How To Build A Personal Brand (Complete Guide)

If you are confused about the whole personal branding thing, think of someone like Steve Jobs or Elon Musk. You will almost immediately think of the two giants, Apple and Tesla, respectively, despite not mentioning their names at all. This isn’t because the two individuals are inherently celebrities. Still, it’s the impact of carefully planned and implemented personal branding strategies that they religiously put into action in order to share their story to the world and establish the set of values that they stand for. 

In our earlier post (what’s personal branding and why it’s important?), we covered what personal branding truly is and why it matters at all for anyone, from fresh-level professionals and young entrepreneurs to business masters and market wizards. In this article, we are going over the essential tips and steps to build a reputable personal brand. 

If you are wondering what some good tips for growing your personal brand or even starting one from the ground up are, here’s our complete guide: 

Before building up your personal brand, it’s important to be clear with what you stand for at the core and what base it’s built upon, or in other terms, your reflection. 

Your personal brand is how you position yourself, the true authentic self, to be perceived by others. That includes everything about you: your talents, credentials, passions, interests, and philosophy. The next move is to translate these assets into core elements for your personal brand, such as your vision and mission, message, and personality. 

See, in an ideal world, your personal brand will be heard and appreciated by whoever it comes across. However, and as you might already guess by now, it’s not the case. 

One of the biggest traps any individual attempting to build their personal brand fall for is trying to appeal to everybody anywhere. Which, as we’ve just agreed, is not doable. Understanding who you target is the first right step to attracting them. In fact, understanding how you DON’T target is as important to attracting the right ones. 

This way, you will ensure building a brand that exactly and successfully appeals to them. Because, and whether you accept it or not, aiming for everything will leave you with nothing. 

To create the right customer profiles, identify their demographics, aspirations, and pain points. There, you will narrow down your targets and get your message across to the right people just right. 

Today, personal brands are emerging by the speed of life and you will be faced with one of the stiffest competitions of all time, where everyone is shining and different, and it seems impossible to catch up or outperform them. 

The only solution is to determine how different you are from them and what impact you are bringing to the table. we are speaking value proposition. 

The value proposition is a brief statement that encapsulates what is unique about you. To get the right value proposition, you need to understand your strengths and embrace them, then determine how they will help you thrive and make a difference. It can be anything from special talents and skills to personality and attitude. 

Now down to the actual work. 

Having a functional personal website is almost non-negotiable to building a resonant personal brand. 

Although having an active social media presence is important as well, it doesn’t offer as much control and authenticity as a personal website will. At the end of the day, you need to appear somewhere on the first search engine result pages. Your potential audience needs to learn about you easily and close. 

Your personal website needs the following: 

Instead of trying to persuade your target audience that you can help them, why not just show and prove to them that you actually can and write content that does. People usually appreciate and value individuals or businesses that deduct from their time and resources to educate them and provide free and comprehensive answers to their questions. 

When people find that you actually are keen on adding a tangible value to them, they will be more inclined to trust and view you as the expert you are. 

Before setting off with your content mission, you must have a clear and detailed strategy ready. This strategy should control and guide your steps along the way. 

The content strategy should determine the type of content you will produce, where, and at what rate. Pick the right type of content that you will feel comfortable creating. If writing isn’t for you, try shooting videos or designing infographics. 

Make sure you publish your produced content where your target audience spends most of their time. However, always make your content, regardless of its type, available on your website. 

the most common types of content are: 

•  Text / articles 
•  Podcasts and Videos 
•  Webinars and Online courses 
•  PDF guides, checklists, worksheets 
•  Infographics and Slideshows 

Building a personal brand can be a long and slow process and can take you years to get yourself strongly established in your target market and the minds of your audience. 

Therefore, while it might sound cliche, patience is the key. It’s vital to keep the ball rolling no matter how slow it’s moving. At the end of the day, all the great brands started small someday, right? 

Always remember that every little effort, especially when coupled with quality and consistency, will organically pay off in the end.