Enhancing Your Personal Brand Through Book Publishing

Recently, I came across an article from Reachpeople who will be instrumental in expanding your
Communications Consulting entitled "Three Steps tosuccess. You have to research, identify and prioritise
A Winning Personal Brand". This article resonates withboth offline and online means that can help you
me because writing and publishing your book is alsomaximise the impact. This could be through news
very much about enhancing your personal brand toolcoverage, books reviews, author interviews,
in the market and we can adopt the same steps.contribution of expert articles, book blog etc. An
In the article, the steps to creating a winning brandeffective marketing plan must complement an
are summarised as 3 Es: Extract, Express and Exude.effective communications plan because the last thing
We can adopt the 3 steps to book publishing asyou want is that interested readers could not obtain
follows:a copy of your book. The marketing plan will identify
Extract Phasechannels that you can make your book available and
In the Extract Phase, it is essentially about extractingremember that bookstore is only one of the
your brand essence that you wish to portray and putchannels. It is not uncommon to come across authors
in your book. Before you can do that, you need towho sell more copies of their book through their
think hard about who you are and what makes youalternate channels than through bookstores. Other
unique. When you managed to unearth your uniquethan just a physical book, you can also explore other
promise of value, then you will be able to startmeans to express the book like audio book, e-book,
conceptualising the book idea and creating the booketc. that can help you maximise the outreach from
content that will enhance the personal brand that youthe same contents.
are building. In this phase, you should first identify andThe output from the Express Phase is a
write down your purpose for publishing, your uniquecomprehensive Book Communications and Marketing
differentiation, competitive books and also how youPlan that you can execute. You are then ready to
will reach out to your target readers.move on to the third and final phase, Exude.
The output from the Extract Phase would lookExude Phase
something like a publishing proposal and of courseIn the Express Phase, you developed a strategy for
your completed manuscript. With that in hand, youmaking your book visible to those who need to
are ready to move to the Express Phase where youknow about you so that you can achieve your goals.
develop and execute the communication andIn this final Exude Phase, it is really about living your
marketing plan.brand. You will align everything that surrounds you
Express PhaseThe Express Phase is about identifyingwith your branding. This environment includes your
marketing channels and communication tools to reachsocial and professional network.
your target reader effectively. A book is a powerfulSo whether you are giving a talk, conducting a
tool for you stand out from competition because itworkshop, granting an interview, networking or
helps you to build visibility and credibility. But this isparticipating in social media, you should ensure that all
only possible if the book reaches the hands of youractivities are supporting your personal Brand and you
target reader. A published book that sits in yourleverage on your book as the branding tool.
storeroom collecting dust will never help to enhanceTo summarise, a published book is an effective tool
your personal brand.that can help you to enhance your personal branding.
Having identified your target reader profile, youTo maximise the impact, you can adopt the 3-E
evaluate communication tools that can help youprocess of Extract, Express and finally Exude to
generate awareness for your book. Other thanreinforce your unique promise of value through the
readers, your book needs to be in the hands ofbook.