After spending lakhs/thousands on certifications and courses, One big reason, why Trainers/Biz Coach/Consultants/Self Employed Professionals fail to or fall short of bagging big-ticket businesses??
Plain and simple – “Lack of/ Poor or No Branding atal”.
Time to stop listening to outdated advise of conventional branding styles like-“Authoring Books” or “piggybacking other branded professionals/Self-proclaimed Management Gurus/Business Coach” by buying or subscribing to their Level-I, II …and on courses and certifications.
This way, in reality, they all are able to use You to sell more and more of their offerings and get more Branded. And you end up buying from them every time with a big “Hope” to do great in your life and business in the coming future.
So what you should be doing?
You are in 2016 and so should be your style of working on your Personal Branding by leveraging Digital/ Social Media for yourself focussing on Thought Leadership Branding
The sooner you wake up the BIGGER BRAND you shall be in your domain/ Niche Market.
That’s how Digital / Social Media has revolutionized the overall marketing scenario.
It was never before that cost-effective, intellect driven and scope to build thought leadership in niche markets generally we operate in. And that’s what you are worthy of and deserve.
At the same time, Digital/Social Media is “Not Technical” too and doesn’t require the physical infrastructure. And these learnings cannot be sufficiently offered by way of any Online programs.
I m writing this based on our experience of Class Room training we do ( in Just 6 Days) “exclusively the Self Employed professionals ” like you-Trainers, Business Coach, Doctors, CA/CS/CMA, Architects, Consultants/Brokers, Advisors, Advocates, Freelancers, Academicians, Authors, Astrologers, Proprietors, Image Consultants, Hotel Management, Acting Professionals, Aviation and Real Estate Professionals.
I will be sharing some of the Action steps in this write up that will help you to start working on your personal branding on your own with fervent outcomes-
- Effective Prospect management and engagement till finalizing a business deal
- Building a strong niche brand with Thought leadership in your Domain
- Commanding premium pricing for your services
- Building Zero cold-call prospect generation plan
- Effective Key Account Management
- Building a group of referrals and business alliances
- Fostering collaborative working than competitive working
- Building a personal brand and effective PR by yourself
- Engaging new promotional tools and mediums for your business
Here is what one of our participants, Mona, is saying (Mona, the renowned Image Management and Brand Makeover Consultant from India is narrating her experience on attending our Social Media program for Self Employed professionals at iMET at our South Ex ( Uday Park) Campus, New Delhi, India. The program highlighted the Power of 5, Personal Branding, Internet Marketing Vs Social Media)
What you need to work on as a Full Fledged Plan
- Social Media Design and implementation using C-Suite Framework and Power of 5.
- Online Personal Branding and Thought Leadership using KASA.
- Marketing Content Management
- Social Mediums and their Optimization ( like Linkedin, Facebook , Twitter , Pinterest etc)
- Blogging and Content packs creations for Social Media
- Defining paid Promotional mix for Social Mediums.
- Campaign Plan , Scheduling and trackers PROFIT Methodology
- Milestone and Goal definition
- RoI measurement/ Metrics
Out of all our IP Models and Frameworks like C-Suite, KASA, PROFIT and Power of 5,here are the steps (in brief )of Power of 5 you can use for yourself (I will be discussing our other IP models in upcoming write ups).
Power 1- Web Essentials Management:
- Put you your personal website ( preferably on open source like PHP or use templates like WordPress to make it quick and cost effective)
- Work on Contact Forms, Landing Page and Sign Up at strategic places on your Website
Power 2- Visual Impact Management:
- Work on new age graphics and creatives like – Infographics, Conversational, MindMaps to connect with your target segment. More of visuals and less of text.
- You may use almost free tools like Canva to do your quotes, collage and Social Media covers on your own.
Power 3- Marketing Content Management:
- Create Content packs from “What is available with you” by keeping objective/social mediums/campaign in mind based on frequency of updates/postings.
- Understand the steps of Aggregate, Segregate, Create and Curate while working on blogs, daily updates, newsletter and hashtags
Power 4- Internet Marketing & Email Management:
- Work on a brief plan of PPC, SEM and Affiliate marketing
- Start building on right Key words for your business for a long term SEO
Though bear in mind , Internet marketing is no longer that cost effective with RoI. So you may prefer to skip it as well if budgetary constraints are there.
Regarding Email, it still works, just that don’t use only as a Sales medium.
Also Emailing is different from an Email Campaign. You need to work on Email Campaign strategy by keeping your target segment engaged with your thoughts and content packs like blogs. You shall share these with them in your email campaign making way for Thought Leadership branding for you.
- Effective Subject Line
- Keywords in the text
- Story telling style
works very well. Just that Don’t try to sell thru emailing.
Power 5- Digital Media Design and Implementation:
Now you are all set to run your proper campaigns online on social mediums as a Professional.
- Select a few but effective mediums to start with where you can bring consistency at least for 90 days. In short we call it Social Media Optimization . To do SMO, look at your nature of business as B2C or B2B .
- Initiate Blog as a Strategy like start engaging your clients & alliances for Blog based interviews. This way your frequency to reaching out to them will increase not only at the time when you ask for business.
All the above points are exhaustive, however I have tried to introduce them to you in a simplified way.
You may feel free to write to me – deepak@imetglobal.com. Would love to share more details.
I wish you all a Happy 2016 with more learning and growing.
Cheers
References– iMET Research division (www.imetglobal.com)
More details about our previous programs including as done for CII, IAN, NIESBUD, E-Factor etc – https://www.facebook.com/pages/IMETs-Exec-Program-for-Biz-OwnersWorking-Profs-Entrepreneurs/1403461636625699
