Why?
Creating a buzz around your personal brand is beneficial to you in much the same way that creating buzz around any product is beneficial, ultimately it increases sales. Drawing from my own experience… I have a nice client base with several repeat customers, I am not hurting for work nor do I dump a whole lot of money into marketing each month. I am happy with my clients in most cases and wouldn’t want to replace them. However, I work a lot more than I would like to be working on a daily or weekly basis moving on into the future. Don’t get me wrong I would never hope to get rid of my current clients, but I think to myself. Wouldn’t it be nice to work a tad less as well as increase my income by landing some of the “big fish” in the pond? Enter personal branding. For the most part there are not a whole lot of “big fish” out there that make a habit out of working with the small fish (even though they are often times more talented, qualified and offer a better product.) No, the big fish are usually attracted to the other big fish, the ones who have created a name for themselves, positioned themselves as the expert in the pond. All made possible by strong personal branding.

That is not to say that thoose whom have created a strong personal brand do not have the skill to back it up. I would say that often times the two go hand in hand and are ultimately essential to the continued success of the personal brand. I mean you could spend millions marketing a product and sure your initial sales might more than make up for the money spent but if the product sucks it will eventually fail. So lets not forget that it is important to enforce your personal brand, you don’t necessarily need to be the best you just need to act like it and at least have the skill to back up the product.

Ok, How?
First you will need to make a plan, chances are if you are exploring the creation of a personal brand you already have some thoughts on the corresponding skill or product that your brand will market. Now focus. Figure out what is going to set you apart from the crowd and make you more desirable then the next guy/gal and then focus on every last detail. Now get to work.

You can probably guess that my focus will be on the online form of personal branding but, before I get into a few of the million ways available to you via the web, I want to first share an example of personal branding in the “offline” world.

Several months ago I joined a local networking group. In that group there were members of all different business backgrounds, shapes, sizes and personality. Over time I learned about each one and started to recognize specific traits for each, but one in particular stood out far above the rest. He was an older gentleman that was involved in the travel industry and from what I could tell very knowledgable and certainly experienced and apparently also very good at personal branding. Each day he showed up to the meeting ready to speak wearing his captains hat and going by the name Capt Dave. He made himself to stand out from the crowd and thus will forever stick in my mind as Capt Dave the Travel Consultant. He had created a very recognizable personal brand and had me wanting to book a ticket simply because he was Capt Dave!

Now on to creating your personal brand online…
What avenue to choose? To me it make sense to approach this in much the same way that you would approach the marketing of any other product, choose the avenue that best suits your target market. Find out where your “customers” are hiding and make your presence known! Clearly one of the best approaches would be to start with a weblog or even a simple website and begin positioning yourself as an expert straight away. You may very well be in the learning process yourself but if in doing so you decide to share what you are learning (i.e. your journey or path to success) people will start to look up to you for your knowledge. Find your skill develop it and pursue it with a passion, you will create an expert afterall.

Attack social media full force. Again, where is your target market and what social media outlets are they using? For starters you can find a small group from just about every niche out there using twitter, dive in and get involved. Simply joining the discussion puts you one step ahead of those you choose to sit by idley.

Make it personal. Add that personal touch to everything you do, let people know who you are, where you came from, what you have achieved and where you are headed.

Openly display your credentials and give yourself credit where credit is due. Don’t get boastful but don’t be afraid to toot your own horn once and awhile. People want to know why you should have a say in it all.

Don’t be afraid to entice them a bit, give them more than your run of the mill incentive, give them something dirt cheap or better yet give them something for free! (Why do you think so many of these online gurus start you out with a free eBook)

Most importantly carry your “captains hat” with you wherever you go, brand everything from your business card to your email signiture. Showcase your uniqueness wherever you go.

Let me get started, I have work to do if I want to catch up with a lot of you out there!

This article was inspired by the most excellent eBook “Rockstar Personal Branding” which can be obtained via Rockable Press. I suggest you get your copy now!

Imagine yourself back at square one. Out on your own for the first time, worried and waiting for the phone to ring, just hoping that your first client will “walk through the door”. Yes there is a lot less time to devote to marketing now that you have a full workload, but do you really want to end up back at square one? Probably not. So set aside some time each day to continue building. Whether that means churning out an intelligent blog post here and there, dropping a business card when you meet someone new in the checkout line or simply chirping out a few witty lines on twitter. Regardless of how things are going now, fact is can and will come to an end if you forget that marketing is not only important but it is essential to your continued success.

Just a few quick thoughts as I wrap up the week and get ready to start fresh this Monday morning.

1.Ok this one isn’t really an article it is more of a signup form but what is promised should be quite a good read. Rockable Press by the creators of Freelance Switch is offering a free 20 page ebook on personal branding simply for signing up with their mailing list. These guys are pretty damn smart so I recommend checking it out http://rockablepress.com/the-rockin-list/.

2. Although the articles over at entrepreneur.com can oftens times be a little drab for my tastes they usually pack in some pretty good information here is one entitled “You Can Weather the Economic Storm” http://snurl.com/4aeob.

3. Here’s a short read over at Freelance Folder about promoting your online business offline http://snurl.com/4aepy

4. Something from over at Pearsonified, when he writes he’s usually got something good to say http://snurl.com/4aeul “2 Sure-fire Ways to Make Money Online”

5. It’s an older article as internet articles go but it is still rather interesting, and well this is the first time I ran accross it. On Business Week, “Five Don’ts for Marketing in Tough Times” http://snurl.com/4aew8

Ok so that’s a short one, but hey it’s Sunday so read through these and then take a break, you deserve it!

First I would like to touch on the idea of networking and how important I find it for the small business owner. I often read that the single best way for a freelancer to land new business is through word of mouth or networking and slowly I am starting to realize the truth behind this statement. Networking, for our purposes could be looked at in two ways. In the more traditional sense of the word you are out there networking in your community meeting people and other small business owners. Learning about what they do and giving them some insight as to who you are and what your business entails. They may not in fact require your services but in some sense they now few you as a friend (well if you approach it correctly) and now feel more confident in your services. They can put a face with a name so to speak. Down the road they may come upon a project that requires your service and because of the time you took to speak with them so many months ago you are now first on the list for consideration. Every time you meet someone in life you should treat it as a possible opportunity, not only to learn something interesting about the experiences of others but an opportunity to do “business” in the future. The key here, I believe, is to treat them as more than just a business contact, treat them as a potential friend and acquaintance.

Moving on now to what some may consider the non-traditional sense of networking and that is by creating happy clients. If you approach each piece of work or job that you do as a potential networking tool I can almost guarantee you will start to see the payoff. Not every job that comes across your desk is going to excite you in the way the last one may have, but if you put 100% into it and create a happy client, the word will spread. Networking by referral it may be called. “Great website! Who did it for you?” Ah ha, now you have created real value for the customer and they will be more than happy to pass on the word about your services.

I believe next on the list was the topic of advertising and how I might go about doing so beyond just networking. This is an area that I have been putting a lot of time into researching. Let me say that during this time of “economic downturn” I see the need for advertising to be even more important for my new business venture. My potential clients are facing the same slowdown in business that I am and I would like to let them know that there are things I can do to help them explore additional marketing channels, helping them to tap into new clients themselves. Beyond my ability to get ranked in the search engines for certain services I offer I need other ways of getting my name in front of the decision makers. It is important that I mention the need for an understanding of your target market. In order to create effective advertising you need to understand first how your customer might be found, what they might react to and what they are looking for. In my particular area it seems that people still often turn to print advertising, so I am exploring various ideas such as a small targeted mailer and also the traditional yellowbook ad. Really it is about researching you market and determining what will work best for you.

These few ideas coupled together and I hope to not only create new business during what some might consider to be slow times but actually come out ahead.

1. What are some of the marketing strategies you currently use, and, more importantly, what strategies did you use during the start up of your company when you needed to get the name established.

Marketing Strategy:
Over the course of the companies short life I have relied heavily on low or zero-cost marketing, opting to focus on hard work as opposed to cash out of pocket. In short I would call it grassroots at it’s core.

Here are a couple of tactics:

Establishing good relationships in various parts of the industry has been very important. Getting involved with other start-ups is a great way to establish relationships.There are a ton of people out there building the same way that we are and I feel that it is extremely beneficial to help each other out in achieving our goals.

Getting our target market involved and excited about the brand and product are key. They are the ones who are going to spread the word and keep things moving.

Taking any chance I have to get the brand in front of someone that could make a difference. Store owners, bloggers, people affiliated with organizations and publications that reach out to the market.

Sponsorships – Athletes (in our case), bands, etc. can be very useful not only to increase brand recognition but to help establish credibility among your target market.

Bringing on talented sales reps has definitely helped in marketing to the wholesale sector but the willingness to get out there and push the product yourself can never be overlooked when you are first starting out.

We have of course used and continue to use some paid forms of advertising. I would like to explore more in the way of print advertising in the future

Some of the more mundane marketing techniques are strong SEO work on the web side, postcard mailers, press releases etc.

Overall I am happy with the results that our marketing efforts have produced. My strategy has allowed the company to grow at a controlled pace, I look at it as creating a strong foundation from the start and building up from that instead of skipping from the lobby to the executive level in one shot.

2. What methods of distribution do you use and how efficient do you find them?

Distribution:

When the company first launched I focused my efforts on creating a strong online presence hoping to build a steady flow of traffic through our web shop. This was the most affordable option to begin creating the company so I jumped at the chance to get going. It is often said that e-commerce levels the playing field, but for a small start-up with no outside funding it can be an extremely competitive market. Large shopping networks such as eBay. that offer below wholesale pricing along with extremely fast, not to mention cheap shipping options can make it difficult for a smaller company to gain a foothold. It is also important to mention that establishing a strong e-commerce site relies heavily on your target markets likeliness to purchase products online. It is my experience that our target market, although they may spend countless hours chatting online, is more likely to look for new merchandise at the local shop. So over the course of the past year I have shifted the the majority of my focus to establishing strong wholesale relationships. It is difficult to take an “unproven” product to market but as you start to get a foot in the door accounts start building off of each other. This industry is very well connected and it is important to keep that in mind when dealing with potential customers. I continue to maintain and slowly build our online presence, but ultimately I would like the majority of our business to be centered on the wholesale to brick and mortar retailers.

3. What was the biggest factor and biggest challenge on your road to building a successful clothing company?

Factors:

I believe the biggest contributing factor to building a successful clothing company is creating strong brand recognition. Getting people interested in your brand, talking about it and creating a following. My vision for making it happen is again to go slow. Overnight success stories are few and far between in this business so don’t rush it. There are companies that have been out there for 5 years and up, putting out a killer product and are just now starting to receive the recognition that they deserve. It can be a struggle but if it is something that you believe in it is hard to let go no matter how difficult it may seem at times.

Biggest Challenge – Grabbing a big enough piece of the pie to keep the company moving forward and eventually allowing us to explore different avenues such as working with non-profit organizations like we attempted with SurfAid. I envision a brand that inspires and contributes, but doing so is a bit hard if you do not have a captive audience. This is an extremely competitive industry and it just so happens we decided to tackle what could be considered the hottest sector. I am not looking to become the next Billabong or Quicksilver but I would like to convince that particular market that there are other brands out there worth having a look at.

In order to do this you will first need to once again identify your target market and really get know what type of marketing they are likely to respond to. For purposes of this article I will tend to focus particularly on the internet as my tool for zero cost marketing. So I first need to find out where my customers are hanging out around the net these days. A few of the questions you can look to answer are:

What type of social networking services are they using on a daily or at least weekly basis?
What type of content sharing sites do they frequent in order to get their fill of news and entertainment?
What news and entertainment are they looking for?
What forums and directory sites might they visit?

Once you have answered a few of these questions it is time to get out there and start creating a presence for yourself and your company. Don’t just hop on a site answer a few simple questions, create a password and leave it at that. Get involved, start interacting with the “community” so to speak. For instance if your particular niche frequents MySpace, it is not enough to create a profile and hope that people start searching you out just dying to make friends. You need to get in there and network. Search profiles and groups for keywords that might relate to your product or service. The easiest people to market to are those that are already interested. Make friends, interact add exciting content (even if it has nothing to do with your product), give people a reason to seek you out.

Next I move on to forums and social bookmarking. When it comes to communities such as this I can not stress the importance of becoming involved. These places tend to be a bit more regulated when it comes to pitching your products, ideas and services. If not by the administrators themselves then definitely by the community. Don’t let them intimidate you into giving up but definitely don’t hop into one of these arenas without bringing something of value to the table. Bluntly put, don’t sign up and start posting advertisements across the board, not only will you have just gotten flagged as a user but you may have just pissed off some potential future customers. The key here is to add your opinions and your knowledge to create a good reputation. If you become looked at as someone who is a bit of an expert in certain situations then people will want more and start digging into your profile a bit further. Your profile is were you will subtly hide certain info about yourself such as what you do for a living and even your web address. Many forums do allow for a “signature” which is a small file place at the end of each post and many times you are allowed to post a URL but don’t post a comment like this: “Wow that’s a really great idea… this is kinda off subject but guess what I design websites. Yeah my URL is in my signature check it out I’m cheap.” There are places were you can get away with this but I highly advise you against doing it. Look around you will notice that many of the members frequent a number of different sites and if you are seen as a spammer on one, your reputation will follow you. My recommendation is to sit back for a bit and observe the order of things when it comes to interacting on a particular site. When you show up to a new job it takes you a couple of weeks or even months before you figure out that it is ok to make paper clip sculptures in your down time, right?

Or you can start your own content. Create a blog for your company, or if that’s to involved then become know as the company that offers daily fortunes. If you do decide to start a blog then pick a topic related to yor offering and try to stay focused and keep it interesting. You might really be excited about the fact that you just gave yourself a 10% raise but chances are your customers don’t really care and unfortunately you just explained why your prices went up. However don’t be afraid to get a bit personal, people often like to see who they are dealing with. Lastly, make it fun and informative.

Last but not least, I can not say how important it is to create friendships online and off when it comes to zero cost marketing. I will give you an example. Quite awhile back I was contacted by a guy who was getting ready to launch a social networking site centered around boardsports and he wanted to get my company involved. This IS the niche that my clothing company focuses on and it seemed like a great opportunity to reach out to them. Over time that relationship evolved and we have been able to collaborate on a number of different marketing/brand awareness programs that have benefited the both of us. I also had the great opportunity to meet the guy in person and we have managed to stay in touch on a regular basis. My point here is make friends, don’t be afraid to consider others ideas and definitely don’t be afraid to help out if the opportunity seems legit. This stuff has a way of coming back around in the end.

I hope some of my ideas here help, this list can no doubt go on for quite awhile so feel free to add as you wish. Perhaps I will do a Zero Cost Marketing Part II in the near future.

I have remained committed to spreading the word through social networking, SEO tactics and viral marketing. The development of a street team is still very much in effect and will become what I believe to be a major marketing factor over the next several months and even years of the companies life. New social networking opportunities have presented themselves, such as the ability to create additional pages in your Facebook profile focused on marketing your business. I have begun updating and refocusing the scope of the companies blog hoping to regain search engine rank. Finally and possibly the single most important step is the overall excitement that I have projected unto others who are now eager to help the company realize success.

All in all I am happy with the progress I have made so far and the small successes that I have achieved.

Set a goal and stay committed.

So today I got out there and started shouting at the tops of my lungs to anyone that would listen, posting in classified ads, social networking groups, and msg boards. Searching out forums or even better finding blogs related to your niche can certainly be a bit more targeted, however they often follow somewhat tighter guidelines when it comes to posting and linking. If you do get the green light be sure to include a tag-line with your URL, better yet target the link to a specific product the group might find of interest. I also plan to contact a few people I have established a good working relationship with in hopes that they will lend a hand in getting the word out. If I take nothing else away from this portion of the exercise I have learned that it is always a good idea to begin establishing friendships in this business from the get go because you never know when you may need their help. Networking I believe it is called.

The results so far: quite a spike in traffic for the better part of the daylight hours. One thing I will point out from past experience is that traffic seems to slow down quite noticeable Friday through early Sunday afternoon when you are dealing with this particular target market I am quite sure you can understand why. Which reminds me, what am I doing sitting in at 11pm this Friday evening?

Excerpt from One Wikipedia definition for “Street Team”:

Originally, the American “street team” model was developed by urban based record labels, like Loud, Jive, Bad Boy and Priority. Rap labels found an affordable and effective bridge to their target audience that did not require the traditional outlets found in print, radio and television mediums. The position of street team representative was often filled by fans of an artist or young people looking for an introductory position in the music industry. Usually unpaid, these teams are often comprised of teenagers who are rewarded with free band merchandise or show access in exchange for a variety of actions:

• placing stickers and posters in their communities
• bringing friends to the shows
• convincing friends to buy band merchandise
• phoning your local radio station to request their songs be played
• bringing vinyl and CDs to local DJs in the clubs where they work
• putting up posters
• posting to band forums and bulletin boards online
• maintaining zines or websites dedicated to the band

I personally have always been under the impression that originally the street team concept was put into use by punk bands of the early 80′s and I am sure has roots that can be traced back even further, however the definition provided lends itself to our discussion.

So the question is how do I take this idea and apply it to a clothing company? Well I am not the first nor will I be the last company outside of the music industry to develop this viral marketing machine but I will attempt in all ways to make it our own. In effect I will attempt to “brand” our street team. Here is how I plan to implement the idea.

• Soliciting membership through opt-in forms on our website as well as social networking sites such as myspace and allowing it to spread virally.
• Add sections to the company’s website that allow complete interactivity among the members of the street team, encouraging them to upload photos and videos, post blogs, vote on important topics concerning the company and spread the general mission of the street team.
• Create propaganda focused on marketing AS|ONE to include posters, stickers, banners, backgrounds and even limited edition t-shirts.
• Award members for their hard work by incorporating a point system which pays off in the form of discounts and free merch.

The team itself will be responsible for helping to get the word out there through stickers, flyers, social networking, banner posting, forum posting and word of mouth.

Let’s see what happens next.