LinkedIn Lead Generation & Branding: Why you should care about your personal brand.
In this new social age, branding has become an integral part of customer acquisition, including LinkedIn lead generation. While B2B business leaders understand the importance of company branding, they often don’t realize that the need for personal branding has surpassed company branding when it comes to generating and closing quality leads.
According to the Entrepreneur Small Business Encyclopedia, the proper definition of a company brand is a marketing strategy that creates a symbol that personifies and distinguishes a company’s offerings. When done correctly, it can become a competitive advantage and help a business to survive as markets become more competitive.
However, there is an aspect of a company brand that this definition doesn’t cover. That aspect is perception.
Market Perception of a Brand is the Reality
Your brand isn’t just your company logo or slogan. It is your market’s perception of your company’s logo, employees, advertising, reputation, how you treat customers and your presence on social media. And that perception is what will shape your company’s reality.
Let’s have a look at KLM Royal Dutch Airlines. Their social media presence plays a huge part in their branding. This reflects through their content, their campaigns and their tone of voice when speaking to their audience. They are reliable, modern, highly serviced and most of all: Dutch.
Another airline that has a strong branding strategy is RyanAir. They have become a huge hit on platforms like TikTok and Twitter, responding to comments or sharing content in the savviest way possible. And this works, because their target group is a younger audience who doesn’t want to overpay for a flight ticket. They just want to get to their destination. With a little fun if they can.
The advent of social media and digital marketing has changed the way even B2B decision makers research the products and services they need. B2B prospects rely on social proof and use social media platforms like LinkedIn to review the profiles of the employees and other faces behind the company before they research the organization itself or its offerings.
If your branding doesn’t resonate with the decision maker, then your company won’t get their business. You may have the best product or service on the market, but you have lost that lead before the decision maker gets to the point of conducting company research.
People who are on the front lines of client acquisition need to create a strong personal brand to attract and nurture qualified leads. B2B executives also need to be visible and vocal because they are also perceived as the face of the company. If you don’t create your personal brand, one will be provided for you by your market’s perceptions of you.
Personal Branding Affects LinkedIn Lead Generation
People don’t do business with a company. They do business with the people in that company. This is also the main reason why you should use your own LinkedIn profile while using lead generation tools, and make sure this profile shows your expertise in your field. Your brand will help decision-makers determine if they want to take the next important step and begin researching the company you are with and the products and services that you offer.
When you are active on social media sites, generate authoritative content, and actively connect with people on social media, you begin to shape your personal brand. You gain exposure to the influencers and prospects in your market. And as people become more aware of you and start to trust you, you begin to develop thought leadership.
Thought leadership can encourage businesses to come to you with a request for a proposal and even help set you apart from other potential vendors. It can help your sales professionals win more contracts than their peers. And it can help lend credibility to your company brand.
If your branding doesn’t resonate with the decision maker, then your company won’t get their business. You may have the best product or service on the market, but you have lost that lead before the decision maker gets to the point of conducting company research.
For B2B executives, one of the key platforms where you need to develop your personal brand is on LinkedIn.
Two birds, one stone. Save up that ad budget!
A huge advantage of a solid brand strategy is that it helps you get new potential clients or followers organically. Connecting with new people on LinkedIn exposes them to your content. They will learn more about you, your business and your brand. And besides the time you spend in creating this content, it’ll cost you nothing. Connecting on LinkedIn and sharing content with your audience is a great advantage, as you don’t have to spend your money on advertising to accomplish the same goal.
Steps to Creating Your Personal Brand on LinkedIn
Understanding the importance of personal branding is the first step. The hard part comes next: building and maintaining a personal brand strategy. And one of the reasons why it is so hard is because you are going to have to do some of the work yourself.
What are some things that you can do to position yourself as an authority and gain know, like and trust? Here are some tips:
- Don’t Be a Generalist: the more refined your area of expertise is, the easier it is to establish thought leadership.
- Highlight that Expertise: When you are creating your LinkedIn profile make sure you use your Headline, Summary and Experience fields to show you are a subject matter expert.
- Create Content: Publish or perish. Create pillar content on a topic within your field of expertise that you can promote on LinkedIn
- Create LinkedIn Articles: creating engaging, quality long-form articles on LinkedIn will help others see you as an authority
- Have a Connection Strategy: Make sure you understand how to connect with potential clients. There are certain ways to approach them, without looking pushy or only to sell your products. Want to learn more about this? Check our blog on Social Selling here.
- Share Relevant Content: Share content that benefits your community, coordinates with your expertise, and aligns with your brand
- Offer Help Freely and Frequently: Offer to help your connections without the expectation of anything in return.
- Be Patient: There is no such thing as an overnight success when it comes to personal branding. Consistency, hard work, and patience are required to build your brand.
Understanding the importance of personal branding is the first step. The hard part comes next: building and maintaining a personal brand strategy. And one of the reasons why it is so hard is because you are going to have to do some of the work yourself.
Conclusion
Personal branding isn’t optional; it is an essential part of building a strong company brand. It is a necessary element of lead generation, and LinkedIn is the best social media site for B2B executives to generate quality leads. When you develop a LinkedIn lead generation strategy that includes personal branding, you will be able to promote yourself as a thought leader and control the perception your market has about you and your business.
In the process of working with a lead generation tool, we will always advise you to work with your own LinkedIn profile. Not only will your approach be much more human and authentic, it will also let a potential lead get familiar with you, your content and your business. This not only saves up the budget you would usually spend on advertising, but also creates a stronger connection between you and your clients. Want to learn more? Get on a discovery call with our CEO; she’s here to help you mapping out the right strategy. Book a call here.
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