Personal branding is crucial to creating a strong local business. The goal here is to make yourself the “go-to” person or the authority in your local niche market. This means that when people think about the services or products in your niche they think of you and your business. You are the first person or business they think about when it comes to your business niche.

For example take the Kleenex brand, when I have a runny nose and I need a tissue to blow my nose I immediately think “I need a Kleenex.” I instantly think of the Kleenex brand because it’s been so strongly conditioned in me. Also when I ask my husband to get me some tissues I usually will ask him to get Kleenex and I’m usually dissatisfied if he gets a different brand. That is how strong the brand of Kleenex has become and that is what you should strive for when it comes to your personal branding in your local business niche.

Creating a strong brand will make people more likely to pay for your product or services and you will be the first person they think about to recommend to one of their friends or acquaintances. In other words you are building trust through personal branding.

Branding yourself as the go-to person in your business will take time and dedication, so do not expect it to happen overnight. You are trying to become the “celebrity” of your local niche market and celebrity status does not happen over night. Ask any famous person, they will tell you that it took them years of hard work to build their personal brand. Luckily for you, local personal branding will not take that long, especially if you concentrate on a value based aggressive local marketing strategies. By using local networking combined with modern technology like online marketing and online social networks like, Facebook, YouTube, Twillet, LinkedIn to name a few.

What do I mean by value based aggressive marketing?

Value based aggressive marketing simply means creating a lot of great content, like articles,blog posts, online video, free special reports, free educational seminars and than just give it all away. You do this with the help of the Internet and social media networks. You connect with like minded individual on YouTube, Facebook and other online networks for your business niche and share your content. It is also a great idea to connect with local networks meet up groups in MeetUp.com. Your goal is to make yourself and your business known for this you have to get out there, show yourself and you expertise. Give away your free educational content set up and invite people to your free seminars. What Einstein said is hold true to any business owner “Try not to be a man of success, but a man of value.”

One very important thing you must remember. All of your free content should have your company logo on it, your website information or any other way your potential customers can reach you if they want your services or products. Always be sure to include a short sales message in the end of your content or a special offer of your products or services.This is very important but a lot of business forget this step. Be sure to tell people exactly what you want them to do after they read your articles, watch your video or at the end of your free seminar. If you not tell them to buy or to contact you they will not think of it themselves, not become your leads or customers and all your hard work was done for nothing.

With personal branding you differentiate your business and yourself from your competition. If you create a strong enough brand you many even end up eliminating your competition… I can’t even think of another brand other than Kleenex when I think of tissues.