by Tony Vidler       

The ultimate goal in building a strong personal brand is to own a word in your target markets mind.  It may be own a phrase rather than own “a word” of course, but the point is you want to be KNOWN for something.  You want to create a position where your target market knows that when they have a particular itch, you are the scratcher.  That is the ultimate personal brand position.

This may sound like a rather fanciful concept, however that is not the case.  it isn’t so far-fetched.  We are not talking about world domination here, we are just talking about being known to your target market clients.

Working out your “word” (or phrase) comes down to being able to answer three questions really:

1. What do you want to be known for, and,
2. Who do you want to be known to?
3. Has anyone beaten you to it?

If you can settle upon what it is you want to be known for, and who to, then it follows that determining how to position and build your personal brand position becomes relatively straightforward.

There is no longer a question about your SEO or keyword strategy for example.  Or your brand positioning.  Or any question about many other marketing conundrums.  They become reasonably clear and easy to determine because you build all of the positioning, content marketing and online presence around that word or phrase.

The tough part is figuring out the first 2 questions, and then determining how to grab that position in your target markets mind.  Once you’ver figured that out it does become a relentless process of working to establish that word or phrase being synonymous with your name.

It isn’t enough to “have a word”.  You have to own it in the clients & prospects minds.

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