Why Personal Branding Is Essential When Marketing Consultants and Professional Services

Personal branding helps establish who you are for your prospective clients. It also helps your clients feel confident they have chosen the right professional to meet their needs. However, often personal branding is tossed aside when it comes to marketing your consulting and professional services.



When you're trying to find the best way to attract new clients, your marketing strategy helps you attract the right clients.  But it's your personal branding that makes you stand out. Here we look at personal branding and marketing strategy and how they should fit together like a very stylish glove.

Marketing strategy finds the best use for your resources to send a message to your ideal clients successfully. When done right, your target feels you're the only choice for them. A strong marketing strategy helps you understand:



• Who you want as your ideal client
• Why you are a more desirable service than your competition
• How to get your marketing right
• How to be budget savvy with your marketing tactics



In other words, your marketing strategy is the blueprint that allows you to create the most effective marketing to reach your ideal target.

Your personal branding is your essence. It speaks the same language as your ideal clients and assures them they can trust you. It never mimics the competition but instead creates your very distinct personality. It provides clients with a glimpse of what they can expect and allows you to follow through to meet, or better yet, exceed that expectation. To develop a brand personality, you need to do a few things:

• Research your ideal target
• Create a distinct value proposition (UVP) to suit your perfect audience and separate you from the competition
• Use designs and words to define your brand with set templates for your marketing from colours to typefaces
• Incorporate carefully selected personal branding photos to show and reinforce your brand identity
• Remain consistent in your branding online and offline from the look of your marketing collateral to the content presented on your social media and website
• Practice online reputation management to ensure your image is not tarnished by unfavourable reviews

If you can establish these basics, you're well on your way to maintaining a standout brand the competition can't touch.

While personal branding markets yourself, brand positioning helps you understand where you fit in the market. This allows you to decide what channels to use for advertising.

Although some brands can do social media all the way with a complete digital marketing strategy, others might benefit from traditional means such as industry-relevant magazines. This is important to your marketing strategy as it's all about reaching your ideal target and how you want to present your brand.

From there, you can determine how to bring the two together logically. Brand positioning requires you to consider your industry's playing field and look for spaces that make you feel comfortable. Then consider your ideal audience and try to find common ground that works for both of you.

To find the sweet spot, ask if you're sure you can win from this position. Are there other spots that might create a better niche for you? Are there changes you can make that will help you succeed here? Just remember marketing strategy often takes time to perfect through trial and error. The better your brand positioning, the less time and money you waste.

Today people are looking for authenticity. That's why branding is vital for your marketing strategy. People don't want to be misled, lied to, or feel like a fool for trusting the wrong person or brand.

For every misstep you take in portraying the wrong image, you risk losing a client. It's not that there's anything wrong with you. It's the act of using the wrong marketing tactics that disappoints. When you're confident you can deliver on everything your brand portrays and the marketing strategy you choose is right, you keep your clients happy and satisfied.