Personal branding is about creating an experience for your audience; branded touch-point systems will help create a consistent experience that will translate to helping more people with your product or service and ultimately closing more sales.

There are three types of systems to create as it pertains to your sales cycle: before, during, and after the sale. Today’s post will help you create a basic structure to qualify, monitor, and convert prospects.

Why Do I Need to Create A Branded Touch-Point System for Prospects?

This stage of the sale is all about providing information. With Web 2.0, your prospects are searching the Internet to for intofrmation that will help them make their buying decision. Having an inbound marketing strategy will help you create a touch-system that will magnetize serious prospects to you. Therefore, the touch-points you create for this phase are designed to qualify prospects and convert them into sales.

How to Create Your Touch-Point System

Before you begin, you will need the following tools:

• Copywriter (you or a copywriting service)
• Auto Responder System like Aweber (affiliate link)
• Analytics Tools (your auto responder system should have built in analytics)
• CRM System or Excel Spreadsheet to track prospect activity
• A phone and/or email

Creating Your System

1. Create highly relevant and valuable content to attract ideal prospects. Create a free content hub of information on your website based on your product or service that may include articles, e-books, special reports, free training courses, and assessments. This will take time to build and you may want to enlist the servies of a copywriter to help you. For the larger items (e-books, training courses, etc), create a timeline of when you will systematically release each piece to help you plan your promotions and help reduce the stress of trying to create a number of items all at once.
2. Use a registration form.  This is a step that is imperative in gathering your prospects information. It also serves to keep track of what they are downloading and interested in. When someone fills out a registration form they are sending a ping to you that they are highly interested in your information.
3. Analyze. By keeping track of which content your prospects are downloading, you are able to better qualify them. For instance, if the prospect has downloaded your whitepaper comprised of case studies and analytics, they sending you a signla that they will be buying in the near future. If someone has registered and downloaded multiple content related to a certain subject or product, they are also sending you a ping that they are interested in taking this to the next level.
4. Follow-Up. Create a follow-up timeline that creates conversation and helps the prospect with their buying decision. In the examples of highly motivated prospects I mention above, following up with a phone call or personal email offering your help or a free trial of your product would be appropriate. For prospects that have downloaded your content  only once, place them on your system that notifies them of future content releases, or send a complementary whitepaper that they can register and download that is relevant to the content they are researching.

Important Tip: Make it easy for your qualified prospects to purchase your product or service. Include your contact information and appropriate links to the product, services, or other information that relate to the content they have downloaded.

Touch Point Systems and Your Personal Brand

Earlier, I mentioned that branding is about creating an experience for your audience. When you create your touch-point system, don’t forget to mark it with your personal brand. Sure, your prospects are interested in your competence (Is this person really qualified to help me?) and having a consistent system that provides valuable information will demonstrate this; but it is your character that will seal the deal (Do I like this person enough to do business with them? Do I like what their brand represents?). The key to branding your system is to include your brand’s personality into all of your communications.

Here are some examples of common brand attributes and how they may incorporated into content:

• Thrill-Seeker– If your brand is about adventures and trying new things, include action-packed words, stories, and themes into your content. You may find it fun to create an “Adventures of…” series around your topic or product. An example of a thrill-seeking brand is Virgin and Richard Branson.
• Structurers – If your brand’s personality includes attributes around being methodical and organized, create content that are based on “how-to” guides and simplification processes. Your information should be lined up in neat, easy to read formats. Examples of this type of personality include Martha Stewart and Simple Living Magazine.
• Sophisticates – If people refer to your brand as cultured and sophisticated, finding ways to reference the arts and incorporating a cosmopolitan setting through story telling into your content is ideal for expressing those traits. Choose colors and fonts that give a sleek and elegant feel to your website and books.

Keep the conversation flowing… How will you incorporate your personal brand into your before sales touch-point system?

PS: Have you checked out this month’s free audio class for more personal branding tips, resources, and insights in creating your personal brand? Each month we feature a guest expert that shares their proven strategies and systems for building your personal brand and business success. But it’s only available free until the last day of this month, so check it out now!