7 Greatest Ways to Build Personal Brand with Content Marketing
Any brand, regardless of its size, and industry can leverage the internet to establish its presence. Yes, the internet has provided platforms for brands/individuals to build online communities through effective marketing methodologies based on trust, value, and reciprocity.
Amidst all online marketing strategies, content marketing comes in handy and a cost-effective method to build your brand online. And, with relevant and valuable content, personal brands are becoming more influential than corporate brands with larger budgets.
Yes, now, personal branding is the need of the hour. Anyone who wants to grow business to the next level, get a dream job, or step up a career must build personal brands online.
What is Personal Branding?
Personal branding is a way of marketing yourself, your experience, and your knowledge as a brand.
What comes to your mind when you hear of names like Bill Gates or Oprah Winfrey? You can instantly connect the dots and figure out their profession, quotes, and skills. They are highly influential people who have already mastered personal branding.
Building a personal brand involves communicating your values, skills, perceptions through your posts, videos, quotes, images, etc. In short, it describes the experience of having personal interaction with you.
Importance of Personal Branding
Customers do not buy from companies or organizations anymore. They buy from the people they trust and connect with. If we look up the successful brands, they all have had influential leaders who communicated their business values.
With the internet and social media today, one can interact with the target audience personally. That is why personal branding is getting more and more popular. It encourages you to create value for customers meeting their expectations.
When you keep delivering your brand promise, you win your customer’s trust. Most shoppers make their buying decision depending on their trust in the brand. Moreover, having a personal brand sets you apart from the crowd and enhances your online reputation.
Hence, personal branding is crucial to stay relevant and atop the business. A recent study says that many customers buy brands that are suggested by someone they trust. Trustworthy brands are all they want. So, companies need to build strong personal brands to gain credibility and stay ahead of their competitors, generating high conversion rates.
How Does Content Marketing Help You Build a Personal Brand?
Content is the king that rules the internet. Websites, blogs, videos, podcasts, infographics, social media posts are all made out of content. Yes, content communicates with your audience, encouraging them to know your brand.
Content marketing involves creating and publishing relevant and valuable content consistently on any of your online platforms. The idea is not explicitly to promote a brand but to create interest in it, eventually driving sales. The content here refers to blogs, videos, social media posts, etc.
Content gives you the authority to show your expertise in your industry. It enhances the online visibility of your brand. Customers who read educational and informative content from the brand are more likely to buy from that brand.
When it comes to building a personal brand, content marketing comes in handy as a logical and effective method. It encourages you to express who you are, what do you do, and your values to your audience. It sounds authentic and genuine rather than promotional. Hence, over time, content builds a loyal and connected community that follows and trusts you. And, of course, they will go for the products/services that your brand offers.
Content marketing helps you to build a personal brand by:
- Encouraging trust and reliability
- Boosting influence
- Improving SEO
- Generating leads and conversions
Now, let us see how to use this effective content marketing to build a personal brand. “”
7 Ways to Build Your Personal Brand with Content Marketing
1. Stay Genuine and Authentic
Content marketing is all about building credibility, authority, and trust. So, being genuine and authentic is the priority. If your content contradicts your values, people will surely make out that you are faking it.
Always be open to sharing opinions and suggestions. If someone denies it and comes up with a new point, feel free to take it if it is a better option. Yes, genuine people are more relaxed and comfortable, and they are constructive enough to take other’s opinions.
Adding a human touch into the business will help people to connect with your brand comfortably.
2. Set Precise Goals
What is your ultimate motive? What do you want to achieve with your brand? Having a vision and purpose will help you stay focused and achieve your goals faster.
Are you looking to connect with new clients, step up your business or establish your authority in your niche? Knowing the goal precisely will encourage you to craft content accordingly.
Also, know your target audience’s needs. What do they expect from you? Invest time to learn about their expectations and create content adhering to your vision and your target audience’s needs. When people can resonate with your content, they can connect with you instantly.
3. Be Honest and Stay Positive
Always stay positive and avoid posting any negative comments or using inappropriate language or content online. Your potential clients, partners, employers, or connections have to see you as an epitome of inspiration and positivity.
Honest people naturally draw attention to their transparency. People will always appreciate it if you share personal life experiences and how you overcame life challenges. That would sound inspiring and educational to them. Also, showing a sneak peek of your workplace, your team, and a regular working day at the office will let the audience learn more about you and your business.
However, it doesn’t mean you have to share every aspect of your life. You can be honest and authentic without sharing everything. Always set boundaries and protect your privacy. You can decide upfront what parts of life you are comfortable sharing. Thus, you can limit yourself from going beyond that.
4. Blog Regularly
Posting high-quality blogs consistently will enable your target audience to see you as an authority. Thus, they will start seeing your platform as a reliable source of information eventually.
Blogging is one of the best content marketing strategies that have higher success rates.
- Online consumers trust blogs for information and recommendations.
- Almost all B2B buyers expect content from industry thought leaders.
- Businesses that blog gets more leads than businesses that don’t blog.
- Most online consumers purchased products based on recommendations from a blog.
When it comes to building a personal brand with blogging, pick topics that you already know about. Write in simple words like talking directly to the reader. Sharing personal stories, experiences, and anecdotes will help the audience connect with you instantly.
Apart from that, share something valuable, educational, and motivating content for your readers.
Last but not least, staying consistent is the key. Writing only a few blogs won’t work. Hence, it is essential to publish consistently to reap benefits like visibility, search engine ranking, and authority.
You can also do guest blogging on other sites. That will give you access to wider audiences providing extra social proof.
5. Engage With Audience
With the internet, you can interact with your audience anytime. People are constantly looking for help online. For instance, they ask questions on platforms like Google, Quora, etc. They want some experts to answer their questions and bring solutions to their problems.
Helping people out with their questions reflects your goodwill and also allows you to showcase your knowledge. Moreover, in the process, you are building a trusted online community through content marketing.
Also, all these platforms will give you content ideas for your future blog or social media posts. You can create content based on their questions. Above all, you are building trust by giving reliable information rather than force-selling something.
Furthermore, do not forget to respond to your post or blog comments. Make sure you clarify their doubts or any question they have on your posts.
6. Use Social Media to Your Advantage
Almost all are active on social media platforms today. Hence, it is an excellent platform to interact with your potential prospects.
However, social media platforms are already too crowded, and you would need exceptionally great content that educates and entertains people. Posting targeted content consistently on social media will attract the appropriate audience and grow as a community.
As you are marketing yourself as a brand, pay attention and curate content that helps you to build a personal brand. As a leader or CEO of the company, share content that reflects your nature.
However, you can publish posts or photos of your regular workday. Use a casual tone to publish regular content like your opinions and unique thoughts about general incidences. Using visuals and infographics on your social media posts will help you attract your target audience effortlessly.
7. Include Videos in Your Content Marketing Strategy
Video is one of the most engaging content marketing strategies that will boost your personal brand. As videos are interactive and personal, it encourages emotional connections with your audience quickly.
Your face, voice, and personality can come alive with video. People can understand you and your views more precisely. With smartphones, one can record videos in no time and without any cost. You can broadcast live videos too. People often want to see the authentic and real you.
You need not bang your head for topics you want to discuss in your videos. Pick a topic from your blog and start discussing it. Repurposing content will save you time and allows you to reach across multiple platforms.
Summing Up
Content marketing is one of the most effective strategies to build a personal brand. All you need is to be consistent with your efforts, and you will see results long-term.
When leveraging content marketing to build your brand, do not forget the importance of your social media profiles. Having custom branded images and precisely written profiles are mandatory. Yes, your social media profiles play a crucial role in your personal branding.
It is time to act now. Anyone can create content, but it demands hard work and consistency to stand out from the crowd. People will notice only if they find your content valuable and beneficial. Use the above-said content marketing tips to build a personal brand.
