At a recent Cafemutual event Lulu Raghavan, CEO, Landor shared that people often confuse personal brand with branding. They focus more on branding – their website, business card – instead of their personal brand, she said.
According to her, your personal brand is your reputation, what you stand for in the minds of people. Branding, meanwhile, is the signalling system meant to convey your brand message to the target audience.
Before you work on the signalling system, you need to define your brand clearly.
Here are some tips that will help you build a strong personal brand.
Define your purpose
Understand what drives you to be a financial advisor. Are you passionate about financial advisory, do you want financially secure people, did a bad experience motivate you to enter the business or do you see a great need for financial advice. Identify your driver and include it in your brand story.
Know what sets you apart from other advisors
Advisors are fairly matched when it comes to knowledge. So your positioning needs to communicate how you are relevant to investors in a way that is different from others. Do you have expertise in managing a particular category of clients? Do you offer a personalised service? Or do you offer solution to any investor problem that others do not? The elevator pitch is a common exercise to help you identify your positioning.
The elevator pitch is a short descriptive pitch, which talks about who you are and what you do. For financial advisors the elevator pitch should communicate their skills, strengths, values and credibility, said Lulu. Keep your elevator pitch brief; you should be able to convey it within 15-30 seconds.
What is your personality?
How do you interact with clients? Do they see you as professional, trustworthy, well informed and approachable – these qualities describe your brand personality. Choose a maximum of four qualities that you want to communicate and then ensure that your personality is reflected during each client interaction.
Maintain consistent brand proposition during every client interaction
To build an unwavering personal brand you need to maintain consistency across all client interactions. List all touch-pints you have with clients including emails, newsletter and other non-face-to-face communication. How you speak, how you dress, even how you write an email, all reflect your personal brand. So fine-tune client communication. Design all your signalling devices such as business cards, your office, your website, body language, dressing, Facebook profile, photographs in the public domain to reflect your brand.
Some essential brand signalling-tools
Firm name and logo: Carefully choose your firm’s name and logo as it will form a part of all your client communication. Your brand name and logo should convey what services you provide and what you stand for. Remember Amazon’s logo? It easily conveys that it is a market place for everything with an arrow between A and Z.
Business card: Let the design and format of your business card reflect your brand personality. A vibrant and edgy card projects creativity, energy while a subdued and elegant card projects professionalism. You can write a personal quote or share your vision on the back of the card. This is a great opportunity for subconscious branding.
Office: Your office should also reflect your brand story. If your brand positioning is ‘managing wealth of the wealthy’, your office cannot be small and shabby. It needs to look spacious and the decor should reflect wealth.
Website: Your website is another important branding tool. Your website colours and font should be the same as that of your logo and brand name. Use the same colour scheme, font to maintain consistency across communication channels.
Key takeaways:
Brand is your impression in minds of people and branding is the message delivery system.
First, define your brand then work on the messaging system that is branding.
Define your purpose for becoming a financial advisor; what differentiates you from other advisors and your personality to define your brand.
Maintain consistency in all you client communication. Every touch-point that you have with clients should impress upon them what you stand for.
Note: This article was first published in Tata Mutual Fund's monthly newsletter.