The Business Development Plan for Personal Brands

Do you want to know what business development plan you need to employ as a personal brand? If you’re a coach, consultant, mentor, blogger or author, then the answer is yes! If you’re passionate about solving a specific problem for a core audience that’s great! But you cannot go in blind. You need to have a sound strategy that will position you as an expert, prove your usefulness and make you an income. In this article, I’m going to attempt to help you have that business development plan!

First off, you need to be cognizant of how you provide value to your audience as well as how you can convert them into customers. This is a balance between providing high-quality content and giving them an opportunity to buy something from you. Find ways to expose your knowledge to your audience, and they will find ways to expose you to other people. When people start using your content to help them succeed, that’s when you know you’ve done something right.

Build Engaging Fans

Creating content shouldn’t be done for creating contents sake. You need to get to a stage when you have a growing community of people that really dig your stuff! Yes, I said dig! The only way you can do this is to create content that speaks to them. This is why picking a niche that is aligned to you as a person is so important. But on the contrary, you need to confirm it is marketable. Check out this post here to conduct the right market research. Above all, you need to create content that you can talk about. This is usually stuff about what you have learned or experienced over time. Creating good “How to…” content, reviews and opinions are always great for engaging your audience. The more regularly you build this content the better! But the caveat it has to be of high-quality. This is defined by answering or speaking directly to your audience, and answering their most frequently asked questions. It also means being a likable personality which means being honest, informative and enthusiastic.

Your Platforms

Building engaging fans means you need to connect with them in the right way. Some fans learn in different ways. The best model to mimic is the YouTube → Podcast → Article model. Create YouTube videos that engage, educate and empower your audience, and turn it into a podcast episode. Then turn that same video into a written article. Every time you create this article you should provide the video and audio links too. This is powerful because it means you are reaching people on many different platforms. Plus you are allowing people to get to learn from you in virtually any format. In addition, you want to use social media to share your content and provide content more specific to that platform. However, do not stress over social! The aim should be getting people on your website.

You also want to have a presence on Amazon, so I would encourage that once you have written a few articles in your niche, you should start thinking about creating a book. Becoming an author positions you as an expert. This is the ultimate business card that generates opportunities in speaking, coaching and consulting. You can also turn this paperback book into a Kindle, and audiobook book via KDP and ACX respectively.

Make recommendations

As you are producing all of this content, you want to start making recommendations to people about what you have used. Naturally, people will want to know how you got to where you are. There are certain tools you have used that have helped you. There are also courses, books and other things that have given you the knowledge to do what you are doing now. Sign up for different affiliate network sites and as you are producing content, make natural recommendations where appropriate. You can also create content that is review focused. The aim here is not to sell, but rather to provide a genuine recommendation that you think people will need. When you create content have affiliate links, internal links form your website and external links in mind.

Build your email list

When creating content, you should be checking your analytics every month to see your data. What does your traffic look like? Where are people finding your content? What times do people view your content? Etc. As your traffic increases to your site, bounce rate reduce and scroll time increases, you can start building your email list. Think about a lead magnet or free irresistible offer that you know your audience wants. You can check this by surveying them or checking question and answer sites online. Create a video or audio series, document or webinar as an opt-in on your website. Develop an exit pop-up, menu button and opt-in bar to encourage people to opt-in via their email in exchange for the lead magnet. Using your autoresponder, you create automated emails that provide useful information for your audience or tells your story. This is also an opportunity to add affiliate links and other resources via email. With email, you’re in control and you can develop a better relationship.

Create an Information Product

Now that you have a growing list, you can then find out what they want from you. You can also check to see what content gets that most interaction via your analytics. All this information will enable you to develop an online course that teaches people how to do things themselves! Courses are not complicated. All you need is a clear framework of topics, subtopics and videos that teach each concept. The videos in the course should have:

• An Introduction
• Why you’re teaching this
• What you’re teaching
• How to do it
• Additional Information
• Summary

All content should follow this format, whether it is a course, video, podcast or article. Once you create this video course, you can host it on Dropbox, Facebook, Teachable, WordPress or Funnel builder software like Kyvio. Once complete this you can create sales page for it and promote it to your email list.

Start events

This can be a combination of online and offline events. You want to create an opportunity for you to meet your audience. It would be a great idea to do free or paid events. This can happen on a monthly basis, essentially teaching something of value and then offering your product at the end of it. Virtual events can be done using Facebook Live, Instagram Live, Hangouts, YouTube or Webinar software. Offline events can be done a venue, hosted via Eventbrite. The more often you are in front of your audience, the quicker your connection with them. Make sure that whenever you do a speaking engagement, online or offline, make sure you film it as it can be used as content in the future.

Say Yes to FREE PR

Building high-quality content all over the web on a consistent and frequent basis will gather some attention. This is especially true if you are also sharing this on social media sites. This attraction marketing encourages people to ask you to do talks, shows, radio gigs, YouTube interviews and podcasts. Say yes to everything that makes sense to your personal brand. Reputation is important, and so is Public Relations. Whenever you get the opportunity, film it and add a call-to-action to their audience. This call to action could be to check out your irresistible offer, your website or book a free consultation session.

Develop a Signature Program

Over the months and years, you have successfully built authority and positioned yourself as an expert. There are people who keep on asking for your help and the only way you can free up your time is to create a signature program. This will be based on an application process only using a form. What this does is gets your prospect to think about what they are getting themselves into, as well as qualifying the prospect. Once you the form is complete, prospects will be invited to choose a time to call you where you can have your consultation. Successful candidates will embark on your programme over 3 – 12 months for a fixed price. Your price can range anywhere between £1,000 – £5,000+ dependent upon your confidence, capability, package and financial goals. If done correctly, you can use a combination of YouTube videos and Facebook Advertising to generate leads for your signature program. This can be facilitated using a webinar or video signature talk as a lead magnet encouraging people to fill out the form and book a session.

Other options

There is so much more you can do! Here are some additional options:

• Group Coaching
• High-level 0ne-to-one coaching
• Consulting services
• Offer Awaydays
• Create a premium event
• Develop software
• Sell products via eCommerce

Summary

When you develop a strong brand, people begin to know, like and trust you. They begin to come to you to help them get their questions answered. This can only happen if you are consistently being an engaging and informative content creator. Then you can make recommendations that could lead to potential sales. As you get more established and your community list grows, you can then create a digital product to help even more people. And finally, you can offer a one-to-one coaching service to really give your all to your clients. This is the business development plan. Follow it. Embrace it. Use it.