In my 22+ years in business, I’ve seen so many talented service-based professionals enduring a never-ending struggle to attract more clients. They often squander the few opportunities they have with viable prospects, by not being able to talk about their own value in a way that connects with their market.
by Ellen Looyen
Personal Branding and Marketing Strategist

Here are some simple tips that will ensure your success as a client magnet:

1. Connect Emotionally First and Logically Later

Prospects for your services want to get a FEELING about you and your practice or consultancy.

The easiest and most direct way to do this is to tell them your “Branding Story”, using compelling language, laden with emotionally-connecting sound bites, that hit both sides of their brain at once.

Get real good at telling the “story” of your value (using compelling words and visuals that convey the essence and energy of your business). Your messaging needs to confidently convey your value, experience and unique style to those in need of your services.

2. Share the “Experience of Your Value and the Value of Your Experience”

Give people thinking about hiring you a direct experience of your work, in the form of a complimentary consultation. This is your opportunity to demonstrate your value in real-time; and it will give your prospective client a chance to see how it feels to actually be working with you.

Once you capture their imagination (the hallmark of charismatic people) and they feel comfortable working with you, they will feel an instant resonance and in their gut they will want to hire you.

3. Inspire Confidence

Most don’t realize it, but confidence is the number one reason people buy or choose anything.

People will never buy into feelings of doubt or uncertainty—yours, or theirs.

If you don’t believe in yourself and your own value as a service-based professional, how will your potential clients ever feel confident enough to buy from you? Your whole being must confidently exude that you offer the best solutions for their specific problems.

4. “We Convince by Our Presence”…Walt Whitman

Present people seem totally focused on whomever they are with.  They seem to possess an enviable peace about themselves and to have nothing to prove.

They make people feel like they are their only client in the world.

They are totally with people in the present moment, with no agenda (attention focused on a desired future outcome) and they truly want what’s in the best  interest of their clients.

5. Become More Likeable

In his terrific book, author Tim Saunders shares “The 4 Keys to Likeability” and they are: Friendliness, Relevance, Empathy and Realness. Develop these 4 personality strengths and you’ll have a much easier time attracting people who may become your clients in the future.

6. Position Yourself as an Expert in Your Field

Brand-building is about consciously creating the “perceptions” you want people to have of you and your practice.

Position yourself as an expert by writing articles, blogs and newsletters and by developing first class marketing materials that highlight your expertise and experience.

Learn how to expertly articulate the many things that you know and how others could benefit from it.

7. Enhance Your Charismatic Influence—It’s Your Very Best Attractor Factor

Charismatic people throughout history have possessed the unique ability to capture the imagination of others and inspire them to be supportive and devoted to a cause. Charismatic people know how to instantly create trust and rapport and can quickly influence others to see things their way.

www.ellen4branding.com
925.284.5828

Remember many years ago when Coca Cola (the most recognizable Brand in the whole world)
decided to improve on a good thing? For some reason, they wanted to tamper with their success and change the Coke formula (of the #1 selling Cola in the world).

After 22 years of successfully branding divisions of major corporations (like Kaiser, Chevron and Wells Fargo), to launching countless start-ups, I thought my own brand was feeling old and out-of-date…and just like the Coca Cola Executives (who wanted to change their successful formula), I tampered with my own successful brand and lived through my own “Coke Blunder” and my subsequent “Coke Classic” brand resurrection.

Why tamper with success, when branding is all about…consistency, uniqueness and emotional connection?

It all started when I was invited to speak at the Ritz Carlton in New York City last year, by The Conference Board (at a Senior Executive Marketing Conference, where I was on a panel with the President of Rolls Royce America and Google’s top Marketing guy) to discuss “The Future of the Brand.” They actually gave me the brand name I now use, “America’s Leader in Personal Branding” (that’s how they wrote me up in the conference program).

What was I thinking?

For some reason, I decided that I needed to update my brand for the marketing conference; and after 22 years of success as Ellen Looyen Communications, I thought I should match my business name and its look and feel (i.e., it’s brand) to the name of my  recently published, DIY Personal Branding Kit, entitled, “Branded with Charisma.”

“Doctor, heal thyself”…and Branding expert, “Do not re-brand yourself
(especially if your brand is working for you)”…

I now know, that at the time, I was having the branding equivalent of a “mid-life crisis”…I felt adrift in my business, not clear on where I wanted to focus my marketing efforts, bored with my own brand, overwhelmed by the whole new online world of social media and in need of some big changes in my business.

“In a world where you can be anything…Be Yourself!” —Anon

I also felt like I needed to appeal to a younger generation than the one that I was a part of. Not to get too psychologically deep here…but…I was rejecting a big part of who I am to appeal to a demographic who actually values the very things I represent—authenticity, confidence and creativity…

The important “take-away” is that we all make our own versions of the Coke Blunder…and just like Coke did, we can pick ourselves up, admit that we made a mistake and go back to Plan A. Some of my clients actually admitted to me that they almost didn’t hire me, because my new cartoony brand did not seem to fit me!

Perception can be managed…and VALUE is only a perception!

Branding is all about thinking backwards…about how you want to be perceived by your market…and then crafting a brand that’s consistent, emotionally connecting and authentically YOU.

You’ll know it when you find it…it should just fit like a glove. Once you discover and articulate your true brand, people will energetically feel your enhanced confidence (the #1 reason people buy and choose anything); and any uncertainty or doubt about hiring you will simply vanish. So take a good, honest look at your brand and see if some minor “tune ups” are in need to help keep you relevant, but true to your core value and values at the same time.

Please visit Ellen’s new/old brand and website at: www.ellen4branding.com
And let her know what you think about returning to her old (Coke Classic) tried and true brand: ellen@ellen4branding.com

Ellen Looyen, Branding & Marketing Guru in business since 1988, is endorsed by the best-selling “Guerrilla Marketing” author, Jay Levinson. To learn more or enroll in a Marketing Mentorship Circle, please visit Ellen’s website, Ellen4Branding.