3/16/2015 Brand Yourself! Online Marketing Strategies That Build Your Brand ­ Working At Home With KSMussselman

data:text/html;charset=utf­8,%3Cdiv%20class%3D%22page­header­image­single%20grid­container%20grid­parent%22%20style%3D%22border%3A%200px… 1/4

Brand Yourself! Online MarketingStrategies That Build Your Brand

One of the key online marketing strategies that a lot of so­called IM ‘gurus’ miss is howimportant it is to brand yourself. In fact, a lot of these make­money­fast marketers only seemto concentrate on one thing, and one thing only – making lots of money and making it fast.

And once that particular ‘product’ or ‘tool’ has saturated the online money­making market, itsusefulness is gone and then you have to start marketing someone else’s product.

But to be truly successful online, you need to look beyond the fast money and the latestmagic tool and think about what it will mean to you in the long term if you actually take thetime to learn how to brand yourself, and not always help the guru’s brand instead.

3/16/2015 Brand Yourself! Online Marketing Strategies That Build Your Brand ­ Working At Home With KSMussselman

data:text/html;charset=utf­8,%3Cdiv%20class%3D%22page­header­image­single%20grid­container%20grid­parent%22%20style%3D%22border%3A%200px… 2/4

What Is Your Brand?Your brand is your image; it’s what people see and feel when they reach your blog. It’s whatpotential customers and associates remember when they see you outside of your blog, like ina forum or other networking site.

A part of that brand or image is your logo and your name, whether it’s your company nameor your own name. The stronger your online image, the more customers will keep comingback to your site to buy products from you instead of buying them from someone else.

Brand Yourself NOT Your ProductOne of the Internet marketing strategies you should be practicing is making sure that peoplebuy from you, not from another IM’er. Your customers can just as easily opt out of your listand join someone else’s and still buy the same product if they happen to trust the othermarketer more than they trust you.

So if you’re an affiliate marketer or a network marketer, for example, you want to brandyourself first and not the product or the product creator. If you’re seen as more trustworthy,honest and ethical, and you consistently promote products that are honest and ethical, you’llhave more customers than those marketers who promote and sell tools and magic buttonsthat do nothing but spam the market.

A Good Branding Strategy

3/16/2015 Brand Yourself! Online Marketing Strategies That Build Your Brand ­ Working At Home With KSMussselman

data:text/html;charset=utf­8,%3Cdiv%20class%3D%22page­header­image­single%20grid­container%20grid­parent%22%20style%3D%22border%3A%200px… 3/4

Now, your branding strategy involves a lot more than just putting up a blog with a logo. That’sjust the start. Next is your content. What does it say about you? Does it come across aswarm and helpful or are you constantly salesy in everything you produce?

You also need to ‘be everywhere.’ You need to go beyond just your blog and interact withpeople on different forums and other blogs, YouTube, Facebook, StumbleUpon and as manyother places as you can, always taking your brand with you.

For instance, if you want to be known by your name, you’ll want to use that same name toidentify yourself in all of those other places besides just your blog, whether it’s by using yourown name or your ‘brand’ name as your user ID in forums or by placing the same onlinesignature in all the places you go.

Your Personality Is Part of Your Brand StrategyTooRegardless of what marketing materials you use, you need to let your own personality showthrough.

For example, if on your blog you’re using a specific tone of voice in your content, use thatsame tone in your text ads and forum participation as well. If you’re promoting a networkmarketing company you’re with and they provide you with text ads, rewrite them so that theads are coming from you, not the company.

Just Be Yourself to Brand YourselfIf you’re not being you in everything you do, your customers and potential customers will findout eventually and they’ll be reluctant to stay loyal to your brand because your brand isn’treal.

Sure, you can buy a book, enroll in courses or buy an expensive video series that’ssupposed to teach you how to set up some branding strategy. But there are really only threethings that you need to keep in mind when you’re looking to brand yourself:

1. Your purpose – why are you promoting or selling what you are

3/16/2015 Brand Yourself! Online Marketing Strategies That Build Your Brand ­ Working At Home With KSMussselman

data:text/html;charset=utf­8,%3Cdiv%20class%3D%22page­header­image­single%20grid­container%20grid­parent%22%20style%3D%22border%3A%200px… 4/4

2. Your message – your About Me page or maybe a Mission Statement3. Your image – whether it’s a particular logo or a photo of your face and your name

Remember, to be truly successful in your online marketing strategies, you are your ownproduct. You need to brand yourself first as someone who is reputable and enjoys helpingpeople; someone who is honest and ethical and provides a solid service and solid products,and people will actually start to come looking for you.