A personal brand is essential for both entrepreneurs and freelancers alike, but where the heck do you start?! If you have access to the internet, it’s possible to start building an audience and growing your brand.

Your brand is what will distinguish you from your competitors, help you create a lasting first impression, which in turn will help you make sales. After all, that’s why we are in business, right? By having a strong personal brand, you also increase trust and authority, which is what people look for when wanting to do business with someone.

A Basic Guide to Building a Personal Brand from Scratch

Here are some simple steps to follow if this is the year you want to build your personal brand.

Step 1: Create an Authentic Persona

What are you all about? What are your values and what do you want to bring to the world using your passions and skills? These are some of the questions you need to ask yourself when you first start defining your personal brand. Once you’ve put this key information together, you can start creating your brand mission and messaging.

Step 2: Define Your Ideal Client

As much as you may want to appeal to everyone, not everyone will be your ideal client. To create an appealing personal brand, you need to define your ideal client. Knowing exactly who you’re targeting is a part of what will help you stand out. To help you define your target audience, create a client profile that includes demographics, pain points, and desires. This may be tricky when you are first starting out as you may not know they type of person you’d like to work with. Your ideal client may well change over time as well, as your business and YOU grow. You can revisit it whenever you feel it necessary, flesh them out and get to know that person in detail.

Step 3: Outline Your Offer

Now that you know who you’re targeting and what your brand is all about, you can start creating your offer. Your offer is what’s going to help your customers solve a specific problem or address one of their pain points. Be sure that you can position yourself as a specialist when creating an offer. You don’t want to make vague promises, you want to show clients that you’re capable and can add value to their lives.

Step 4: Create a Personal Website

If you want to build a strong personal brand, you’re going to need a solid online presence. Once a potential customer finds out about you, they’re going to perform an online search, and what they see at that point is important. Your website should look professional, have engaging content that speaks to what you offer, customer testimonials, high-quality images and graphics (that include photos of you!). Also include links to your social media profiles and blog.

Step 5: Develop a Content Strategy

To start engaging with your target audience, you’re going to need to keep adding value to their lives, which is why you need a content strategy. Having a content strategy in place ensures you’re being consistent and are continuously positioning yourself as an expert. This is where you can get creative and produce interesting content that keeps new and existing clients coming back for more.

Step 6: Partner with Others

The more you can get your name out there, the better. To increase your visibility, you’re going to need to publish your content on the right platforms and partner with the right people. This means seeking out PR opportunities, writing guest content, or speaking at public events. You can also look at hosting your own events that will help you build a community.

Building your own personal brand is powerful and can take your career as an entrepreneur to a whole new level, provided you have a strategic approach in place.

If you’d like to have a chat with me about how a professional brand photography shoot can help your business speak to your ideal client, send me a message. Alternatively, sign up below to receive more brand tips direct to your inbox.

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