How To Take Charge of Your Infopreneur Brand

 

Here’s a Secret Way To Build Your Infopreneur Brand – Do It One Person At A Time!

During my postgraduate residency, one of our professors of surgery had an inexhaustible supply of memorable quotes. One of them went:

“I’m a one-woman man… One woman at a time!”

Building your infopreneur brand is similar to that.

You attract your audience, one fan at a time.

Seth Godin, an uber-infopreneur if ever there was one, has a ‘ChangeThis’ manifesto about how to sell a book – and its message is simple: “First, Sell One”.

Every brand, movement, best-seller, phenomenon or hit begins when one person was impressed or delighted or overwhelmed or moved to spread the word.

One of my favorite lines in the movie “The Social Network” was by the actor who plays Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook. FaceMash has just been coded, and the first few emails go out to friends. The hero’s dorm mates ask, “How many people are you going to tell?” and he replies:

“The really important question is: How many people will they tell?”

So your infopreneur brand rests upon how remarkable you and your work are. By “remarkable” here, I’m going by the definition used in a groundbreaking book called “The Purple Cow”…

“When I say remarkable, I mean just that it’s worth talking about.”

What’s worth talking about will differ depending upon your niche and your audience. Maybe it’s something dramatic and unique. Or funny and off the wall. Or inspiring and heart-warming.

More to the point, the remarkable thing you do should align with your brand – because in the end, that’s what you’ll impact in everything you say and do.

Let me ask you a question…

What Are You Always Selling?

Maybe you think you aren’t selling anything. You may dislike marketing and promoting stuff and don’t see yourself as doing it – ever. But still, the fact is that you ARE selling – and doing it all the time, no matter what you say or do!

That something is… YOU.

Just like a product or service, ‘you’ need selling. Your audience or market first buys into ‘you’ – and only later considers buying whatever it is you’re selling. And regardless of whether you see it that way or not, no matter if you do it intentionally or are blissfully unaware of it completely, you are selling the brand called ‘You, Inc.’ to the world… through your words and deeds.

“Brand? But I’m just an individual trying to sell an ebook!”

Well, you may think it egoistic or exaggerated to imagine yourself to be a brand – but you are one.

And that has been true for ages. The first inkling I had into this line of thought was after reading an insightful article by marketing expert Tom Peters in 1997. “The Brand Called You” is a landmark article every infopreneur must read.

And personal branding has grown even more relevant in today’s socially networked world, where every one of us has access to powerful and ubiquitous tools that can extend and enhance a personal image and turn it into a global brand.

Or at least a ‘micro-brand’.

My own micro-brand, ‘Dr.Mani, Internet infopreneur’, has a reach of barely a few thousand people. But to that well defined audience, I stand for something unique and special.

As my friend Mari Smith, the ‘Pied Piper of Facebook’, says: “Solopreneurs shouldn’t fear competition. You are unique. There is only one you.”

Those are words every infopreneur must take to heart – and then strive to showcase in every marketing communication, so that your audience too senses whatever is special about your micro-brand.

Why Does Branding Matter?

In an industrial economy where business was based upon manufacturing commodity products in a cost-effective manner, and then selling them to a non-discriminating market through intrusive advertising, branding was still important to gain mindshare that translated into customers who would

• buy more easily
• pay premium price
• be loyal to the business

The need to build yourself a memorable brand has grown several times more important in the attention economy that we exist in today, where your vital differentiation from the competition comes in the form of being able to attract and retain the interest of your ideal prospect (who is now spoiled by too many choices to pick from).

No longer can you pay your way into your audience’s space. However clever ads may get, the sheer amount of advertising has made prospects weary and overwhelmed.

Catching someone’s attention has grown harder and costlier. Retaining it has become a quantum level more difficult, even well nigh impossible.

But with an intelligent and effective branding strategy, you can cut through the clutter like a hot knife through butter!

And the good news is…

You Have All The Tools To Build Your Brand

No longer do you have to invest a fortune and spend a lifetime trying to establish a brand. Your micro-brand can be created from your desktop through the burgeoning popularity of social media.

‘Social marketing’ is a paradox in terms. Social networks are for revealing and sharing your personality. But that’s what makes it amazingly effective. Because when you align those things with your brand and business, you’ll gain the interest and attention of your ideal prospects – and attract them towards you instead of having to run after them and try to influence their behavior.

Authenticity is the new currency of our social Web.

Transparency is the risk you must embrace in order to brand yourself on it.

Trust is the rich reward you gain for your effort.

Never forget that it all begins with one person. One true fan who loves what you do, why you do it, and how you go about it. One delighted evangelist who tells one (or more) friends, and influences them to join your tribe and follow your infopreneur business.

Here’s the good news – and the bad news.

No longer are these ‘influencers’ the powerful media barons and celebrities of yore. They could be anyone… that benign Twitter follower, that modest Facebook friend, the quiet LinkedIn connection, that silent blog reader, or just about any of potentially millions of people who will stumble across you from multiple entry points.

That’s why you can’t afford to risk antagonizing or alienating any of them.

That’s also why you have a never before opportunity to make your mark on the world – without spending a penny on advertising or marketing.

Everything can happen for FREE.

Isn’t that amazing?

When you do things that are remarkable and worth sharing, you gain a toe-hold in this ‘recommendation era’ where your brand can go viral through social networks once people start telling other people about you.

New audiences become aware of you, your business, your brand. Markets open up and expand. Competition falls back and dies. You dominate your niche – and get to grow it even bigger.

And it’s all up to you.

You Are Your Brand

Everything that people see, hear and experience about you and your infopreneur business is now a reflection of your attitudes, beliefs, world-view and mindset. If you’re narrow minded and live in a world of scarcity and lack, your actions will echo that and impact your brand.

On the other hand, if you embrace a mindset of abundance and plenty, then everything you say and do will radiate that spirit through your social universe, where the message is amplified and distributed in ever widening ripples… touching and affecting audiences you couldn’t reach on your own.

That’s a good reason to get this right from the beginning.

Take some time to think about your infopreneur business. Identify your true purpose and driving vision for what you’re doing. Analyze the best approaches to take it forward. Spend some effort to consider what your biggest contribution to the world will be through your infopreneur business.

Asking yourself these two questions can help you do this:

“What amazing things can I offer others?”

“What amazing value can I give to others?”

These answers, when coupled with the pragmatic and practical issues of your business model and marketing strategy (which we’ll discuss in other sections) will set you apart from all your competitors, and position you to effectively harness the reach and power of social media, strengthening and consolidating your micro-brand in your marketplace.

That’s the secret sauce to online success as an Internet infopreneur today.

Make Yourself Easy To Recommend

Realize that you’re selling yourself first, and your product or service only next. Let that realization guide all that you say and do as the brand ambassador of your online business.

Use this insight to attract your ideal prospects into your network, build relationships with them, and do it in a manner that helps them get closer to their goals while taking you closer to yours.

If you get this right, in the process you will convert them into spokespersons for your brand, who will eagerly and excitedly go to their own networks and recommend you to their friends and colleagues.

Personal Brand Building Is Very Powerful

But there are pitfalls galore. You must take care not to fall into any of these traps. Being aware of how intimately you are linked to your brand will safeguard you from most of them.

Knowing what you now do, think about these things…

• Will you go out on social networks like Twitter and Facebook, spraying around your affiliate links willy-nilly? Or will you try to engage your friends and followers in conversations around your niche and brand?
• Will you share bigoted comments, join in controversy and argument, or injure the sentiments of segments of your audience? Or will you run whatever you plan to say through the “Does this fit my brand?” filter first?
• Will you behave in a rude, uncouth or hot-headed manner on public forums, discussion groups or social media, going off on rants and drunken raving? Or will your actions be constantly tweaked and adapted to fit your micro-brand better?

You may choose one option over the other. But whatever your choice, know that everything has an impact and influence upon your brand.

And there’s one more thing. As an infopreneur..

Your Words Will Outlive You

They will become a part of your legacy.

Being an infopreneur is to care about leaving your mark upon the world in a unique and meaningful way.

We still remember, revere and respect authors and writers of a bygone era for their everlasting works of art. Best-selling novelists and biographers live on in public memory for centuries after they have departed this world.

Their work remains as their gift to future generations. As yours will of you.

Would you like to be known as a person who created weak, worthless or wimpy content with dubious value – just to make a quick buck?

Or would you like to be remembered as someone who cared enough about a problem or people to create something of lasting value that helped many?

You get to decide.

Be a smart infopreneur… and make the right choice.

All success

p.s. If you haven't yet read my free "The Smilenaire Way" report, grab your copy here - and decide if you're ready to start smiling every day in your business. (When you are, click here)

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Tags: brand, branding, infopreneur, information marketing, legacy, micro brand, personal brand

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