A recent Upwork study reports that the freelance workforce is growing at a rate of THREE TIMES as fast as the corporate workforce. And, over the next 7 years, the total workforce will mostly be made up of freelancers.
As great as this is, and it IS a great thing, with more freelancers comes the likelihood that your given niche will become more saturated. Saturation in your niche means more competition. More competition means you will need to further differentiate yourself. Differentiating yourself means your will have to fully leverage your personal brand.
By now, you understand why your personal brand is important. If not, you can read all about it in this blog post. As evidenced in the number of Google searches over the last year for both the term personal brand and the topic personal branding, we know that more and more people are interested in establishing, growing and maintaining their personal brand.
When you're building a business around your area of expertise your target audience will always prefer to engage with a person. Most people want to follow other people than they want to follow companies. Your personal brand will help form a lasting impression in the mind of your target audiences. Without it, it will be difficult to build a profitable and sustainable business.
Here are 5 benefits of personal branding that directly impacts your business.
Personal branding helps you build your network.
A strong personal brand that clearly articulates who you are, what you do, and how you help others makes it easier for your target audiences to see value in connecting with you, on- and off-line.
Personal branding builds trust and authority.
A strong personal brand helps you build trust with your audience, and position you as an authority and a thought leader in your industry.
Personal branding positions you to attract more of the RIGHT clients.
A strong personal brand positions you as the go-to expert in a specific industry or niche. This positioning helps you to attract more of your ideal clients and referrals.
Personal branding attracts the attention of the media.
A strong personal brand makes it easier for you to pitch and be found by media—blogs, podcasts, magazines, news outlets, radio, television, online publications, etc. Media outlets are in constant search of experts that can share their expertise with their audience.
Personal branding is the gateway to premium pricing.
A strong personal brand adds value to your business and justifies charging premium prices for your products and services. Without a personal brand, you're a commodity who often finds themselves in price wars. And, there will always be competitors that can beat your price.
There has never been a better time to be an entrepreneur. Virtually anyone can build a personal brand, grow an audience and create products and services to sell.
As a freelancer or entrepreneur, you have countless competitors. As a personal brand you don’t.
When you build a solid personal brand, there is no real competition. Sure, there might be other people and companies selling similar products and services as you, but they are not you.
As a matter of fact, there is no other person in the world that is exactly like you. You are 100% unique.
This is what differentiates YOU from everyone else in your industry.
This is why building, growing and maintaining a strong personal brand is so powerful.
When you have a strong personal brand, you instantly stand out in the noise because you are YOU.