How to personalise your business brand

I've talked about what your business brand and branding is and what they do for your business in my blogs this week, what a personal brand is, and tips to help you build it.  Today we're going to combine them all, and talk about personalising your business brand.

Your business brand, just remind you, is the whole identity of your business, everything that makes your business recognisable, and memorable, and attracts the right, perfect fit, ideal customers or clients to you, and to buy from your business.  And to make it do all those things, and to do them really well, as a strong, strategic, stand out brand for you, then making it more personalised is going to really give it a boost.

What do you mean by more personalised?  How?

So, you can make your business brand, your business identity, reflect you in lots of ways, so that it is more personal to you.  The more of you you put into it, the more unique it will be, the more you and your business, anything you create, will stand out from the crowd and be recognised and remembered.

Just as building a personal brand just for you (see the previous blog: How to build a personal brand) will mean that your audience can really get to know, like and trust you so they want to buy from you, building a personalised business brand will really help that process too. 

As a solo or small business owner or entrepreneur, your own personal brand and your business brand will become very intertwined the more you make your business brand personal to you.  For them both to be real and authentic, and to grow the know like and trust with your potential customers/clients, they will both need to be based on the same things, on you, your personality, your values, and that will obviously make them more and more the same. 

When not to personalise your business brand so much

How much of you that you choose to put into your brand will determine how close your personal brand and your business brand become; whether you want to keep your business more separate to you, or to just be really the same thing. 

Whilst you build a small business, it helps to have it as personal to you as possible, for all the above reasons. 

However, if the business you have or want is an agency model though, and it's not just you, then you might want to keep it as a separate business brand to your personal brand. 

Or if the business you have is a franchise, or a network marketing business, then you probably won't be allowed to alter the branding or much of the overall company brand (in which case building your own personal brand is going to be extra important for you).

Or when and if you want to start scaling your business, when you become a team and not just you, or when you want to build a business ready to sell to someone else, then you can start reducing the personal elements of the business brand and make it more separate.

How to create a more personalised business brand

Here are my top 9 ways to create a more personalised brand identity for your business, so you can really stand out and sell more!

1.The name of your business.  Is your name in your business' name?  If not, make sure you introduce yourself as your name as well as your business name, so that people connect you personally with the business.  So for example, I always write or say 'Hi I'm Jane of Picture Your Brand' (though I should probably use my surname more often too!)

2. Through your branding.  You can design your branding so that it reflects you, and has more relevant meaning to you - using not just colours you love, but choosing colours using colour psychology to reflect your personality, values and the look and feel you want for your brand.

3. Share your personality.  Add as much of your personality as you can into your business, into all your content, your website, your social posts etc.  That can be hard as a shy introvert, but please remember you are not boring, and the people who want to or need to work with you or buy from you, want to get to know you.  

4. Share your photo.  It's time to get comfortable with being the face of your business!  Show up in photos so people can get to see who you are.  Sometimes with selfies, they're good for showing the real you and what's going on in your life or behind the scenes of your business, but you’ll also need professional branding photos for a more professional look too.  (You’ll be able to use them all the time so they’ll be worth the investment!).  

5. Be live.  Talk to people!  In lives or in videos online, and also networking in real life.  These are the fastest ways to connect with other people, to grow your audience, to really grow the know/like/trust factor, as they'll really get to see the real you! 

6. Storytelling.  Learn to tell stories and share info about your brand and yourself, what you're up to, what's going on with you, what you're working on etc.  Harness the power of storytelling to connect with your audience and help them easily get to know you (another blog coming soon with more on this!).

7. Be the expert.  Share your expertise, thoughts and authority with tips and advice, giving value, showing that you know what you’re doing / talking about / selling.  

8. Share testimonials.   Showing these off online gives the social proof that others have learnt from you / been happy working with you / loved what they bought from you – it builds more trust in you and how you can help others like them.

9. Brand values.  Choose your brand values from the things you personally value to make your business brand identity more personal and unique to you.  Stick to them, reflect them in your visual branding, and through everything you create.   

 There we go!  It's all about creating a whole brand experience that is unique to you.  

Next Steps:

- Take my course, From Ordinary To Authentic: The brand foundations course - this will show you how to take your ordinary bland business brand and turn it into a strong strategic brand that is also personal to you.  It's a self-study course of eighteen lessons taking you through all the basics of your brand from your mission, message and vision, to your ideal client, niche, and what you do.  All the steps to create your brand from the beginning, or refresh, strengthen and personalise what you already have, so you can stand out authentically and shine as the star of your brand.

- Ready for more personal mentoring, brand, visibility and marketing strategies that work for you, a community of fellow ambitious introverts, training, and accountability to put it all into action?  Come and join my Brand Plan membership, and get support to show up, stand out, and sell more🤩

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Blog topics / categories: 

#All things brand

[This blog was first written in February 2021, then transferred to this website and updated, January 2024]