Boost Your Profile & Your Profits

How to Get People to Pay Attention!

Madonna has continually combined religion with sex to get attention. What's your strategy in your business?

Oh my god! You look just like them. In fact you’re almost a spitting image. Your competitors that is!

Short of exposing yourself in public, getting people to pay attention to you and your business is fraught with the challenge of keeping up with the ever evolving marketplace. Businesses have tried for years trick after trick to jolt people into paying attention to them. Boundaries have been pushed extensively to capture the consumer’s attention, some even going too far.

A technique that has been utilised in the film and music industry since its inception is now making its way across to the business sector in a big way as it’s one of the only things that your competitors can’t copy. And that is the brand that is, ‘YOU!’

Personal Branding 101 – What is It and Why It Will Be a Necessity of the Future

Producers in music and film know that to turn an ‘up and coming star’ into an ‘A Lister,’ they must groom the individual from head to toe to give them overall commercial appeal. This may include; media training, etiquette lessons, personal grooming, personal styling and having them attend all of the high society events around town to meet the who’s who in the industry.

This practice is called personal branding. My own definition of personal branding is; self expression amplified to influence and command attention. Personal branding is the one and only thing that will always successfully set you apart from your competitors as it isn’t reliant on your logo or what you sell to differentiate yourself in the marketplace. PB is reliant on the personalities within the business and their abilities to influence; the media, prospective clients, existing clients and service providers. Consumers today want to feel connected. FaceBook and Twitter are testament to this. Genuine conversations are opening up across the web and they are being translated across into the ‘real’ world environment. A well themed PB provides instant connection to your consumers by providing a new depth of conversation that thereby assists in the sales process.

To create a PB that has influence and connects to your target market, persistence and a willingness to be groomed within an inch of your life comes into play. Not many individuals have the wherewithal to follow these techniques through hence the one’s that do become very successful.

Why Dressing Up as a Cowboy Shocked People into Paying Attention and Branded Me as “Cowboy!”

Over 6 years ago, my best friend Melissa and I ran speed dating events. Unfortunately we came into the marketplace the same time as a flood of international competitors hit our shores. This made market penetration near impossible. After twelve months of flogging it out we were forced to make the decision to close the doors.

We felt that one last effort was in order so we decided to go out with a bang. To attract the desired attention we needed to make our last event a success, (a cowboy themed dating event), we went to a well known social event dressed up as a cowboy and a cowgirl (I was the cowboy if you were wondering and no my chaps weren’t crouch less!) Both of us were shaking in our boots as neither of us had dressed up this way to promote a business before. A couple of red wines later, we walked into the venue with its 400 attendees. The entire room stopped, turned around and looked at us with jaws wide open. The objective was to attract attention. The result from this one stunt; three radio appearances, television exposure and the acquisition of a regular lifestyle column for a street press magazine of which I still continue to write for 6 years and over 50 articles later.

I can’t say I’ll be rushing to do that again anytime soon, however at the time it served its purpose to attract the desired attention to leave that business on a high note and make our last event profitable. The benefits from the attention attracted translated directly over into my businesses that followed. It served its purpose in getting people to stop and look at what we had to offer. We then had to back it up.

Define Your Brand

For those of you who don’t want to get dressed up or be branded as a cowboy or a cowgirl (boring much?), there is another option. Brand yourself around the themes and angles within your business. If you speak or consult on a particular matter, e.g. marketing, relationships, health, sex, beauty, profits or sales. Become known for this theme/angle inside and outside of your business. Blog, Twitter, network and speak at events as much as you possibly can. Communicate your theme across the board in all of your marketing communications. Create a ‘columnist’ type title for any content that you produce. If you write a blog or have a Twitter page, name it. If it’s on marketing, you could call it, Marketing Meltdown or the Marketing Pot for example. This makes you instantly recognizable and assists in making you stand out.

I have two columns in two separate magazines of which both are called ‘In Bed with Ben.’ This title allows me to speak on a range of topics and it also allows me to be controversial when I want to be. Your title gives you credibility and dictates what you can and what you can’t speak about. But better than anything else, it grabs people’s attention and lets them know what they can expect when they engage in your services, a great way to attract new clients.

If You’re Courageous - Create a Stage Name

Aside from finding your theme and creating a title like introduction to yourself and your topic, you can take the courageous step of creating a stage name for yourself. A friend of mine Yvonne Adele otherwise previously known as Ms Megabyte has appeared on Australian television screens for years speaking on the topic of IT. Her personal style includes striking red hair that makes her stand out against a backdrop of nerds within her industry. She is branded head to toe. The stage name Ms Megabyte gives her a theme and a title in which enables her to attract the desired attention of which has resulted in numerous and regular media appearances and a string of speaking engagements. But be prepared, a name like this sticks. It took me 3 years to lose the cowboy title! It works but be sure to choose wisely.

Once you have a stage name, it is a matter of branding your business cards, blogs, Twitter page, articles, letterheads and email signatures to align with it. You must let people know what you specialise in so they know who to go to when they need your service.

Carve Out Credibility

Creating a title or a stage name makes you the go to person on a particular topic and makes you instantly recognizable and memorable. If you are a consultant, this enables you to charge more for your services because you become exclusive, one of a kind that no one else can duplicate. Your name becomes your credit card.

This branding exercise alone pays great dividends in providing differentiation in a marketplace of lookalikes. If you want to stand out you have to do something different. Back this up with consistency in continually providing inspiring and thought provoking solutions to your consumer’s challenges.

Final Note

No one stood out in business doing the same as everybody else. Dare to be different within an industry of lookalikes and enjoy the added attention and profits you’ll generate. I’m sure you can find an alternate to chaps.


Ben’s book “Sleeping Your Way to The Top in Business” is available for purchase by clicking here. For media, consulting and speaking enquiries contact Ben directly at ben@benangel.com.au

Posted by Ben Angel, conference speakers on 1st March, 2010 | Comments | Trackbacks
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