Set The Stage For Freelancing With A Powerful Personal Brand
In a competitive business environment there are two types of branding which are critical for Freelancers to master.
The first is branding that focuses on your products/services. The bottom-line goal of this overarching branding strategy serves as your north star in terms of all things customer-focused from messaging to customer service to tonality, content, product development and beyond. It helps set direction and provides a focus on how to prioritize tasks.
Another way to describe a top-tier brand strategy is a promise you make to the world. Yes, the world! Sounds a little grand but once you step out into the freelance world you are opening your doors wide, perhaps wider than you imagined!
The second type of branding, which you might think of as a subset of your services branding, is your personal brand. For freelancers, your personal brand is often so interwoven into your offering that it gets lost.
Keep in mind, a personal brand is a supporting tactic in your overall marketing plan and should be developed to integrate into your master strategy as well as standing alone.
The excitement of creating a personal brand is the opportunity to define it through your voice and interests.
Why should a freelancer invest precious time and resources in building personal branding? In a noisy and aggressive business world, all things being equal, people like to do business with people they know and trust. A personal brand pulls down the Wizard of Oz curtain that frequently leads to misconceptions and miscommunication.
The Benefits Of Personal Branding
- Builds client trust
- Establishes and confirms credibility
- Adds a ‘human touch’, especially important to prospects who may not know you
- Creates a more memorable and unique customer perception of you
- Allows you to explore avenues that indirectly relate to your work and impact your future direction, if you have one.