Archive for Branding by Association
Branding by Association…Build a Stand-Out Personal Brand by Associating with Experts
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Branding is simply making a name for yourself. As such, branding is at the core of every successful entrepreneur who has strategic influence in the marketplace.
However, many entrepreneurs and small business owners do not know how to build a stand-out, influential personal brand. While there are many different strategies that can be implemented, perhaps, the easiest and least discussed is branding by association.
“What is branding by association?”
It is the process of positioning yourself by developing supportive relationships with well-known, highly successful experts and brands. The really good news is that you do not have to personally know the expert to begin using this strategy. But you do have to have the “add value and give first” mentality to make this work.
Following are five steps you can take to begin implementing your own branding by association strategy:
- Select 5 to 7 branded experts who are selling to your ideal community.
- Choose 3 to 5 of those experts with which you would like to be closely associated.
- Identify opportunities where you can routinely provide helpful information to their community. This can be as simple as commenting on their blog with insightful information.
- Identify ways to promote them and their products to your community. For example, re-tweet their comments, link to their blog from your blog, review their products and become one of their affiliates.
- Last, set up a system to make these interactions part of your daily activities.
Once, you put these steps into action and begin to see results, you will find it easier to approach the expert to begin developing a personal relationship.
Branding by association is a powerful online business strategy that can quickly increase awareness and credibility for your brand. Blogging is one of the best tools for implementing this concept.
As blogging continues to increase in popularity as a core component of many entrepreneurs and small businesses, it is helpful to take a look at how blogging can be used to build association with other experts who can lend instant credibility to your business and brand.
Following are four blogging techniques for creating a marketplace association with selected branded experts who you respect but with whom you have not established a personal relationship.
- Showcase credible brands by writing posts on your blog focusing on their products. This technique works best if you have tried the product and can provide an honest, first-hand opinion about your experience with the product. Include the good and the not so good aspects of the product – that makes your comments more believable. And, if you are an affiliate for the product, this can be a money maker. However, you need to let your readers know that you are using your affiliate link.
- Set up automatic feeds to your email box from the blogs of your target experts so that you can quickly review what they are talking about on a daily basis. Select one or two blogs on which to post comments a couple of times each week. The more content-rich and helpful the comments are, the more attention you will attract from readers and blog owners. Also, by posting on other blogs, you have an opportunity to provide a link to your blog.
- When you find a blog post by a leading authority that would interest your community, write a short commentary on your blog about the original post along with a link to the original blog post. Your community will not only appreciate the information, but will associate you with the other expert.
- Select articles written by your targeted experts from article directories to publish to your blog. Make sure that you use the entire article including the resource box. Readers seldom think about where the article originated but will make a mental link between the expert and you.
Each of these branding by association strategies can be implemented without having an existing relationship with the branded expert. They are designed to showcase you by providing helpful information to your community while also supporting the brands with which you wish to be associated.
Branding by association strategies can provide credibility and visibility for your business by connecting and building virtual relationships with other successful experts. Last, leading authorities will notice your support which can lead to a personal relationship with them.
This article is one of a series of articles on branding by association.
Amelia Brazell, Strategy Source, Inc.
