How to Get Results Using Your Personal Brand

Why go through the trouble of personal branding? Why spend time, money and energy building your profile and personal brand? It is because a good personal brand gets results. It makes people take action. It opens doors that would otherwise be closed. Astute marketers use a model called AIDA to get results; and so can you.

AIDA

Research has shown that before customers buy a product or service, they go through a series of steps. Before they take action, they go through the following steps: Attention, Interest, Desire and then Action.

Attention

Companies spend millions trying to attract customers and to gain attention in crowded marketplaces. They put their advertising on TV; give away free samples just to get noticed. They invest in attention seeking campaigns.

To maximize the advertising dollars, companies laser target their customers to minimize the cost of getting attention. If a company wants to attract accounting staff, they place advertising in places where accountants are likely to be reading, watching or hanging out.

To get attention to your personal brand, determine what you want to communicate and to whom. Do something different. Do not be like everyone else. Avoid being invisible by becoming a purple cow.

Determine what your target audience needs and communicate that aspect of your personal brand. People are driven by the desire to avoid pain and the desire to gain pleasure. Communicate aspects of your personal brand to help people avoid pain and gain pleasure.

Create awareness for your personal brand through networking and delivering upfront value to others. Be a resource and a value giver.

Interest

People take very little time before deciding if a product or service is of interest to them. That is why you should seek to make a brilliant first impression. With so many choices, today’s consumers are spoilt for choice. They watch many TV stations, listen to numerous radio stations, visit a gazillion websites, watch hundreds of movies and have friends a phone call away.

Companies may gain the attention of consumers through aggressive advertising campaigns. But sustaining interest is a different ball game. To be truly interested, the product or service needs to meet the unique needs of the customer.

You may be able to gain attention and awareness but you will only be able to sustain interest of people if you offer clear benefits to their most pressing problems.

If you are looking to sell a book, you will only get sustained interest if your subject matter talks directly to the needs and wants of the potential readers. What is it about your personal brand that uniquely meets the needs of others? Communicate your benefits in a clear way. Raise interest by showing specific benefits.

Desire

What makes people open their wallets to buy a pair of expensive sports shoes? What makes someone pick up the phone and call that special person they met at a party?

Peoples’ desire to avoid pain and/or gain pleasure is what drives them to take action. Companies spend time, money and effort to attract attention, create interest and desire for their products and services. They do this by communicating how their products are able to help consumers gain pleasure or avoid pain.

For people to desire your personal brand, you must attract attention and cultivate interest. Position yourself as the answer to their problems. Communicate how you are going to solve their problems. Borrow a leaf from marketers and make yourself the object of your target audience’s desires.

Summary (Action)

Whether you want to get a particular job or start a new relationship you can use the marketing concept called AIDA.

Get better results using your personal brand by walking people through the stages of Attention, Interest, Desire and Action. It is a simple principle that works well in sales letters and in selling products and services. It can work wonders in your life too.

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