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Are you Getting in the way of Your Product’s Personal Brand?

If you’ve been here for a while, you’ll already know a little something about the power of personal brand. This is the thing which can boost your sales and see you to success. It’s the story you tell customers to get them onboard. And, it’s the thing which ensures they never walk away empty-handed.

Though it might sound easy enough, many entrepreneurs stumble over getting their personal brands just so. When this happens, failure is often inevitable. As such, it’s something you want to avoid at all costs. And, to do that, it’s worth considering why entrepreneurs before have fallen here.

A lot of the issue here is in the semantics. The phrase ‘personal brand’ suggests that your efforts here should be personal. AKA, they should be about you. Many entrepreneurs think they can secure sales by putting themselves out there. But, that’s rarely the case. Think about it; posting personal updates is unlikely to lead to increased sales.

That doesn’t mean that your personality doesn’t come into this. A decent business narrative often has an intensely personal struggle behind it. Look at Apple and their humble beginning in a garage. Rather, the trick here is to strike a fine balance between how much you and your product each dictate that personal brand. Rags to riches story aside, you’ll often find that your product should take the limelight.

That’s because it’s the main event. It’s the thing you want customers to notice the most. As much as you need to inject some personality, then, you also need to know when to let your product take the stage. To give you some idea of when that might be, we’re going to look at a few signs you’re starting to let your personality get in the way.

You’re targeting the wrong audience

Every product needs a target audience. While the boundaries of this can blur at times, you at least need to know who your ideal market is. Without that knowledge, you can never get your personal branding right. That’s because your market dictates everything from the story you tell, to the platforms you use. You could go as far as to say they are your personal brand in a lot of ways. If you let branding be all about you, though, it’s easy to get off track here. The chances are that you know who you want your audience to be but, that might not be the people who are buying your product. Instead, then, you need to sit back and let your product do the talking. By looking at what your product offers and who buys it, you should be able to start developing an accurate idea of who you need to target. That’s something you’re never going to realize if you blindly aim towards your dream audience. Remember, this isn’t about you. It’s about your product and your customers. So, let them guide you every step of the way. The moment you start taking note is the moment you develop marketing campaigns which hit the right note.

Your content is off-kilter

To some extent, all the content that you post online should relate to your product. That’s not to say that you need to write heavy promotional material all the time, of course. More, you should find subtle ways to link everything back to what you do. If you’re posting personal updates about meals or beliefs, you’re building a brand which will be no good to you. Even if people do subscribe and follow, you’re not going to get sales from a marketing effort like this. Instead, let your product dictate your updates at all times. Even if you post something a little more personal, find a way to tie in your product. Let’s say you want to upload a video about your habits on your YouTube channel. That’s fine so long as you make sure to give your product a cameo at regular intervals along the way. What you don’t want is a load of pointless content which takes up your working day with no promise of profit in return.

You make yourself look good rather than your products

Taking decent Insta pictures of you and your team is all well and good. It can even be useful to put a face to your personal brand. But, the way you look should never be the focus here. Instead, you need to dedicate your efforts to developing a quality product which can always steal the show. On a fundamental level, that means developing the best manufacturing processes. You should use the best materials, and ensure precision at all times. Speaking of precision, you may also want to contact Laser Light and other companies like them who can ensure the most intricate details of your products are perfect. Once your products are as good as they can be, you should focus on photographing them in their best light, instead of yourselves. If you do take the odd office selfie, make sure your products appear in there somewhere. They’re the things you want your followers to fall in love with, after all.


You’re putting too much focus on marketing

In many ways, marketing = personal branding. As such, this may sound like a strange argument, but it has solid grounding. In the modern age, it’s entirely possible to dedicate all your efforts to marketing. But, that’s not always best for your personal brand as far as your product is concerned. Think about the fact that your story needs a narrative arc. It needs to keep moving forward to keep your audience onboard. The only way that’s going to happen is if you also dedicate yourself to product development. That means leaving marketing to the side or letting someone else take care of it while you focus on the future. Only then can you tell a story which keeps everyone hooked for years to come. Only then can you say that you’ve got a personal brand to be proud of.

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