So you have already worked your way through a steady flow of income for your business. You’ve achieved a level of work proficiency that sets the flow right for your business to continue to grow. But the amount of effort involved in closing another client is still a hustle that takes almost half of your time and energy.
So what do you do about it?
Make a personal brand.
The pull versus the push strategy can eventually help you hook your customers to your business and keep them coming back for your services. If you want to be seen, you have to be there your customers go and present yourself as the best they can ever have.
A personal brand profile that you create will speak for itself, and every time you set the pitch for a new client, it will help them get actual proof of the work you’ve done.
This article will talk about various ways to make a personal brand for yourself as a freelancer.
- Find a Niche
Say you’re a freelance developer. Now being a developer, you know how big this industry is. With so many developing languages and automated software in place, it’s hardly a surprise that there are hundreds of thousands of developers all over the world already serving the same services that you do. So with your background in programming, you identify that you could easily cater to the needs of a particular industry. Try asking these questions –
What age group do you understand the most?
What industry does your target audience fall under?
What problem does your industry solve?
With this in mind, you have to identify a small niche so that it isn’t overcrowded but big enough to allow you to create a personal brand out of it.
- Create a Mission Statement
Your mission statement will primarily talk about the goal you wish to achieve while delivering your services to your customers. It is more like that career objective statement your write at the top of your resume that states your vision for what you do in your work and how you will achieve it. Through this statement, your clients will be in a better position to identify if you would be the right fit for their business or not. In addition, your mission statement is your opportunity to inform future clients about where your priorities lie. This serves as a tool for both your clients and you to know which direction you’ll be going for.
Here’s what you need to do to write a perfect mission statement.
Ask yourself, with so many freelancers already serving teh same services as you do, how are you different? What is it that you bring to the table that no one else does? What sets you apart from others in the same race?
If your goal furthers your interests, then this is your niche and mission for your brand. It’s about what you’re passionate about and what you’re looking for in a career.
- Choose a company name and logo
The next step to building a personal brand is having a company name a logo for yourself. There are two strategies that you can opt for going about this. First, you can make a brand of your name. This primarily works for those with a unique name that’s easy to search on the internet. A second strategy is to opt for a unique brand name opted mainly by people who have a common name like “Dan Smith”. This is necessary because having a common name as a brand name can confuse your followers while searching for you on social media platforms and makes it difficult for your website to rank better on the search engines.
Next step it to make a logo. Though not necessary, some say a logo depicts the level of your creativity and talks a lot about the psyche of the brand owner. It’s a visual representation of your personality. The colors you choose, the letters you incorporate, how cluttered or primary your logo all together helps your potential customer to identify themselves with you as an individual. They feel like they can relate to you more because they are experiencing your personality through your brand.
- Create a portfolio
So you’ve identified a niche and a mission statement. Now it’s time to invest in creating a professional portfolio website that showcases your talent. This is the platform where you’ll show off your past work and what sets you apart from others in the same race.
It’s essential to keep it crisp and engaging so your potential clients will want to keep coming back for more. This not only helps you build your brand but also shows that you’re not just a one-trick pony and gives potential clients a better idea of the range of services you offer.
- Give a Constant Message across platforms
The first thing you have to do is ensure that you’re sharing the same message across every single social media platform where you have an account. By messaging, we mean you must have clear, crisp answers to three questions –
- what problem are you solving
- how do you intend to solve it?
- Who are you solving this problem for? (your target audience)
This means that you have to make sure that your posts, bio, header image, and everything centers around these three questions. This is the only way your potential clients will be able to associate your brand with a particular message. Eventually, all your platforms will hook you to pull the right customer for your business.
- Make yourself approachable
People should have access to you or communicate with you in some capacity. Ideally, you should have a contact form on your website so that people can have access to you or can easily share with you in case they have a question or concern regarding your posts. Regularly replying to comments on your posts and personally connecting with your followers can also be a great strategy to make a solid personal brand. This shows that you are connected to your community and open to feedback. Remember, you never know when and where you may find your next potential client.
- Content Marketing
As mentioned above, having a great content marketing strategy is synonymous with giving a constant message across all platforms. While considering what to put on your website or your social media platforms, it seems like a lot of writing. The right approach is to think this as a writing funnel. Consider this-
- Start with your full bio:
Build a compelling story around your brand. Describe who you are, what you’re passionate about, and what makes you different from other freelancers in your space. This sets you apart from the rest and helps you build a stronger brand.
- Condense it for social media
The average Facebook and LinkedIn post is roughly 300 words. This gives you plenty of room to tell your story while keeping it short and to the point. The goal is to keep your bio short and tell a compelling story about what sets you apart from other freelancers in your space.
- Reduce it further to 140 characters
Your bio should be reduced further to just a few lines of text for your Twitter bio and other social platforms. This allows you to get to the point much faster and includes the essential core benefits you offer.
- Make a tagline
Lastly, out of those 140 characters, you can make a tagline that strikes the right brand message in a single sentence.
This funnel will help you cut through the clutter of writing too many content pieces and deliver a constant streamlined message statement across all platforms that you access.
Summing Up
Remember, there is no such thing as a bible to know how your brand should be. As long as everything you incorporate resonates with your target audience, you’re good to go.
One big piece of advice for every other freelancer out there is to start working towards your brand when you get your first project. Whether big or small, the projects you deliver leave a substantial impact on your customers and can help you get more clients through word of mouth alone.
Building a digital presence across platforms is necessary. To make a personal brand, you need to choose a niche that interests you and find a mission statement that you can live by. This will help you create a consistent brand voice and help you become a trusted resource for your audience. It also sets you apart from other freelancers in your space, allowing you to build a stronger brand. Next, you need to create a continual stream of messages that you are giving across all your platforms. Social media is a great place to start. You can use it to make a content marketing strategy. It should be clear and concise and include text, images, and videos. It helps you find a following, connect with like-minded people and allows you to build your brand reputation.
