The world of B2B business has drastically evolved in so many areas. What used to be a very effective technique in sales and marketing, telemarketing, or cold calling is now considered an obsolete approach especially for B2B.

B2B companies are now banking on branding strategies in order to create a solid following and land deals. This does not exclude training professionals. 

For training professionals to stand out among the crowd, there is a need to build a personal brand.

What Is a Personal Brand?

A personal brand is a mark or impression one makes from an experience or encounter with you. Often, this impression is widely acknowledged by everyone else who has ever experienced dealing with you or encountered your presence online and offline.

The concept of building a personal brand has become extremely popular these days as more and more studies reveal the need to be recognized and remembered as an individual in a field or industry.

Did you know that it takes five to seven impressions for someone to remember a brand? 

Whether you are applying for a job, trying to build your own company, or representing a firm as a senior executive, your personal brand matters a lot in putting you in a position of influence and advantage.

Why Do Training Professionals Need a Personal Brand?

Training professionals have an even bigger reason to build a personal brand.

Much of the success of a training program is dependent on how you are perceived as the trainer. If you want to ensure that every program leaves a positive impact on every trainee who will participate and every company that will engage with you, you need to invest in your personal brand.

You want to be perceived as an authority in your field. Note that being a training professional also requires that you are credible and you have a good reputation. This is normally a requisite to being respected as a source of knowledge.

Depending on your niche, you will most likely be training a wide range of people, from professionals like yourself to corporate executives and company employees. You will not only be training them, but you will also be mentoring or coaching some of them.

Building trust through your personal brand can attract leads and create a seamless training experience with your trainees.

Top Personal Branding Strategies for Training Professionals

Considering all the benefits that come with a great personal brand, it’s high time you get to know what personal branding strategies work best for you as a training professional.

Let’s discuss some of the top strategies further.

1. Audit Your Online Presence

Do you have an online presence? If you do, what channels are you using to send your message to your target audience and what kind of content are you releasing on a regular basis?

Also, do you have the right info displayed in your profile, and are people able to identify your brand across multiple channels without any confusion?

These questions will help you audit your online presence and provide information on the areas that need more attention. According to Duct Tape, you may conduct a total online presence audit by examining the following:

• Website
• Editorial content 
• SEO factors – on the page and off-page
• Social profile 
• Google My Business 
• Directory and citation 
• Online reputation
• Competitive landscape

For training professionals, some of the items above may not be applicable unless you have your own website, you produce content, or you have established your brand on different channels.

2. Determine Your Target Audience

Your target audience is your prospective clients or trainees. These are the people you want to send a message to because they are potentially your ideal persona to have a business relationship with. 

If you want to build your personal brand, you must first be able to identify your target audience so you will not waste investing your time and effort on the wrong type of audience who will not appreciate your messages—whether in speaking engagements, training resources, or training program offerings.

Others who are currently connected with or working for a company still need to build their personal brand with utmost consideration on the target audience because your trainees could be following you around.

3. Study Your Niche

There are training professionals who specialize in different niches.

No matter which niche you belong to, it is important that you know every necessary info about that niche and how you can present your brand to your niche market.

Study what problems your niche market has and how you can provide solutions to those problems. Moreover, examine the behavioral patterns of the businesses belonging to that niche and whether or not you are the right fit for their training demands. 

4. Create Your Own Website

Most training professionals have their own training business, while others belong to a larger firm of training experts.

If you are running your own training business, it’s best to create a website that you can use to increase your online presence. Your website may contain the latest news and activities you are working on, the different training events available, or even your stories and opinions on certain topics.

Through your website, your target audience can get to know more about you.

5. Use Different Social Media Platforms

Do not just stick to one social media platform.

To boost your online presence, you must constantly be present on the top social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and of course, LinkedIn.

LinkedIn is the social media for professionals. Marketing on LinkedIn has proven to be a very lucrative strategy for those professionals looking to generate leads through the platform.

6. Create Video Blogs

Your video blogs may simply contain the same content you showcase on your website. But with videos, your speaking prowess will be showcased.

The use of videos is a great avenue for you to show how skillful you are when it comes to speaking to the public. You may also convert your webinar episodes on video channels if you want to give a glimpse of how it’s like to have you as a trainer.

7. Network

Join networking events to reach out to a wider audience.

Networking events are also your key to knowing the other industry experts. You can collaborate with these experts in producing content. And if you do it right, you can tap into the solid following of these industry experts. 

While these personal branding strategies can work for any professional, training professionals must know that incorporating these strategies into the domains of training is a must.

Unless you want to be confined to a certain company and work in-house for a long time, build your personal brand now and get as many opportunities as possible.