In an era where authenticity drives engagement, corporate marketing leaders can no longer rely solely on their company’s brand – they must build and amplify their own. A strong personal brand enhances credibility, establishes thought leadership and strengthens both internal and external influence. When marketing leaders position themselves as industry voices, they not only elevate their careers but also enhance the brand equity of the organizations they represent.
This article, inspired by my book, “Personal Branding and Marketing Yourself: The Companion Workbook,” explores how corporate marketing leaders can strategically develop their personal brands. Using the “Three Ps” framework – preparation, packaging and presentation – readers will learn how to craft a compelling executive presence, leverage content platforms to shape industry conversations, and authentically connect with key stakeholders.
In today’s fast-moving digital landscape, marketing isn’t just about campaigns and products, it’s about influence. By investing in their personal brand, marketing leaders can strengthen their voice, extend their company’s reach and drive meaningful industry impact.
Most often when we think of marketing, we think it refers only to products, services and/or commodities. What about ourselves? Marketing ourselves enables us to establish our niche, our differentiator(s), our value-add, the worth we have to offer and our impact. In the ever-changing global marketplace of today, it is highly competitive and there is much demand for accomplished, results-driven marketing professionals. Organizations have many choices in selecting a firm and marketing leaders to help them drive their company’s growth and reputations.
These are questions to consider as you determine your personal brand and how you have built, articulated and enhanced your brand to enable your success as a marketing leader:
- Is your brand as a marketing leader helping you be the sought-after vendor of choice?
- Have your accomplishments and credibility displayed the subject matter expertise and thought leadership that has set you apart from your competitors?
- Has your visibility and your relationships showcased the success of your influence and reach?
- Are you the first person clients think of when they think of reputable marketing leaders to fill a critical business need to grow their business?
A strong marketing brand is essential for marketing leaders. Not only does it allow them to establish credibility and trust when they are projecting their most authentical self, but they also attract clients and talent. This enables them to differentiate themselves from competitors and build trust with clients, colleagues, vendors, partners and other stakeholders. The result is it effectively helps promote their expertise within the industry, enhancing their influence and competitive advantage for themselves and ultimately their firm and clients.
When a marketing leader is grounded in the value-add they bring to their firm and each client, they will soar in ways that are authentic. Understanding how our personal brand and firm or company brand are related is important to be able to recognize the alignment of both as well as distinguish the differences.
This is a process that is ongoing and continuous throughout one’s career. It is an essential strategy for managing one’s career, no matter what field or stage of career. As marketing leaders, it is about shifting your mindset to apply many of the successful practices that have allowed you to excel in your field to yourself as a commodity to be marketed.
The “Three Ps” marketing technique is a framework to help with that process:
- Preparation – define and build your personal brand
- Packaging – create and build your personal brand
- Presentation – articulate and enhance your personal brand
This process is cumulative and offers an approach to conduct one’s personal due diligence throughout their career. It is a fluid process since we continue to evolve yet can empower us to be in the driver’s seat for managing our career rather than sitting in the back seat going along for the ride.
In addition to the “Three Ps,” there are three practices that successful professionals have mastered allowing them to carve out careers that are satisfying, rewarding and influential.
Think of many people you know who have effectively created their brand and, in turn, have helped their companies build strong brands. Good examples of these folks are Vera Wang, Barbara Corcoran, Walt Disney and Martha Stewart to name a few. What do they all have in common – three things:
Three Commonalities of Successful Professionals:
- They know what they have to offer – their value and worth.
- They know what they want – are goal-oriented.
- They know how to ask for it – advocate effectively.
The truth is, this can be so effortless and second nature that we do not even realize we are doing so if we put in the proper personal due diligence to effectively conduct and apply the Three Ps. It begins and ends with self-awareness and heightened inner strength. It is about tapping into our utmost aspirations and potential. This is a process that is on-going and continuous, it is fluid throughout our careers and not something you do once and stop. Similar to the clients’ products or services that are being marketed, personal brands evolve just as we do and need on-going evaluation, assessment, reflection and adjustment.
The key is to become a good storyteller to articulate a compelling need and the ability to fill that need through stories of past accomplishments. Similar to how storytelling is a compelling way you build marketing campaigns for clients; it should be applied how we present our value and achievements.
One would suggest there is a strong correlation between a marketing leader’s reputation for delivering results with their ability to meet client needs. This requires a deep understanding of customer needs and behaviors, data-driven insights to create a strategy, quantifiable results that impact revenue, creative campaigns, strong brand awareness, targeting effective audiences, as well as navigating and managing changes in the market as well as the organization. As a marketing leader, one can position themselves to build their own brand, leverage and stay true to their best authentic self to deliver results in a manner that enables them to stand out and maintain their competitive advantage to produce results for themselves, their clients and their organization. Lead with your own brand to influence company brand and customer choice.
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