#howtodobranding

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How Personal Branding Can Help You Grow Your Business in 2019

What do the likes of Tony Robbins, Arianna Huffington, Gary Vaynerchuk, and Grant Cardone have in common? If you’ve heard of any of these four business owners, you’ll know that they focus on their personal branding. Personal branding means using your reputation to attract more customers. It means forgoing the sale for now and focusing on leveraging aspects of your personality to build proper, lasting relationships. Subscribe to Read the Largest Marketing Live Book => The good news is that it doesn’t matter if you lack the natural charisma, swag or charm of a Gary Vaynerchuk. When it comes to personal branding, everything can be taught, learned and implemented. In this article, we take a look at how to create the kind of personal branding that makes people feel SO good about you that your business grows and grows.

Have the Right Intentions

If you go into this with all the wrong intentions, you will ultimately lose. In 2019 and beyond, more and more of your customers are looking for honesty and transparency from you. In fact, it’s something they’ve now come to expect. And now that social media is dominating our lives, anything you say on there will either be a blessing or a curse. If your intentions are all wrong, social will be a curse. Having good intentions means going into this with the right values. These right values should include goodwill, generosity, honesty, transparency, and a genuine desire to help people. As long as you keep these values in mind at all times, your message will resonate with the right people, and your relationships will flourish. If, on the other hand, your intentions are bad and all you care about is your next sale, you will soon be exposed.

Provide As Much Value As Possible

As well as having values, you need to provide value to your community. The likes of Grant Cardone are pumping out an insane amount of daily content. A quick cursory check of his YouTube profile shows us that he’s uploaded a ton of content in the last few days alone. Source: YouTube And it’s all free. Notice also that a lot of the content isn’t directly related to what he’s selling. Instead, he’s producing content that’s designed to educate and inform people, and foster strong relationships with his audience. In essence, Grant Cardone is treating his personal branding as a media company. As well as YouTube, he’s also producing a pile of content for his Facebook page and his website. He’s providing value to his community, and in exchange he’s winning fans and making people feel good about him. They feel so good about him that many of his more devoted fans lovingly refer to him as ‘Uncle G.’ That’s the kind of personal branding that works.

Be Unique

One of the biggest challenges of personal branding is standing out from the crowd. Gary Vaynerchuk isn’t the only entrepreneur who owns a media company and who tries to motivate and inspire others. But he stands out because his voice, message and branding is as unique as his angle. It’s important that you find a way of distinguishing yourself from the crowd, otherwise you won’t have a personal brand. What is YOUR core message and theme? What aspect of your personality makes you different to anyone else? Remember, there will always be people who try to copy you, but no one can be you. Leverage what makes you unique — it could be your wicked sense of humour, your style of writing engaging copy etc — and run with it. Another way to help you stand out from the crowd is to show different sides of your personality. If you’re a fitness guru who focuses 100% on one aspect of your personality, you will be just like all the other fitness gurus out there.

Engage with People on Social Media

You’ll be amazed at what taking the time to respond to comments on social media can do to your profile. Your fans love the thought that you’ve taken the time out of your day to engage with them. It shows them that you care and appreciate them. It also shows that you’re listening and will help to refine your reputation. It doesn't take long. Just put some time aside each week to respond to comments across your social media platforms, make sure to provide value feedback, by making your social media interactions useful.

Look for Guest Blogging Opportunities

Guest blogging can be a great way to raise awareness of your personal brand in 2019. If you haven’t tried it yet, it’s when you pitch an article idea to a high domain, authoritative blog in your niche. Upon acceptance, you write your article, before it’s published to the website. The rewards can be huge. By publishing content to high-traffic websites in your niche, you’re positioning yourself as the expert. You’re putting your brand in front of new faces and building your brand. Naturally, guest blogging takes a lot of time and effort. You’ll need to use an SEO tool to find relevant blogs in your niche, and you’ll need to put together a small team that includes someone to pitch article ideas and someone to write them. You can also delegate the process to the companies providing content writing services. Meanwhile, you can use tools like BuzzSumo or implement social listening techniques to generate content ideas. Recommended: 4 Ways to Find Best Sites for Guest Blogging

Double Down on Email Marketing

The thing with personal branding is that you need to have a dominant mindset. You need to be everywhere — and this includes inboxes. Email marketing will continue to be a powerful weapon for brands in 2019. Use it to stay in touch with your subscribers, and send out regular emails. Mix up your content — hit people with educational, informative and entertaining content, as well as your sales emails. Remember, everyone has an email address. If you can bring all your customers together in one place, you can then work on using your personal brand to build your business with personalised content that hits the spot. To this end, segment your list so that you target specific audience segments with the right content. Recommended: 7 Email Marketing Trends to Start Implementing Right Now

Conclusion

Personal branding can be the difference between a prospect remaining a prospect or turning into a loyal, long-term fan of yours. Use the tips in this article to boost your reputation and bring as much value and entertainment as possible to keep your customers happy in 2019. Subscribe to Read the Largest Marketing Live Book => Read the full article

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Does Your Logo Design Reflect Your Brand Value? [Infographic]

Decided to make your own logo design? To help you make an effective one, be sure that people can easily see the value of your brand just by looking at your logo. No need to panic because you can achieve this. You can do it. You just have to know what your brand is about. Is it all about value and budget? Or is it affordable? Or on the expensive side? Either way, these logo design tips from LogoAi can help you effectively create a logo perfect for your brand.

Read the full article

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Eight Tips for Branding on a Budget

You flip on the TV, and you instantly see a montage of them — commercials, all of which come from big-name brands. As you flip through the channels and catch more and more of this content, you wonder, "How can I compete with my budget?" As it turns out, businesses both big and small — with budgets to match — can come up with some stellar branding techniques. As such, you don't need to wait until you have cash or settle for subpar options. Instead, try any one of these eight methods to brand your business on a budget:

1. Start By Defining Your Brand

You can't come up with a branding strategy without knowing who you are. Indeed, your brand represents your company as a whole. What is your goal, your mission? What do you want to be known for? What will you change in the industry? You need to have answers to these questions before diving into branding. On top of that, you need to define your target customer and audience. You can do so by analyzing a slew of different factors, such as the demographics and state of mind of the person who will buy from you. Doing so can help you draw up a brand strategy, too. Getting into the mindset of your ideal customer will help you devise a plan that will speak to and inspire them.

2. Then, Design Your Logo

Branding isn't just an idea in your head — it's the visuals that will help define and differentiate your business. So, once you have ironed out your goals, move onto physical branding basics. You can hire someone to design a logo that fits your vision, for example. With the logo complete, then you can design business cards, a website and other materials that will revolve around the company's design. Hiring a graphic designer to help with this step will set you back, but you can reuse the logo on just about anything. This feature will allow you to use and reuse the logo down the line, thus saving you cash and boosting your PR prowess.

3. Choose Reusable Materials

If you're on a budget, then one-time-use marketing materials won't be worth your money. Instead, start investing in materials that you can use over and over again. For instance, you've probably driven past a business that redecorates for every season and its holidays. Chances are, the business owner isn't re-buying all of their supplies each year. They rely on reusable decor to get them through each month of the calendar. It helps boost intrigue and interest in the business without breaking the bank. You can do the same with signage, as one of many examples. Indoor signage touts a shop's offerings, so produce a handful of different versions — one traditional menu, one that includes Christmas specials, etc. Then, you can reuse the signs as you recycle the same offerings at the start of each holiday season.

4. Embody an Expert

To get customers on board with your brand, you want them to know that you know what you're doing. So, make it clear through social media posts and other content that you're an expert. To that end, you might want to write a blog for your website that makes your knowledge and credibility clear. Either way, your expertise will make an impression. When it's time for a customer to buy something or hire a helper, they will remember how much you know about your chosen field.

5. Plan a Contest

This option does require a bit of an investment in a prize or service for the winner. However, setting up a contest or sweepstakes will draw in a slew of new contacts and fans, especially if you organize the competition online. Once people enter their emails to become part of the contest, you can use their contact information to reach out in the future and promote future sales, events and more.

6. Rely on Social Media

If you want to brand for free, then look no further than social media. Sites including Facebook, Twitter and Instagram allow you to sign up for free. You can use your pages to share photos of your business's wares. Or, you can cultivate an alluring online presence that'll boost your fan base and, therefore, your sales. To get your Twitter in good shape, you should follow a set of tried-and-true steps. For instance, if your company's page follows a particular online Influencer, you can build a relationship with that person. Re-sharing or engaging with their posts can help facilitate a relationship between you two, and it can drum up interest in fans of the celeb in question.

7. Create Usable Content

This tip applies to social media, blogs and any other outlet that you might use to promote your business. These free platforms give you the opportunity to create content that customers not only enjoy, but find useful. When your content makes them feel both ways, they will begin to seek out your posts. Even in an obscure industry, there's something that a client wants or needs to know from you. Figure out what it is and create content surrounding the topic. The customers will follow. For instance, a bakery might create branded content showing consumers how to bake bread at home or explaining the science behind the process. Sure, you might think that some customers will see this and decide to make their own loaves instead. But the reality is that most customers will remember the clip and choose to come buy from you — they'll trust you now that they've seen your branded content.

8. Find a Partner

Finally, you can boost your branding efforts by entering into a partnership with another brand. Doing so can lend credibility to your business, especially if it's new. By partnering with a well-respected, visible brand, viewers will equate your company with the same level of quality. This result can help build clout and trustworthiness for your business. Just be sure that your partner has similar values and uses for its products as you do. For instance, if you have whipped up your own line of energy bars, promote them in goodie bags at local 5K races, for example. The people sampling your concoctions are the most likely to buy your products — it's a win-win to let them sample them first.

Budget, Brand, Succeed

You don't have to break the bank to successfully brand your business. Instead, you just need to plan thoughtfully and build a social media presence. From there, you can churn out high-quality content on your own and with the help of a business partner. And, together, you will both succeed without breaking the bank on marketing. As a business owner, you couldn't ask for much more than that. Read the full article

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How to Boost the Value of Your Business with Tactical Branding

When it comes to building your business and creating customer loyalty, your branding is incredibly important; although any business can have a brand, not every business can have a brand that is both recognisable and synonymous with them. Here we will look at how a tactical approach to branding is an important part of your marketing and will ultimately boost the value of your business and encourage customer loyalty.

The Importance of Brand

A good brand goes beyond being just a memorable logo, it adds to and encapsulates the value of your business, promotes customer loyalty and gives your employees a company ethos to work towards. The brand is formed by every part of the customer experience, from the customer service, the packaging, the website to the company social media platforms. Failing to spend the necessary time investing in your branding can impact the growth and success of your business, so it’s crucial to get right.

Understand Your Demographic

To build your brand effectively, you need to understand your demographic – knowing their wants and needs. If your brand doesn’t appeal to your target customer, your sales are likely to suffer. Create a customer profile – the perfect customer you wish to target – and define their wants, needs, desires, likes, dislikes, education level etc and build the brand from there. Carefully defining your customer will help you tailor your brand to them.

Stay True to Your Business

Being tactical in your branding doesn’t mean that you’re making your business into something it isn’t. Stay true to you and your business and keep your branding in line with that authenticity. Customers will quickly see through branding which is attempting to project something the company isn’t. Recommended: How to Protect Your Brand Design in 2019

Create Your Brand Mission Statement

Your branding should sum up what your business is about and what it stands for and should do it succinctly; your mission statement will feed into this and help form the direction and the future of the business. Every big successful brand starts off with a purpose – and this isn’t just to exist and make money; this purpose, such as to make life easier or cheaper for the consumer in some way, will make up your mission statement.

Research Your Competitors

Your brand won’t stand out if you’re simply doing what your competitors are doing. Researching your industry and identifying where your competitors are succeeding and failing will help guide your branding efforts. Make sure to differentiate yourself from the rest of the industry, but still appeal to your target consumer. A good way to make a comparison is to create a list of 3-4 competitors and highlight what they’re doing well and what you think they aren’t doing as well and see how your brand stands up against them.

Create Trust in Your Brand

Building a business consumers can rely on, which is professional, polished and looks after its customers will help foster trust in your brand. Offer rewards for loyalty, random acts of kindness – such as a free full-sized sample – and no-questions-asked returns and consistent quality to create a brand that can be trusted and relied on. Your brand becomes your promise to the customer.

Your Brand as an Experience

One of the most effective ways some companies build their brand is by building an experience around their product. Apple has done this very cleverly and effectively, now with millions of loyal consumers around the world. Apple has their ‘genius bar’ where you can receive help and support with your products, and their stores are laid out to appear sleek, minimalistic and futuristic; all of this helps support and build their branding. When considering experience in the context of your brand, ask yourself: what is like to work for this company? What is the purchasing process like? What is aftercare like?

Build Advertising Campaigns to Support the Brand

Advertising is what will help cement your branding and how you will target your brand to your demographic; it’s for this reason that it’s so important to make sure your advertising is properly aligned with your brand identity. Know where your demographic is easily found – such as on Instagram or in print media – and build your advertising to suit both the platform and your brand. At this point, everything should tie together, from the website, to the logo, to the advertising, to the packaging.

Blogging and Video Content

Recommended: 5 Tips for Creating Engaging Video Content Some people think building a business blog isn’t worthwhile, but not only is it a great way to showcase the company personality, but it also works to boost brand awareness and search visibility. Blog and video content are an effective way to showcase your products, offer related advice – such as skincare help for consumers from a cosmetic brand - give insight into you as an owner, why you started the company and how the business operates. Giving a voice and a face to your company via video and blog content will make it much easier for consumers to relate to your brand and get behind your company mission statement.

Solicit Feedback and Reviews

It’s one thing to showcase your brand and sing your own praises, but it’s another for your customers to do it. During the customer purchase journey, set up a quick and easy way – normally best via email – for consumers to give feedback. Not only is this feedback great for your business to learn and grow, but it’s also a brilliant way to encourage new business. Testimonials and positive reviews give new customers confidence in your brand and products and will encourage them to purchase. Also, consumers who leave positive reviews are also more likely to then recommend your business to friends and family as well as come back to make a repeat purchase.

Generate A Following

Advertising and social media platforms are the perfect way to build a following and encourage customer loyalty. Strong branding makes consumers want to connect themselves to you and your messaging, meaning they will want to follow you on the likes of Facebook and Instagram as well as recommend you to friends and family. Branding which connects well with your demographic makes it much easier to grow naturally.

Consistency is Key

To maintain and build the value of your brand, you will need to remain consistent in all areas. Establishing a strong brand, as discussed, improves customer loyalty, but this means your customers have certain expectations when it comes to your business and how it presents itself to the world. If part of your business fails to meet those expectations, such as imagery or a level of service which doesn’t align with the brand, then this can impact brand value and customer retention; maintaining consistency will help protect your brand.

Building Financial Value

When investors or buyers value a business, they will often look at both the tangible and intangible assets. Your tangible assets are your physical assets which make up a big part of the everyday running of the business, such as equipment, offices and stock. However, your intangible assets also play a big part in the valuation of your company and include your trademarks, reputation and, importantly, your brand value.

Branding is a huge part of your company and should take a lot of consideration; remember to be tactical about how you create and build your brand, ensuring you reach the right audience, employing the most suitable and relevant advertising. With authenticity, consistency, and the right kind of content, you can build your brand into something consumers aspire to and want to buy into. Read the full article

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The Brand-Building Value of Content Marketing for Consultants

Content marketing is an investment in brand equity. Consider that a piece of content is a durable asset that helps to generate and sustain interest in your brand. This is because people enjoy content and buy from brands whose content they value. Companies should maximize their content returns through fostering engaged and loyal customers throughout the marketing funnel. Beyond engagement, an effective content marketing program serves as a vehicle for brand exposure, impression, and differentiation instead of a one-time investment. By viewing content marketing through this lens, consulting companies can frame their content as a complement to their branding.

Content Creates Brand Identity

Consultants can use content marketing to develop their brand identity with customers. In fact, with the buyers’ journey happening entirely online in many cases, content marketing may be the only way to develop your brand. For this reason, a digital marketing agency must have a good content program to reach its audience, demonstrate expertise, and differentiate itself from competitors. People know brands use content marketing and they recognize it when they see it. Research from Clutch shows that most people recognize the most recent business content they consumed online as content marketing. Despite this awareness, content is still the best way to foster an affinity with your customers. People want to engage with brands that recognize their concerns. As such, an effective content marketing strategy shares insights, discuss trends, and positions your services in a way that forges relationships and sustains meaningful engagement with customers. Make sure to use a branded voice, tone, and visual aesthetic that aligns with your audience, and beware that any inconsistencies can alienate people.

Content Drives Awareness

Quality content improves your SEO, and thus your brand’s visibility on search engines. Specifically, effective content marketing boosts your visibility in the search engine results pages (SERPs) and drives organic engagement with prospects at the top of the sales funnel. According to Status Labs, 90% of people seek input through online reviews before buying from a busines. The best way to maintain a strong position in SERPs is to produce worthwhile, quality content. Effective content that makes it easy for readers to get value include: - Blogs – a great way to boost SEO when done properly - Infographics – engaging and sharable - Email newsletters – great for staying top-of-mind It’s also important to prioritize readability to hook your audience and pull them toward the next piece of content. To make content readable, it should be: - Visually engaging - Well-formatted - Easy-to-understand Top-performing content helps to generate valuable backlinks and a positive reputation in the industry. Meanwhile, prospects who get value from your content will visit your site to consume more.

Content Promotes Thought Leadership

People use content to evaluate which brands are experts in their field, so businesses should use content marketing to display their thought-leadership. Consultants are a dime-a-dozen, thus consulting firms need to create content online that helps them stand out from the crowd. Doing so helps to differentiate your brand to customers who are in the consideration and action stages of the sales funnel. As prospects approach a purchase, they seek detailed information that proves your expertise and experience. Content of this type includes: - Case studies - Ebooks - Product descriptions - Explanation/demonstration videos People are seeking honest, comprehensive, and detailed content to help them make a well-informed decision. Providing this content is the best way to nudge consumers toward conversion.

Content Creates Trust with Customers

People prefer to buy from brands they trust. To earn your audience’s trust, produce transparent and valuable content that they’re happy to consume. Over half of content marketing consumers are more likely to revisit a company's website to learn more about the company.

Great content guides people to a buying decision using a mix of information and entertainment to keep users engaged. The most engaging content is: - Original - Story-driven - Customer-focused - Actionable Brands can nurture customers with engaging, transparent content to secure their interest as well as their trust. It is ultimately how brands build relationships with people in the digital era. A comprehensive content marketing strategy allows you to reach, engage, and secure the loyalty of your audience at every stage of the sales funnel. Read the full article

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3 Key Reasons Highlighting the Importance of Brand Building

The dream of almost every budding entrepreneur is to raise their startup to the unicorn level and develop a self-sustaining business.  Yet, when it comes to startups and SMBs in today’s world, competition is more than fierce. According to startup statistics, around 100 million new ideas are launched globally, per annum. Meaning, effectively standing out from the sea of other brands is imperative.  Enter brand building.  So, without further ado, let’s take a closer look at branding and see exactly why it is essential for startups and small businesses alike.

1. Brand Positioning

First of all, aspiring entrepreneurs must accept the fact that their company “can make the first impression only once.” For that reason, it is vital to start thinking about marketing campaigns well before the launch of the enterprise. So, when the big day comes, you already have a ready-made brand personality and a well-formulated brand image. And no, we are not talking just about the logo here. On the contrary, branding is all about creating a personality for your business. Brand building tactics can help with brand positioning in the early days of a startup’s existence.  Moving on from there, we get to the second reason why branding is vital for your venture:

2. Increased Visibility

Another essential lesson for starting entrepreneurs is that “visibility creates opportunity.” Therefore, startup owners should invest considerable time and effort in the development of branding channels. After all, how will customers know your brand even exists if you don’t apply the adequate marketing tactics? Boosting brand awareness by creating eye-catching campaigns is but one way of doing so, for instance. Overall, the goal is to grab the customers’ attention and spark conversations; if your branding strategies are mostly data-driven and customer-oriented, there is no reason not to.  Also, it’s worth mentioning that increased visibility goes hand in hand with improved customer acquisition.  

3. Emotional Connection

Establishing a solid relationship with clients is the lifeblood of many a successful business. And — you guessed it — branding is the key to all this.  In short, branding can foster trust by generating a positive association with your enterprise. To do this, entrepreneurs must work long and hard to build up their customer loyalty and improve their customer retention rates. If the target audience sees you as a reliable and consistent partner, they will knock on your doors without any second thoughts; these strategies will help you play the long game.

Summary

At the end of the day, the best course of action for any company is to stay as authentic as possible. By thinking outside the box, entrepreneurs can come up with new and creative attention-grabbing campaigns. The same applies to brand building activities. The trick is to keep an open mind and always be on the lookout for unconventional solutions.  Before you know it, branding campaigns could be the driving force behind your startup’s exponential growth. So, what are you waiting for? Go out there and reveal your brand to the world. Read the full article

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The Psychology Behind Developing Brand Loyalty

In this infographic from the University of Southern California, you'll get to know about different strategies to enhance image perception of brands and how popular brands are doing with theirs.

Read the full article

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3 Key Reasons Highlighting the Importance of Brand Building

The dream of almost every budding entrepreneur is to raise their startup to the unicorn level and develop a self-sustaining business.  Yet, when it comes to startups and SMBs in today’s world, competition is more than fierce. According to startup statistics, around 100 million new ideas are launched globally, per annum. Meaning, effectively standing out from the sea of other brands is imperative.  Enter brand building.  So, without further ado, let’s take a closer look at branding and see exactly why it is essential for startups and small businesses alike.

1. Brand Positioning

First of all, aspiring entrepreneurs must accept the fact that their company “can make the first impression only once.” For that reason, it is vital to start thinking about marketing campaigns well before the launch of the enterprise. So, when the big day comes, you already have a ready-made brand personality and a well-formulated brand image. And no, we are not talking just about the logo here. On the contrary, branding is all about creating a personality for your business. Brand building tactics can help with brand positioning in the early days of a startup’s existence.  Moving on from there, we get to the second reason why branding is vital for your venture:

2. Increased Visibility

Another essential lesson for starting entrepreneurs is that “visibility creates opportunity.” Therefore, startup owners should invest considerable time and effort in the development of branding channels. After all, how will customers know your brand even exists if you don’t apply the adequate marketing tactics? Boosting brand awareness by creating eye-catching campaigns is but one way of doing so, for instance. Overall, the goal is to grab the customers’ attention and spark conversations; if your branding strategies are mostly data-driven and customer-oriented, there is no reason not to.  Also, it’s worth mentioning that increased visibility goes hand in hand with improved customer acquisition.  

3. Emotional Connection

Establishing a solid relationship with clients is the lifeblood of many a successful business. And — you guessed it — branding is the key to all this.  In short, branding can foster trust by generating a positive association with your enterprise. To do this, entrepreneurs must work long and hard to build up their customer loyalty and improve their customer retention rates. If the target audience sees you as a reliable and consistent partner, they will knock on your doors without any second thoughts; these strategies will help you play the long game.

Summary

At the end of the day, the best course of action for any company is to stay as authentic as possible. By thinking outside the box, entrepreneurs can come up with new and creative attention-grabbing campaigns. The same applies to brand building activities. The trick is to keep an open mind and always be on the lookout for unconventional solutions.  Before you know it, branding campaigns could be the driving force behind your startup’s exponential growth. So, what are you waiting for? Go out there and reveal your brand to the world. Read the full article

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The Brand-Building Value of Content Marketing for Consultants

Content marketing is an investment in brand equity. Consider that a piece of content is a durable asset that helps to generate and sustain interest in your brand. This is because people enjoy content and buy from brands whose content they value. Companies should maximize their content returns through fostering engaged and loyal customers throughout the marketing funnel. Beyond engagement, an effective content marketing program serves as a vehicle for brand exposure, impression, and differentiation instead of a one-time investment. By viewing content marketing through this lens, consulting companies can frame their content as a complement to their branding.

Content Creates Brand Identity

Consultants can use content marketing to develop their brand identity with customers. In fact, with the buyers’ journey happening entirely online in many cases, content marketing may be the only way to develop your brand. For this reason, a digital marketing agency must have a good content program to reach its audience, demonstrate expertise, and differentiate itself from competitors. People know brands use content marketing and they recognize it when they see it. Research from Clutch shows that most people recognize the most recent business content they consumed online as content marketing. Despite this awareness, content is still the best way to foster an affinity with your customers. People want to engage with brands that recognize their concerns. As such, an effective content marketing strategy shares insights, discuss trends, and positions your services in a way that forges relationships and sustains meaningful engagement with customers. Make sure to use a branded voice, tone, and visual aesthetic that aligns with your audience, and beware that any inconsistencies can alienate people.

Content Drives Awareness

Quality content improves your SEO, and thus your brand’s visibility on search engines. Specifically, effective content marketing boosts your visibility in the search engine results pages (SERPs) and drives organic engagement with prospects at the top of the sales funnel. According to Status Labs, 90% of people seek input through online reviews before buying from a busines. The best way to maintain a strong position in SERPs is to produce worthwhile, quality content. Effective content that makes it easy for readers to get value include: - Blogs – a great way to boost SEO when done properly - Infographics – engaging and sharable - Email newsletters – great for staying top-of-mind It’s also important to prioritize readability to hook your audience and pull them toward the next piece of content. To make content readable, it should be: - Visually engaging - Well-formatted - Easy-to-understand Top-performing content helps to generate valuable backlinks and a positive reputation in the industry. Meanwhile, prospects who get value from your content will visit your site to consume more.

Content Promotes Thought Leadership

People use content to evaluate which brands are experts in their field, so businesses should use content marketing to display their thought-leadership. Consultants are a dime-a-dozen, thus consulting firms need to create content online that helps them stand out from the crowd. Doing so helps to differentiate your brand to customers who are in the consideration and action stages of the sales funnel. As prospects approach a purchase, they seek detailed information that proves your expertise and experience. Content of this type includes: - Case studies - Ebooks - Product descriptions - Explanation/demonstration videos People are seeking honest, comprehensive, and detailed content to help them make a well-informed decision. Providing this content is the best way to nudge consumers toward conversion.

Content Creates Trust with Customers

People prefer to buy from brands they trust. To earn your audience’s trust, produce transparent and valuable content that they’re happy to consume. Over half of content marketing consumers are more likely to revisit a company's website to learn more about the company.

Great content guides people to a buying decision using a mix of information and entertainment to keep users engaged. The most engaging content is: - Original - Story-driven - Customer-focused - Actionable Brands can nurture customers with engaging, transparent content to secure their interest as well as their trust. It is ultimately how brands build relationships with people in the digital era. A comprehensive content marketing strategy allows you to reach, engage, and secure the loyalty of your audience at every stage of the sales funnel. Read the full article

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How Personal Branding Can Help You Grow Your Business in 2019

What do the likes of Tony Robbins, Arianna Huffington, Gary Vaynerchuk, and Grant Cardone have in common? If you’ve heard of any of these four business owners, you’ll know that they focus on their personal branding. Personal branding means using your reputation to attract more customers. It means forgoing the sale for now and focusing on leveraging aspects of your personality to build proper, lasting relationships. Subscribe to Read the Largest Marketing Live Book => The good news is that it doesn’t matter if you lack the natural charisma, swag or charm of a Gary Vaynerchuk. When it comes to personal branding, everything can be taught, learned and implemented. In this article, we take a look at how to create the kind of personal branding that makes people feel SO good about you that your business grows and grows.

Have the Right Intentions

If you go into this with all the wrong intentions, you will ultimately lose. In 2019 and beyond, more and more of your customers are looking for honesty and transparency from you. In fact, it’s something they’ve now come to expect. And now that social media is dominating our lives, anything you say on there will either be a blessing or a curse. If your intentions are all wrong, social will be a curse. Having good intentions means going into this with the right values. These right values should include goodwill, generosity, honesty, transparency, and a genuine desire to help people. As long as you keep these values in mind at all times, your message will resonate with the right people, and your relationships will flourish. If, on the other hand, your intentions are bad and all you care about is your next sale, you will soon be exposed.

Provide As Much Value As Possible

As well as having values, you need to provide value to your community. The likes of Grant Cardone are pumping out an insane amount of daily content. A quick cursory check of his YouTube profile shows us that he’s uploaded a ton of content in the last few days alone. Source: YouTube And it’s all free. Notice also that a lot of the content isn’t directly related to what he’s selling. Instead, he’s producing content that’s designed to educate and inform people, and foster strong relationships with his audience. In essence, Grant Cardone is treating his personal branding as a media company. As well as YouTube, he’s also producing a pile of content for his Facebook page and his website. He’s providing value to his community, and in exchange he’s winning fans and making people feel good about him. They feel so good about him that many of his more devoted fans lovingly refer to him as ‘Uncle G.’ That’s the kind of personal branding that works.

Be Unique

One of the biggest challenges of personal branding is standing out from the crowd. Gary Vaynerchuk isn’t the only entrepreneur who owns a media company and who tries to motivate and inspire others. But he stands out because his voice, message and branding is as unique as his angle. It’s important that you find a way of distinguishing yourself from the crowd, otherwise you won’t have a personal brand. What is YOUR core message and theme? What aspect of your personality makes you different to anyone else? Remember, there will always be people who try to copy you, but no one can be you. Leverage what makes you unique — it could be your wicked sense of humour, your style of writing engaging copy etc — and run with it. Another way to help you stand out from the crowd is to show different sides of your personality. If you’re a fitness guru who focuses 100% on one aspect of your personality, you will be just like all the other fitness gurus out there.

Engage with People on Social Media

You’ll be amazed at what taking the time to respond to comments on social media can do to your profile. Your fans love the thought that you’ve taken the time out of your day to engage with them. It shows them that you care and appreciate them. It also shows that you’re listening and will help to refine your reputation. It doesn't take long. Just put some time aside each week to respond to comments across your social media platforms, make sure to provide value feedback, by making your social media interactions useful.

Look for Guest Blogging Opportunities

Guest blogging can be a great way to raise awareness of your personal brand in 2019. If you haven’t tried it yet, it’s when you pitch an article idea to a high domain, authoritative blog in your niche. Upon acceptance, you write your article, before it’s published to the website. The rewards can be huge. By publishing content to high-traffic websites in your niche, you’re positioning yourself as the expert. You’re putting your brand in front of new faces and building your brand. Naturally, guest blogging takes a lot of time and effort. You’ll need to use an SEO tool to find relevant blogs in your niche, and you’ll need to put together a small team that includes someone to pitch article ideas and someone to write them. You can also delegate the process to the companies providing content writing services. Meanwhile, you can use tools like BuzzSumo or implement social listening techniques to generate content ideas. Recommended: 4 Ways to Find Best Sites for Guest Blogging

Double Down on Email Marketing

The thing with personal branding is that you need to have a dominant mindset. You need to be everywhere — and this includes inboxes. Email marketing will continue to be a powerful weapon for brands in 2019. Use it to stay in touch with your subscribers, and send out regular emails. Mix up your content — hit people with educational, informative and entertaining content, as well as your sales emails. Remember, everyone has an email address. If you can bring all your customers together in one place, you can then work on using your personal brand to build your business with personalised content that hits the spot. To this end, segment your list so that you target specific audience segments with the right content. Recommended: 7 Email Marketing Trends to Start Implementing Right Now

Conclusion

Personal branding can be the difference between a prospect remaining a prospect or turning into a loyal, long-term fan of yours. Use the tips in this article to boost your reputation and bring as much value and entertainment as possible to keep your customers happy in 2019. Subscribe to Read the Largest Marketing Live Book => Read the full article