I had been struggling with the idea of creating an internet marketing brand for myself

Every training I went through said create an internet marketing brand for yourself so that people will recognise and have a relationship with me instead of not knowing who I am.

I understood the concept of an internet marketing brand but was struggling to apply it to me and my own business

Internet Marketing – what is a brand?

When I think of brands, I think of Coca Cola, Virgin, Apple, Microsoft and for most of these companies I just see the corporate logo and had been really struggling with the idea of creating ‘brand me’ and what it looked like and what it stood for.

I thought that it needed to be flashy and cool and very corporate so that business owners would relate to it and I didn’t know how to myself into a corporate internet marketing brand.

Internet marketing – the breakthrough for creating a brand

After some soul searching and frustration I finally understood that it’s not about the ‘corporate logo’ and that it is really about figuring out what your core values are and designing your business(and life) around them. I understood that I was my internet marketing brand already and that it was all about relating to people and actually making that human connection.

The relationship that people have with you and your brand is the only thing that matters. Most people spend all their time worrying about getting new customers and forget to look after the customers that they have already.

I think we all have been guilty of this at times. Looking at how we can get more instead of how we can give more to our existing customers and ask them if there is anything that we can do to help them and to really deliver for them so that they would recommend us to a friend.

So when you figure out what is important for you then you can actually use those criteria for making decisions and they will help you and I make better decisions and decisions that we actually believe in.

Brand You – Be vulnerable

For me the hardest part of creating an internet marketing brand was actually taking that step and putting myself out there and being vulnerable. That was scary and contrary to what I had always believed in. I thought that a leader was someone that had no faults and only ever showed the good side to the world.

Then I really started thinking about things from my own perspective. If I come across someone that I am thinking of doing business with or giving my trust to, when I meet someone who has no story of struggle and tells me that everything is great, some small alarm bell goes off in the back of my head and I don’t fully trust that person 100% because they just seem unreal.

Would you prefer to see a human or a robot?

Too good to be true or just not going all in by telling me something ‘human’ that will allow me to trust them more. That was a scary thing to see for me because I have spent most of my 31 years on the planet trying to portray that image to the outside world.

I did not see that because I wasn’t being authentic and genuine with other people, there was no way that they would be genuine and open up and actually trust me.

Now I understand that the more I open up to people, the better the relationships I can have with them because when I am willing to show that I am vulnerable then the people that I am in contact with really identify with that and let me see a little bit of their soul.

That is when the breakthrough happens for me.

Some days now when I have a conversation with a customer or friend and I come away feeling a bit deflated or not very enthusiastic….those are the days that I know I am hiding myself and that I am not being genuine with them and they can sense that before I even open my mouth.

SO this brings me back to the internet marketing brand. If your internet marketing brand leaves you feeling anyway flat or not enthusiastic then it generally means that you are trying to be something that you are not or are just hiding the little bit of truth somewhere.

If your ‘internet marketing brand’ is aligned with your core values and makes you a bit nervous in the beginning then you have probably hit the nail on the head with it.

The question some people ask me is ‘what would I do now if I was starting all over again and had to create a brand for myself again’? What advice would I give to that?

Internet Marketing – Advice to create your brand

Well first off you need to understand that your internet marketing brand ‘is you’! Your brand isn’t portraying you as you would like to be but it should actually show you as the real you. Now some people take this to the extreme and spill their guts and tell people every little thing that has happened to them and I don’t think that is a good idea either.

You people a glimpse into your world and allow them to make a decision based on that. I don’t recommend giving people your life story…they are not your friends (yet anyway) so you have to treat it a little like dating. You give enough of yourself to seem vulnerable but remember that you want them to like you and spend more time with you.

You don’t need to hit them with everything that you have and say take it or leave it.

Your internet marketing brand needs to be you. Not everyone is going to like it and not everyone is going to like you so remember that.

You create your internet marketing brand, ‘you’ online, and you want to find other people who like that and are drawn to that.

All of your fears and all of those things that you think will scare people away are actually what your internet marketing brand is all about.

Start today and create brand ‘you’ and make your internet marketing brand something to be proud about.