A solid personal branding strategy can supercharge your career and drive you to prominence within your field. Though you may have a clear idea of the essence of your brand, getting your brand in front of the right people (and starting to see tangible value from it) can be overwhelming.
In this personal branding guide, we’re simplifying the process for you. We’re boiling it down to the four most effective personal branding techniques you can use to drive your digital marketing strategy forward.
Personal branding, as defined by Neil Patel, is the process of intentionally creating and influencing the public’s perception of you as an individual. In essence, it’s how you promote yourself including your skills, expertise, and experience that make up your professional identity.
Your personal brand will help establish you as an expert in your field, gaining exposure, and ultimately, building trust with your target audience.
Sure, your field is likely crowded. (What field isn’t?) But with the right personal branding techniques, you can carve out a niche for yourself and build a positive reputation while gaining brand exposure.
Here are four effective personal branding techniques to take your personal branding to the next level.
People who are just getting into personal branding have a habit of casting as wide a net as possible. Why? They believe this will give them a better chance of stimulating interactions. In reality though, if you’re trying to sell to everyone, you’re selling to no one.
To form a successful personal branding strategy, you need to have a clear idea of who your audience is. This will give your marketing efforts a clear sense of direction. Think about the companies who are going to be looking for your services, the people within those companies who will be responsible for sourcing talent like you, and the factors that will influence their outsourcing decisions.
You can be very specific with your personal brand statements too, telling someone exactly what you do and who you can best help. This is exactly what Samantha North does when explaining her niche within SEO.
When you have a clear target audience (and its needs) to craft your content around, your ideation and content creation will flow much more naturally, and will be more likely to generate the results you want from the right audience segments.
Good marketing for your personal brand starts with having good marketing assets. Your online content will act as a primary touchpoint for your target audience.
Your personal brand assets should include:
Your personal brand can be bolstered with further assets such as social media pages, a YouTube Channel, and more. But having these three assets (LinkedIn profile, website, blog) in place will give you a great foundation to start promoting your brand.
When you’re looking to promote your personal brand, there are many digital marketing methods you can choose from. The marketing mix that’s right for you will depend on variables such as your target audience’s habits and your available budget.
Here are a few popular digital marketing channels to consider as you fine-tune your own personal branding strategy:
Content marketing is a hugely popular discipline in personal branding. It allows you to build your reputation online, showcasing your expertise to your target audience while providing valuable solutions and insights that will keep them coming back for more. Whether it’s through blog posts, videos, podcasts, or social media posts, good content marketing can be a huge boost to the value of your personal brand.
Search engine optimization (SEO) is a set of digital marketing techniques that aim to make a given website more visible in a page of targeted search results. There are many different facets to SEO, such as optimizing your website for speed and ease of navigation, publishing website copy that naturally incorporates targeted keywords, and building links from relevant external websites to yours to increase your authority in the eyes of Google.
You can build an email list by offering valuable content tailored for your audience, then sending out regular newsletters or prospecting emails to your subscribers to promote your personal brand. Though it can be hard to get started, email marketing gives you a direct form of communication which can help your brand stay firmly at the front of your target audience’s mind.
Influencers in your industry are often looking to collaborate with experts to build more engaging content. Network with influencers who align closely with your personal brand, who will nurture a relationship, and who are open to the possibility of you participating on their podcasts, guest posting on their blog, or collaborating in another way.
If you can demonstrate your expertise through your online assets, many influencers will jump at the prospect of fresh, unique content to share on their own online platforms. And don’t discount the power of employee influencers, too.
To fortify your personal brand for the long run, consider building your own online community in your industry niche.
This will not only stimulate word-of-mouth marketing, but will also help you build a more defined vision for your brand. People in your community will now have a specific place to share ideas, spark discussions, and talk to you directly. Then you can take that information and use it to further refine your branding and service(s).
Some of the best ways to form and grow your community are:
Membership Sites: Create a private portion of your website where subscribed members can get access to exclusive content, webinars, forums, and virtual meetups. The exclusivity of this content will make joining the community enticing to the people in your audience. Bonus: your interactions within your community will help you keep a finger on the pulse of your industry, too.
Online Groups: Creating an online group will allow you to engage in constructive conversations with your audience and give them a dedicated space to interact with each other. These groups are also great for posting content aimed at lead generation.
Before you create your group, determine if it will be public or private. Groups on sites like Discord, Facebook, and LinkedIn all offer the option to be public or private and platforms like Circle make it easy to own your community.
Source: Exit Five, a community of marketers owned by Dave Gerhardt
Events: Virtual and in-person events help people become more familiar with your personal brand. They also facilitate two-way communication that can turn an audience into an active community. Whether it’s a one-hour webinar or a whole weekend retreat, events are a fantastic way to showcase your expertise and bring more people into your orbit.
This personal branding guide hopefully has helped you gain a clearer sense of direction as you define your brand and build a digital marketing strategy to promote it.
With a specific target audience, carefully-maintained digital assets, a strong marketing mix, and community spaces, you now have the tools to drive your personal brand to greatness.
Strengthen your social media presence one step further by boosting your employee advocacy with GaggleAMP. For more information, schedule a demo today.