What is the first thing that comes to your mind when I say SpaceX? I bet it is Elon Musk, one of the most reputed entrepreneurs who loves new technology. How did you figure that out? Because Elon Musk has created his own personal branding!  

But how often have we seen professionals in the customer success field ignoring this important detail? Most of the time, your inner voice would stop you from pursuing it by saying, “Personal branding is not for me.” 

Here is the thing: Knowing something is fruitful and not going for it is not common sense. 

However, customer success practitioners would say – Hell, why should I care about it? I have to look after the needs of the customers. Who will care if I start contributing to the community as a whole? 

This is where you are absolutely wrong. 

If you are a customer success practitioner, it will pay you dearly if you take care to do some personal branding in 2023, as it can take you to the next level in your professional career. 

Also, it can enlighten many people about your skillsets which would arouse interest in them. This is the best way to target your prospective customers. What do you say? 

Now you might say – But I do not know how to do personal branding? – If that is the case, do not worry, as I have provided the details in the blog. 

Before we dive into it, we need to look at the definition of personal branding. 

What exactly is personal branding? 

Personal branding is when individuals have a brand along with businesses. Personal branding is an effort to influence and create public opinion by differentiating themselves from others, elevating their status, establishing credibility, and increasing the circle of authority. Personal branding is pointed, purposeful, truly personal, prioritized, and profitable. Personal branding is about how you promote yourself and build a reputation. 

Why should I care about building my personal brand as a customer success practitioner? 

Helps you contribute your knowledge in the customer success field with bona fide success 

A personal brand helps you bring your skills to the table and create powerful connections. A customer success practitioner can create new opportunities for themselves as a personal brand in customer success. Personal branding for customer success practitioners will help you contribute knowledge in a disciplined manner.

Gives you the power to share your opinion on social platforms 

If customer success practitioners have their own personal branding, they can share their ideas and solutions on social platforms. You can build a circle of influence online in different segments. You can be a micro-influencer in customer success, customer experience, and customer satisfaction.

Builds creditability amongst fellow peers 

Personal branding helps build credibility among peers. Other customer success practitioners also learn a lot from someone with a personal brand. This can help improve your reputation and trustworthiness for clients.

An opportunity to make new friends with potential customers 

When you are a personal brand, you get a chance to meet new people, connect with various potential customers, and increase the chances of conversion. This will help build the business and get more people on board.

Helps you to search for a new job easily 

As per a survey, more than 80 percent of hiring managers use social media and digital platforms to hire for roles. Many companies post job openings on LinkedIn and Twitter before anything else. They want to know more about the person and the personality. This will help them know if one fits into their work culture.

Steps to build your personal brand as a customer success practitioner 

Clearly define the real you and the things you wish to achieve in the near future as a customer success practitioner 

To build a personal brand, you need to know who you are, what skills you have, your aspirations, what you want to accomplish, and more. The key points include-

• What is it that drives you?
• What areas do I excel in?
• Industries that are best for me?
• What settings are comfortable for me?

This creates a better image, stronger network, and improved image.

Conduct SWOT analysis to figure out your unique value proposition

Leveraging your personal brand is important. A unique value proposition is necessary to know what one uniquely offers. You need to understand strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. You need to share your expertise and showcase your achievements. You need to convert your pointers into your unique value proposition.  

Define your target audience 

It is not always important to appeal to everything. You need to define your niche, align with them, and look at enhancing their area of work. You need to know the ideal customer profile and build personas around it. This will help you sort in less competition and lead to a greater chance of success. Targeting becomes easier, and there’s more knowledge in the domain authority.

Optimize your social profile and website, if any 

Optimizing your social profile with information is important. This includes information-

• About the person, education, aspirations
• Accomplishments and experiences
• Value proposition
• Testimonials
• Professional logo and photo

Ascertain content marketing strategy 

Providing genuine, valuable free content will help you showcase expertise. You need to be a trusted, known authority in your space. This content marketing strategy needs to be based on Google Trends, Google Keyword Planner, and other keyword tools. This will help understand what is trending and why. Creating different types of content is also important- blogs, videos, whitepapers, and podcasts.

Build a CS community where you can showcase your content 

Build a CS community to encourage people to talk to you, share ideas, thoughts, and help each other out. To build your own community, you need to start with Facebook and LinkedIn groups, start a thread on conversations, conduct meetups, gatherings, and webinars. This will encourage a shared learning experience and help in personality development.

Concluding Thoughts 

As a customer success practitioner, you should start contributing by building your personal brand. It can prove to be an ace move in making you climb the professional ladders quickly in the longer run. And, who knows, a C-Suite executive might find your contribution worthy enough of giving you the role of a Kingmaker (Customer Success Manager) in the organization! Wouldn’t you love that to happen soon? I bet! 

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