in the course of conversation I might have left $6,500 on the table.
- Don’t hide weaknesses. I often talk about everything from my general shyness, to procrastination and my obsession with collecting anything I acquire more than five or six of (which has lead to many small piles of junk around my home). Showing your weaknesses is an excellent way to appear more like a real person and help prospective clients get to know you.
- Emphasize one or two aspects of your personality. I often focus on my endless curiosity about everything (certain I could win top prize in any research competition), and my general irreverence for the status quo. Magnifying these aspects of my personality can create more interest in me and eventually my services.
Begin adding your unique personality to your online branding right away. If you put more personality into your marketing it will soon pay off big-time.
Also keep in mind that if you don’t decide what your brand is, others will decide for you, which is not a good thing.
Comments/thoughts?
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
I decided to follow what you said and added some personalization to my very formal business website. So far I’ve closed five new clients directly from the site and the interesting thing is that when they got in touch they were already sold on working with me. The usual 25-30 minute phone call went down to 10-15 minutes and rapidly progressed to, “Where do I send the check?”
As I’ve gotten to know each client they’ve all said the same thing in their own way: “After reading through your site you just seemed like a real person, so I came back to your site several times and ended up really wanting to work with you.”
THANK YOU so much for this million-dollar advice. What should I do next?
You’re most welcome. Send an email with your URL and I’ll see what else can be done.
I am so glad I tagged along with my girlfriend. Your seminar was over the top! You really opened my eyes to some important things that we haven’t been paying attention to.
My company’s website needs a serious overhaul but more than that, we need an online marketing strategy that can surpass our competiton. I hope you’re available next month. Thanks much, Susan
Just wanted to say I was at your Savvy Ladies presentation last night and it was awesome.
Thanks for coming Dennis. Glad you enjoyed the seminar.