Establish yourself as the recognized authority figure in your industry and you will be swamped with business.

You’ve heard the saying; it’s not what you know but who you know. In branding that saying is twisted even further to say, it’s not who you know but who knows you. Your brand is your name, it’s your logo, it’s your color combination and it’s your reputation. Your brand is the message that you want to convey to others when they think about you.

Before you create a brand you must decide what image you want your brand to have. What is the message that you want others to have in their mind when they think of you? What logo best represents that image? What is the color scheme that best reflects your style?

Once you determine what that brand is, you need to put it to work. There are several key elements of a brand that must be in effect in order to consider your brand successful.

1. Grab Your Audience’s Attention
You could be the best plumber the world has ever seen; however, if no one knows you exist you might as well not. Branding is about letting the world know that you are here and that you are the top professional in your field. If you are a plumber, you must find a way to let the people in your town know that you are the best plumber in that city.

Grabbing people’s attention is not that difficult to do. The key is to capture it in a way so that it creates a recognized authority persona. That means you must brand then market your unique competitive advantage.

2. Create an interest in who you are and what you do
The best way to get people to buy into your competitive advantage is by getting them interested in who you are and what you do. This is often done by educating your audience.

Your audience must have ownership in your product or service. They must be involved and engaged. The easiest way to get people involved is by having them acknowledge a specific problem that they are having and then educating them on how you can solve their problem.

3. Establish your Expertise
Once you have captured the interest of your audience, you must then establish your expertise. People do business with those who they trust. Nothing creates trust more than when you can educate someone and then continuously deliver on your promise to solve their problems.

4. Market Saturation
Getting your brand to show up in multiple venues takes time and work. Market saturation is something that is creatively planned. You goal is to have your brand to seemingly appear everywhere. Customers should feel that they have heard about your brand from several different validating sources.

To accomplish this, you might consider blogging and writing articles for industry niche publications. Validate your expertise by setting up and recording interview sessions with other well known industry professionals.  Volunteer and book speaking engagements at industry associations.

This strategy requires that you constantly find opportunities where you can showcase your expertise.  Fostering brand recognition keeps your message on the minds of those who are important to you. It builds your status as the recognized authority in your field.