There are a few elements to building a successful personal brand as a digital marketer. We’ve reached out to a panel of industry experts to weigh in on their top tips for personal branding to help build trust and authority with your audience. From sharing your expertly crafted story to getting found on Google, building a personal brand is extremely important when it comes to connecting with prospective customers.
- Become an authority
Jamie Hejna of Ollie Marketing suggests “Provide value. Focus on developing an engaging content strategy that provides value to the user. Digital marketers usually focus on information as value.”
Brian Robben of Robben Media says “Share all you know in the medium you’re best at. If it’s writing, share your expertise by blog posts, if speaking then in podcasts, and if by talking to a camera then video. By consistently putting out content and sharing what you know, you’ll attract an audience. This audience will then share the word with their network and the rest is history.”
- Craft your story
Sara Abate Rezvanifar of My Personal Brand advises “When building a personal brand it’s important to clarify your big why and the message you are wanting to share. Then it’s time to access your personal preferences such as style, color, and writing style to best communicate the look and feel of your brand across all digital touch points. Creating the digital assets to represent yourself online through your website and on social media is important to best communicate a clear, consistent and professional image to anyone interested in checking you out online.”
Catie Fromknecht of Clicksuasion Labs says “Be authentic. Consumers are more likely to trust you if they can relate to you, and they will pick up on whether or not you’re being genuine. Most consumers likely come face-to-face with hundreds of advertisements and marketing messages every day, so it can be challenging to be heard through the noise. By using authenticity in your brand messaging, even if you have a smaller audience, you are better able to build trust and loyalty.” Jacqueline Camacho of JJR Marketing adds “Make sure your content aligns with your authenticity and trustworthiness.”
- Set the foundation
Ross Jenkins of Digitalme.cc says “Before you begin your branding efforts, make sure you have your plumbing in place. Not only should you have all of your social accounts in order, such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn, but you should also have monitoring pixels, analytics, and advertisement channels in place. You won’t believe how many headaches you’ll avoid in the future as a result of this.”
- Be intentional
Barbara Carneiro of Word Revolution advises “Know clearly who you are and how you want to be perceived. Be intentional about defining your own personal brand and the personality you want to convey. Define your tribe words, words that only you say or words you say often, so much so that others connect them to you.”
Patrick Wareing of Patrickwareing.com says “Ensure that whenever anybody searches for your name on Google or another search engine, it shows as many results that are relevant to you. All results should be professional, positive and relevant to your personal brand. This may mean creating profiles on additional sites and removing or updating any personal results not related to your brand.”
- Be personable
Melanie Wilson of Melanie Wilson Media says “People want to do business with people, not with companies, so letting the customer inside is key. Some ways to do this is to share a part of your process. How does your product get to market? If you are a jewelry designer, show me the process of sketching, or picking stones; if you are a photographer, give me a behind the scene look at setting up your equipment for a shoot; a fitness coach may discuss the outfit choice she made in getting dressed for her latest video. This can be done in words, with your blog or social media posts. Tell your customer what you do, and they will not scroll.”
- Appeal to your niche audience
Melissa Hammam of Melissa Hammam Marketing shares “The single most important thing you can do when trying to build a personal brand is to nail your niche. Let’s pretend you’re a healthy food blogger for a second. You could either position yourself as “The best recipes”, where you are trying to speak to everyone (and in doing so are connecting with no one). Or you can become the online destination for the best coconut recipes for coconut lovers. You can do something better by doing it uniquely rather than trying to be the best in a vague crowded category.
- Be consistent
Jeremy Redlinger of Concrete Internet Marketing says “In order to build your personal brand you need to be consistent with everything you do. From your brand image, to your messaging and when and where you post. Consistent messaging shows your expertise in your industry and will help grow your image and your brand.”
Laurie Ehrlich of Elevate Marketing Strategy advises “Your look and feel, messaging, and social media channel usage should all look consistent. Hire a graphic designer to create a logo and color palette (at a minimum), determine who your target audience is and what you want to tell them, and pick a social channel(s) that you can maintain. Frequency will look different depending on what channel you select. There is a greater investment in Instagram, for example, than LinkedIn. Consistency is important for a number of reasons: 1) Frequency. It takes a reader/viewer 6-7 times to see a message for it to actually resonate. A lack of brand consistency does not allow for seamless frequent reach of a message. 2) Appropriateness. By engaging with your audience in a professional manner, you gain credibility much faster. 3) Cohesiveness. If digital marketing is your thing and you want to build a personal brand as such, you need to look like you know what you are doing online!”
Stacy Caprio of Her.CEO suggests “Name your brand the same name that is in your URL. This allows you to have a more cohesive brand that more people will remember, be drawn to and not confused by.”
- Show up on Google
Brian Keltner of Digital Agency Gurus says “Google is a great tool to find the good, bad, and ugly of people we do business with. Having positives within the first page of a google search is the best way to position yourself in a shining light prior to getting a phone call to connect.”
In conclusion, building a personal brand is as simple as positioning yourself within the minds of your consumer through strategic outlets such as social media and your website. Also, it’s important that you have a consistent look and feel across all platforms to help convey your message.