Tag Archives: personal branding

How to use content writing for brand positioning?

The importance of content writing in brand positioning.

When it comes to building a strong brand and brand positioning, content writing plays a crucial role.

Content writing is all about creating valuable and engaging content that resonates with your target audience.

By crafting compelling stories and messages, you can effectively communicate your brand’s unique value proposition and position it in the minds of your customers.

Through content writing, you have the power to shape how people perceive your brand and differentiate it from competitors.

What is brand positioning and how is it achieved through content writing?

What is the meaning of brand positioning and how content writing helps you.

Take for example Nike. It is a well-known brand in the sports industry (mostly known for selling shoes).

Everybody knows “Just Do It”. This phrase, through content writing, inspires and motivates individuals to push their limits, overcome obstacles, and achieve their goals.

This is their brand positioning.

Although they are selling shoes, they don’t want you to buy their shoes just for wearing them. They want you to buy their shoes to excel in life. This is their brand positioning.

Nike constantly reinforces the empowering narrative through telling stories of real athletes who have faced challenges and triumphed. This is achieved through content writing and other media.

When you think of Nike you think of a brand that has positioned itself as someone who stands for athleticism, perseverance, and personal growth.

Whether the right content for blogs, video scripts, or social media campaigns, their content writing strategy reinforces their brand position and strengthens the relationship with the target audience.

Another company that is quite famous for its brand positioning is Apple.

Apple is known for its slick designs and user-friendly interfaces whether it produces iPhones or iPads, or other gadgetry.

Through their content writing, Apple consistently focuses on highlighting the seamless integration of the products and the exceptional user experience they offer.

The content consistently emphasises the power of the technology to enhance and simplify everyday life.

There positioned their brand as a company that offers cutting-edge technology with a touch of luxury. Yes, this is expensive gadgets but the target audience knows that it gives the values it pays for.

Through content writing, they create the overall perception of a brand that sets trends and delivers products that seamlessly blends style and functionality.

Similarly, Google has positioned its brand as the go-to search engine to such an extent that “googling” has become an action word.

When your business is known for something, when it instantly evokes an emotion that is consistent, it has achieved it through strategic brand positioning.

Why is brand positioning important?

Why is brand positioning important

There are different mobile phones. There are 10 major mobile phone brands in the US. Through clever brand positioning, Apple has gained 57.75% market share in the US.

Somehow Apple has convinced people that owning an iPhone increases their prestige. This is brand positioning.

There are different beverages. According to 2021 figures, Coca-Cola had a market share of 46.3% in the US while Pepsi had a market share of 25.6%.

People like Coca-Cola taste. They want to be seen drinking Coca-Cola. This is brand positioning.

Here are a few reasons why brand positioning is important to your business.

Differentiation

It helps your brand stand out from competitors.
It creates a unique identity and personality for your brand.

Targeting

It enables you to focus on specific customer segments.
It helps you tailor your marketing efforts to reach the right audience.

Competitive Advantage

It gives your brand an edge over competitors in the market.
It highlights the unique value your brand offers to customers.

Clarity

It provides a clear and consistent message about your brand.
It helps customers understand what your brand represents.

Customer Loyalty

It builds trust and emotional connection with customers.
It encourages repeat purchases and long-term relationships.

Pricing Power

It allows you to command premium prices for your products or services.
It positions your brand as a high-quality and desirable option.

Brand Equity

It enhances the overall value of your brand.
It increases customer perception and preference for your brand.

Communication

It facilitates effective communication with customers.
It ensures your brand message resonates with the intended audience.

Consistency

It helps maintain a consistent brand image across different touchpoints.
It ensures that your brand remains recognizable and memorable.

Business Growth

It drives business growth and market share expansion.
It attracts new customers and creates opportunities for expansion.

Imagine you’re at a store, surrounded by countless products.

Suddenly, you come across one that immediately triggers something within you.

You feel a sense of familiarity, a sense of trust, and you know it’s the one you’ve been looking for. That’s the power of brand positioning.

By crafting a unique identity and showcasing the value your product brings, you’re not just selling a physical item, you’re forging a lasting connection that sets you apart from the competition.

Strategic Content Writing for Effective Brand Positioning

Strategic content writing for effective brand positioning.

Understand Your Target Audience

You need to understand your target audience to create compelling content writing.
Research their demographics, preferences, and pain points to tailor your brand positioning.
Get insights through customer surveys and social media analytics for effective content writing.
By understanding your audience, you can align your brand positioning through content writing.

Define Your Unique Selling Proposition (USP)

Discover and define your Unique Selling Proposition (USP) for effective brand positioning.
Highlight the key features, benefits, or qualities that make your brand unique in your content writing.
Communicate your USP clearly to showcase your brand’s value through content writing.
Your USP plays a pivotal role in content writing for effective brand positioning.

Craft Engaging Brand Stories

Engage your audience by telling compelling stories about your brand.
Share your brand’s journey, vision, values, and mission in a relatable manner through content writing.
Connect with your audience emotionally and make your brand memorable in your content writing.
Incorporate personal experiences or testimonials to add authenticity to your brand positioning.

Consistency in Brand Messaging

Maintain consistency in your brand messaging across all content writing efforts.
Develop a brand voice and tone that resonates with your target audience.
Ensure consistent messaging in your content writing to reinforce your brand positioning.
Consistency in brand messaging is crucial for effective content writing and brand positioning.

Conduct Keyword Research and SEO Optimization

Conduct keyword research to understand the language your target audience uses in content writing.
Incorporate relevant keywords naturally throughout your content writing for improved SEO.
Optimize meta tags, headings, and descriptions to enhance your brand’s visibility in content writing.
Strategic keyword usage in content writing contributes to effective brand positioning.

Leverage Various Content Formats and Channels

Experiment with different content formats, such as blog posts, videos, infographics, and podcasts.
Tailor your content to different channels, including websites, social media, and emails, for effective brand positioning.
Explore diverse mediums to reach and engage a wider audience through content writing.
Utilize content writing to repurpose and republish your valuable content across different channels.

Enhance Content with Visuals and Multimedia

Use visually appealing images, videos, and graphics to enhance your content writing.
Incorporate infographics or charts to simplify complex information for your audience.
Create interactive multimedia content that encourages engagement and sharing in your content writing.
Visuals and multimedia amplify the impact of your content writing on brand positioning.

Provide Valuable and Actionable Information

Deliver valuable insights, tips, or industry knowledge through your content writing.
Empower your audience with actionable steps they can take from your content writing.
Position yourself as a reliable source of information in your content writing for effective brand positioning.
Valuable and actionable content writing establishes your expertise and strengthens your brand positioning.

Encourage Audience Interaction

Encourage audience interaction through comments, shares, and likes in your content writing.
Prompt conversations, ask questions, and seek opinions in your content writing to engage your audience.
Respond promptly to audience comments and messages to foster a sense of community.
Content writing that encourages audience interaction strengthens your brand positioning.

Personalize the Content Experience

Tailor your content writing to cater to the specific needs and preferences of your audience.
Use a conversational style, addressing the audience directly as “you” in your content writing.
Offer personalized recommendations or solutions to your audience’s challenges in your content writing.
Personalized content writing establishes a strong connection and reinforces brand positioning.

Leverage Social Proof and Testimonials

Showcase social proof such as testimonials, reviews, and case studies in your content writing.
Highlight positive feedback and experiences from satisfied customers through content writing.
Incorporate user-generated content to demonstrate the impact of your brand in your content writing.
Social proof and testimonials enhance your brand positioning through content writing.

Monitor and Analyze Performance

Continuously monitor and analyze the performance of your content writing efforts.
Utilize analytics tools to track engagement, conversion rates, and other metrics.
Identify top-performing content and replicate successful strategies in your content writing.
Data-driven decision-making based on performance analysis improves brand positioning through content writing.

Collaborate with Influencers

Collaborate with influencers to expand your brand’s reach through content writing.
Engage influencers in guest posts, sponsored content, or social media collaborations.
Partner with complementary brands for co-marketing initiatives in your content writing.
Collaborating with influencers strengthens your brand positioning in content writing.

Embrace Continuous Learning and Adaptation

Stay updated with industry trends and incorporate them into your content writing.
Invest in continuous learning to improve your content writing skills.
Adapt your content writing strategy based on audience feedback and changing preferences.
Continuous learning and adaptation contribute to effective brand positioning through content writing.

By implementing these strategic content writing tips, you can enhance your brand positioning and create a strong connection with your target audience.

The following will strengthen your brand positioning:

Understand your audience.
Define your USP.
Craft engaging brand stories.
Maintain consistency in brand messaging.
Conduct keyword research for writing content.
Leverage content formats and channels.
Enhance your content writing with visuals.
Provide valuable information consistently.
Encourage audience interaction.
Personalize the content experience.
Leverage social proof.
Monitor performance.
Collaborate with influencers.
Embrace continuous learning.

Do you need personal brand positioning?

Personal brand positioning.

Personal brand positioning refers to how you present yourself to the world, showcasing your unique qualities, expertise, and value.

It’s about crafting a distinct image and reputation that sets you apart from others.

Just like a business brand, you have your own story, personality, and skills that make you special.

Personal brand positioning is all about leveraging those strengths and communicating them effectively to others.

Listed below are some benefits of personal brand positioning

Establishes you as an authority in your industry through effective brand positioning.
Differentiates you from competitors in the crowded marketplace.
Builds trust and credibility among your target audience.
Attracts new opportunities and partnerships through strategic brand positioning.
Increases visibility and recognition for your personal brand.
Helps you connect with like-minded individuals and build a strong network.
Boosts your professional reputation and opens doors to career advancements.
Allows you to command higher rates and fees for your services.
Increases your influence and impact within your industry.
Enables you to attract loyal followers and a dedicated audience.
Positions you as a go-to resource for valuable content and insights.
Provides a platform to share your expertise and educate others.
Supports personal and professional growth through continuous content writing.
Facilitates personal branding partnerships and collaborations.
Sets the stage for future personal and professional opportunities.
Enhances your overall brand positioning strategy and long-term success.

Improving Personal Brand Positioning Through Strategic Content Writing

Improving personal branding with strategic content writing.

Know Your Target Audience

Understand who your target audience is and what they’re looking for.
Research their needs, pain points, and preferences to tailor your content writing.
Use language and messaging that resonates with your audience’s interests and values.
Continuously listen to and engage with your audience to strengthen your brand positioning.

Define Your Unique Voice

Develop a distinctive voice and tone that sets you apart in your content writing.
Infuse your personality into your writing to create a memorable brand positioning.
Be authentic and genuine, allowing your true self to shine through your content writing.
Consistently apply your unique voice across different platforms and content formats.

Share Your Personal Story

Connect with your audience on a deeper level by sharing your personal brand story.
Emphasize your journey, experiences, and lessons learned in your content writing.
Show vulnerability and authenticity to build trust and establish a relatable brand positioning.
Highlight how your story aligns with your audience’s aspirations and challenges.

Showcase Your Expertise

Demonstrate your expertise and knowledge in your content writing.
Provide valuable insights, tips, and solutions that showcase your competence.
Position yourself as a trusted resource and authority in your field through content writing.
Consistently share relevant and up-to-date information to reinforce your brand positioning.

Consistency is Key

Maintain consistency in your brand messaging and content writing style.
Ensure your brand positioning is reflected consistently across all platforms and channels.
Stick to a regular content schedule to keep your audience engaged and informed.
Build familiarity and trust by consistently delivering high-quality content.

Optimize for SEO

Conduct keyword research to understand the language used by your target audience.
Incorporate relevant keywords naturally throughout your content writing.
Optimize meta tags, headings, and descriptions for improved search engine visibility.
Focus on creating valuable and informative content that aligns with SEO best practices.

Diversify Your Content Formats

Experiment with various content formats to cater to different audience preferences.
Explore written articles, videos, podcasts, infographics, and more in your content writing.
Repurpose your content to maximize its reach and impact across different platforms.
Adapt your content to suit the strengths and characteristics of each format.

Engage and Interact

Foster engagement with your audience through your content writing.
Encourage comments, questions, and discussions to create a sense of community.
Respond promptly and authentically to audience interactions to build relationships.
Leverage social media platforms to actively engage and connect with your audience.

Collaborate and Network

Seek opportunities to collaborate with other influencers and professionals in your field.
Guest post, participate in interviews, or co-create content to expand your brand positioning.
Attend industry events and engage in networking activities to build valuable connections.
Leverage the power of collaboration to amplify your reach and impact.

Personalize the Experience

Tailor your content to address the specific needs and interests of your audience.
Use inclusive language and address your audience directly in your content writing.
Offer personalized recommendations, solutions, or insights to strengthen brand positioning.
Show that you genuinely care about your audience’s individual journeys and challenges.

Be Consistently Visible

Maintain an active presence on relevant social media platforms.
Share your content regularly and engage with your audience consistently.
Participate in industry discussions, forums, and online communities to boost visibility.
Strengthen brand positioning by being consistently visible and accessible.

Analyze and Adapt

Monitor the performance of your content using analytics tools and data.
Identify trends, patterns, and audience preferences to refine your content writing.
Continuously adapt your content strategy based on audience feedback and insights.
Stay updated with industry trends and adapt your brand positioning accordingly.

Seek Feedback and Learn

Be open to feedback and suggestions from your audience and peers.
Actively seek constructive criticism to improve your content writing and brand positioning.
Learn from both successes and failures, using them as opportunities for growth.
Embrace a growth mindset and continuously seek ways to enhance your personal brand.

Stay True to Yourself

Authenticity is crucial for effective brand positioning through content writing.
Stay true to your values, beliefs, and personality in your content writing.
Avoid trying to be someone you’re not, as it undermines your brand positioning.
Embrace your uniqueness and let it shine through your content.

Evolve and Innovate

Embrace change and stay ahead of industry trends and shifts.
Innovate in your content writing to offer unique and valuable perspectives.
Continuously evolve your brand positioning to remain relevant and captivating.
Embrace new technologies, content formats, and strategies to stand out.

By implementing these strategic content writing tips, you can improve your personal brand positioning effectively.

Are you creating these branding mistakes while creating your personal brand?

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Reputation is not personal branding, according to this Harvard Business Review article. Reputation is just a part of your personal brand.

Your personal branding is what you stand for, what decisions you make, what values you represent and who you are as a person.

Your personal brand differentiates you.

It makes you identifiable and recognizable.

Whereas your reputation might be on autopilot, and it might not be in your hand what people think of you, your personal brand is how you want people to see you.

To build a personal brand, you make a conscious effort to build an image that is a mix of your experience, your skills, your values, and what you deliver to people who come in contact with you.

How do you create your personal brand?

Decide what you want to be known for.

Have very clearly laid out goals.

Audit your existing brand – search yourself on the Internet and find out what people are saying about you, if at all.

This will give you an idea of how much effort you need to put in and what direction to follow.

Come up with a consistent strategy.

What branding mistakes could you be committing when creating your personal brand?

I came across this list of mistakes on this LinkedIn update and thought of creating a small blog post listing them here.

One branding mistake is pretending to be someone you are not.

What are your core values?

How do you define yourself?

Don’t deviate from your core values just to appeal to the crowd.

Stick to your personality and you will attract an appropriate audience.

The second mistake is not differentiating between marketing and personal branding.

Most of the personal branding is one-on-one engagement.

You build your personal brand by providing some sort of value to people through blogging, social media updates and videos.

Advertising and marketing don’t work in personal branding.

You can read about the remaining mistakes in the original post.

Personal brand building through strategic content writing

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Building your personal brand with content writing.

What is different about writing content for personal branding?

What is content writing for personal branding?

What do you look for if you need a content writer to build your personal brand?

Personal branding is the association that people make with your name.

What sort of feelings does your name arise among people you are targeting?

What do they think about you? Do they respect you? Do they recognize your authority? Do they pay attention to what you say or what you publish?

Building your personal brand matters to you if you seek business partnerships through the power of your name and recognition.

Content writing can help you clearly define your personal branding on the web and reach your target audience through it.

In the times of Covid-19, an increasing number of people are working from home.

Many successful professionals have lost their jobs and they are eking out their own livelihood.

Previously they were using their talents and abilities for the companies that hired them, but now they’re trying to use their talents and abilities as individuals rather than employees of a company.

Personal branding through content writing

For them, building their personal brand is as important as setting up a business. In fact, for people offering their skills as individuals – for example, I promote myself as a content writer and my content writing services are basically me – it is very important that their target audience recognizes them for their talents and abilities.

But first,

What is personal brand building?

What does personal branding mean?

Personal branding has two attributes: your name and its association.

Although, I don’t want this to be my identity everywhere, in business circles, when someone comes across the name Amrit Hallan, I want people to immediately associate the name with “content writer” or “content writing” or even “SEO content”. My regular content writing helps me in this regard.

If enough people see my name enough number of times and they can recall that I am a content writer, my personal brand is established.

Even conversely, when people come across terms like “content writer” or “content writing services” or “content writing” or “SEO content writer” they should be able to recall, “Oh yes, Amrit Hallan does that!”

Of course, branding is more than that. Branding isn’t just about knowing what you do, it is also about how well I do it.

Hence, aside from knowing that I am a content writer, my personal branding means people know that I can help them improve their search engine rankings or provide them content that improves their conversion rate.

They recognize me as someone they can depend on. They respect my knowledge. They acknowledge my experience and expertise.

Famous examples of personal brands would be, if you come across Guy Kawasaki, you can immediately recall that he is an Apple evangelist, a venture capitalist and an author. If you come across Avinash Kaushik you know that he’s a data scientist.

So, personal brand building includes:

Associating a skill, a knowledge domain, some character or quality, a speciality or anything that sets you apart from the others, to your name.
Making sure that you are easily findable based on what you can deliver.
Trust factor.

Why trust factor?

When you want to get work based on what you can deliver, people need to trust you.

For example, if someone hires me as a content writer, that person should be able to trust that I’m going to deliver quality content writing.

He or she must feel reassured that once he or she decides to work with me, he or she can count on me.

Otherwise, no matter how great a content writer I am, if I’m not reliable, if lots of people have shared bad experience about me online, brand building is of no use.

Hence, personal brand building means establishing yourself as an authority in a topic or domain so that people hire you or decide to do business with you, coupled with creating your presence so that people can easily find you when they need you.

“Finding” doesn’t just mean that when people come across Amrit Hallan the expression “content writer” must immediately pop up in their minds.

Sure, this should happen. But it should also happen the other way round. When they are looking for a content writer, they should be able to find me.

Enter content writing.

How quality content writing helps you build your personal brand

Quality content writing helps you build a personal brand.

As I have explained above, brand building means associating your name with something that you can deliver, as well as associating something that you can deliver with your name.

Along with that, it should be easier for people to find you for what you can deliver.

Quality content writing helps you achieve all these.

Associating yourself with your capability through content writing

Suppose you want to be known as a business coach.

You can just write on your website that you are a business coach, you give good advice, you have helped so and so and hence, people who are looking for a competent business coach should get in touch with you and preferably, should hire you.

There is nothing wrong in doing that, but the problem is, just like you, thousands of other business coaches have similar websites.

They have more or less the same information.

They call themselves great.

They showcase their achievements on their websites.

They also have testimonials.

They also insist that people who are looking for business coaches must contact them and hire them.

In such a case scenario, you need to establish yourself as an authority in your subject. You must stand out.

Why do professionals write books?

There are many business coaches who are also authors.

If there is a choice between hiring a business coach who has published a few books and a business coach who has never published, who do you think people are going to hire?

Yes, you’re right. The business coach who has published books.

Writing and publishing a book is not a mean feat.

Just the fact that someone has completed a book tells you that the person can focus and work hard.

Don’t see yourself writing a book in near future but would like to be known as a professional in your field? You can work with a content writer to publish authoritative content on your website or your blog.

Regularly publish articles and blog posts on your website. They are as good as writing and publishing book. Sometimes, even better.

Seth Godin, for example, built his personal brand through his blog. He wrote and published books much later.

Share your knowledge. Share your insight. Help people who come to your website.

When people regularly come to your website and read your thoughts on business coaching, they begin to associate your name with business coaching. They begin to recognize your brand.

Isn’t it obvious? If you are constantly writing about business coaching and how it can help people, people begin to recognize you as a business coach.

If your advice is good, if your advice is applicable and if people begin to benefit from your advice, they begin to trust you.

They begin to talk about you. They begin to tell others that you are a business coach. Even those who have never come to your website start visiting your website.

Making it easier for people to find you for your skills through content writing

Regular content writing and publishing builds your presence.

When you publish blog posts and articles on your website, you promote them on your social media timelines. You may also broadcast them to your newsletter. It becomes easier for people to find you.

Your targeted content also improves your SEO. Your organic search engine rankings improve for relevant search terms.

It’s obvious that when people search for your name it should come up in search results along with your speciality.

But, even if someone searches for your speciality, your name must come up.

If someone searches for a business coach in a relevant field, if you provide business coaching services in that relevant field, your name must come up.

Persistent content writing helps you achieve that.

Search engines love fresh content. They also love authoritative content.

You can provide them both with regular content writing and publishing on your website and blog.

You achieve personal brand building when people are able to find you, whether using search engines or social networking websites or direct references, both by your name and by your skill.

Again, you can achieve this level of personal brand building only through regular content writing.

Why regular?

Just as you are doing personal brand building, so are other professionals in your field. Everyone is constantly catching up. This is the reality of our times.

What sort of content should you write and publish for building your brand?

Your content should be able to achieve the following if you want to build a personal brand on its shoulders

Help you stand out
Build thought leadership
Grow trust and credibility
Help you build a solid network

Listed below are a few writing tips to build your personal brand through content writing:

Write a brand mission statement

What defines you?

Who are you as a person?

What do you do and what do you deliver?

What change do you make in people’s lives?

What do you stand for?

What is your philosophy in life?

What are your values?

What can be your most valuable contribution?

Write a list of your brand content goals

What do you want to achieve with you content that will help you elevate your brand?

Do you want to raise awareness about your field?

Are you a brand ambassador of your field of expertise?

Do you want to portray yourself as a trustable individual?

Do you want people to get familiarized about your thoughts and opinions?

Write and publish content regularly

Once you have clearly defined your objective and figured your target audience, start publishing content regularly.

You can begin with explaining the various concepts of your profession.

For example, if I claim that I can help you improve your search engine rankings with my content writing services, I should be able to illustrate this ability through proper examples.

In my case, my clients get live examples because they can find my web pages and blog posts for the search term they are using.

Regularly publish your research and observations.

Talk about your interactions with other industry leaders.

Share useful information from other sources that you come across.

Remember that regularity is very important.

The Internet is quite noisy.

In fact, it is one of the noisiest ecosystems in the world.

Within seconds thousands of pages, blog posts, videos, and images are added to the web.

Amidst all that, you need to remain visible if you want to build your brand on a sustained level.

Even the biggest names begin to lose their presence when they don’t constantly write and publish content.

Be persistent. Remain focused. Share your knowledge. Prove to people that you are an authority in your field. Sustain it over a long period of time. You have built yourself a personal brand.

5 ways you can build a personal brand with content marketing

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Personal branding with content marketing

What’s a personal brand?

A personal brand means a unique, identifiable professional identity that helps people recognize you immediately when they come across your name, business name or business logo.

A personal brand is, when people decide to work with you (or not) based on their perception of you.

Suppose you are a well-known motivational speaker recognized for high-caliber corporate leadership training workshops.

People know you.

Some people have attended your workshops and benefited immensely.

Some people have come across your books and articles.

Your name as well as your face is quite familiar to them.

The moment they come across your name or your face, the thoughts of leadership and authority crosses their minds.

They want to listen to you.

They want to be associated with you.

They wish you would endorse them.

There is a sense of pride in being associated with you.

They want to attend one of your workshops even if it means spending more than they can afford and travelling a great distance.

They want to hire you as a business consultant or their marketing consultant.

That’s your branding.

Why it is important to build your personal brand?

Importance of branding yourself

A personal brand opens many doors to opportunities simply because people are familiar with your name, they trust you, they respect your knowledge, they admire you for the stands you take.

You can be an author. You can be a journalist. You can be a business consultant. You can be a public speaker or a motivational speaker. You can be a politician.

Wherever, whenever people want to deal with you because of “you”, it is your personal brand that is working for you.

Many times you must have noticed, especially through blogging and social networking, many authors first create a presence on the Internet, build a brand for themselves as influencers, and then start publishing books, going on speaking assignments and getting published in reputed publications.

There are some great examples of personal brands on the Internet, namely Guy Kawasaki, Tim Ferriss, Gary Vaynerchuk, Avinash Kaushik and Seth Godin.

Branding doesn’t just help in business. It also helps to advance your career.

It helps you get a better deal when you get a job.

It enables you to charge more for your services instead of constantly having to negotiate and haggle.

As a celebrity, if your branding is good, it can get you lucrative sponsorships and endorsement campaigns.

If you want to publish a book, publishers will be more eager to have a look at what you have written, compared to a totally unknown person.

People take what you say, seriously.

You can do lots of good work if you have built your brand in any manner.

It opens multiple doors for you. Even in unrelated fields.

Building your personal brand with content marketing

Building personal brand with content marketing

Prior to the advent of the Internet it was very difficult to build a personal brand unless you had powerful connections or unless you had striven for years.

It either needed to be a full-time job or a fluke of luck.

Building a personal brand in the times of the Internet is easier compared to the olden days, although I’m not saying it’s easy.

Every worthy cause takes effort, hard work, persistence and creativity and building a personal brand is no different.

All those people I have mentioned above have spent years creating high-quality content – text, video, images – to constantly remain visible and instigate conversations among their peers.

They are always in the reckoning.

People are constantly talking about what they talk about.

Everything on the Internet is content.

This blog post that you are reading is content.

The Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter update that you just checked is content.

The interesting YouTube video that you watched is content.

News websites like New York Times, Washington Post, Drudge Report – whatever they publish, is content.

The email that you read is content.

Basically, whatever is digitally being produced and then being used to convey something, or to show something, or to prove something, or to annoy or to please you or to make you cry with cuteness… whatever, is content.

When you use this content strategically, to achieve something like make people pay attention to what you’re saying, what you are selling, what you are promoting, what agenda you are running, it’s content marketing.

Simple definition: when you use content for marketing, it is content marketing.

With content marketing, you strategically produce, publish and distribute content to:

Keep your audience engaged.
Keep your audience informed (or misinformed, as in the case of politicians and journalists)
Educate your audience
Entertain your audience
Help them solve problems

Eventually, be a part of their lives in such a manner that whenever you reach out to them through your content, they welcome your presence.

In fact, they’re looking forward to hearing from you.

What’s the benefit?

It’s easier to do business with a person you respect, recognize and trust.

You trust that person’s judgement.

You look forward to learning from that person and enriching your life directly or indirectly.

You endorse that person by sharing his or her thoughts and insights with friends, family members and colleagues (or with random Twitter followers who don’t care about what you are sharing with them).

To sum it up

People know what you do.
People respect you for your wisdom, wit, insight and knowledge.
People know that you can be trusted.
When they need something that you provide, they get it from you.

As I mentioned above, you can be anyone.

You can be a politician.

You can be an author.

You can be a celebrity.

You can be a corporate trainer, an IT consultant, a motivational speaker, a financial adviser or a business consultant.

In any field, where it can make a difference how people think of you, building your personal brand with content marketing can help you.

5 ways you can build your personal brand with content marketing

1. Have a clearly-laid out content marketing plan before you begin building your personal brand

Have a long-term content marketing strategy for personal branding

Why planning is important?

It always helps if you know what you’re doing, what you’re getting into, and what it entails.

For content marketing to be effective, to really be able to contribute to building your personal brand, it will need to be persistent.

It cannot be something like “Okay, I will try a few blog posts and see what happens”.

It is just like life, if you treat content marketing casually, it is not going to give you serious results.

Have a plan for at least a year.

Of course, to have a year-long plan you need to really believe that it is going to work for you.

How do you believe something?

Do research. Read case studies. Watch videos.

Unless you truly believe that you need to use content marketing to build your personal brand, it will be very difficult for you to succeed.

You will easily give up.

Anyway, assuming you’re pretty sure content marketing is the way to go, have a plan for at least a year.

Having a plan means

Deciding where mostly you’re going to publish and market your content – your own blog or social networks and social apps.
Knowing what sort of content from you will be appreciated by your audience – food pics, cute baby and animal photos, pics of your butt (if you are one of the Kardashians), authoritative blog posts in your field, conversations with industry experts, latest news updates from your area of expertise, advise, views and reviews and so on.
What is going to be the frequency of content publishing – you may decide to publish every day, whenever you feel like, or on fixed days, something like every Wednesday. Depends on how eager your audience is to lap up your content and how much time it takes for you to create quality content.
What is your budget – your budget is going to have a big impact on your overall content marketing. Remember that your personal branding solely depends on the quality of your content. Save your money anywhere else, but when it comes to getting quality content, don’t try to save a few bucks here and a few bucks there.

Recommended reading: How your typical content marketing evolves

2. Build a mailing list

Building your own mailing list for personal branding

When you set up a website or a blog, having a lead capturing form should be one of the topmost priorities. Despite social media apps and websites, people still check their emails every day and they prefer to receive updates in their inboxes, provided you don’t spam them.

Keeping track of one’s timeline on Facebook and Twitter or even LinkedIn, can be a challenge. If you follow lots of people and if these people are very active, you may miss many important updates.

The same may happen with your audience.

But they are sure to check their emails.

You can use your mailing list to let your subscribers know whenever you publish new content or whenever you do something that needs to be shared.

I mostly send an update when I publish a new blog post on my Credible Content blog.

I have another mailing list that I use to distribute my journalistic opinions and since most of the people who have subscribed to that mailing list are strongly opinionated, my open rate is normally 35% and click through rate is 25%.

3. Don’t ignore search engine rankings

Content marketing to boost your SEO

Search engine rankings are very important for your personal branding, especially in the field of business.

People are constantly looking for information on search engines.

If you provide the information they’re looking for, they should be able to find your content on search engines.

99% of your audience won’t be specifically looking for your name. They will be looking for the topics you write on, or create visuals on.

The best way of drawing people to your website or blog is by making your content visible on social networking websites like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Instagram, and by improving your search engine rankings.

The click through rate on social networking websites is mediocre because when people are browsing through their timelines, they are reluctant to leave their timelines. They would rather miss an important update than move away from Facebook or Twitter.

Also, timelines move very fast. If they are not staring at their timelines all the time, there is a big chance that there are going to miss your update.

On search engines on the other hand, since people are already looking for links to go to, they don’t think twice before clicking the link.

Once your links begin to appear in search results, they are going to remain there for a long time.

How do you improve your search engine rankings?

By publishing very focused content.

Content that solves specific problems and handles specific topics.

Writing for search engines, while maintaining quality, takes practice and experience.

No matter what the “experts” say, keywords and search terms matter.

But you need to use them in such a manner that search engine algorithms don’t conclude that you are trying to trick your way into top rankings. If this happens, instead of improving your rankings, they reduce them.

Strategically use your keywords and search terms in the topics of your blog posts, videos and images.

4. Whatever content format you prefer personally, don’t ignore YouTube or IGTV

Video marketing for personal brand building

There are many reasons people prefer videos to other content formats.

A video is easier to watch. It is a full audiovisual experience.

It’s also faster: something that may take 1000-1500 words if you write a blog post, can be communicated in a couple of minutes in a video.

Besides, people trust you more if they can see you live, moving, talking, making expressions, pointing at things, twisting your lips, rolling your eyes or rubbing your chin, and saying cool stuff.

YouTube is of course one of the most known video streaming platforms.

Now you also have IGTV on Instagram.

You will need to see where your videos perform well.

Making a video is not very difficult these days.

You can make a video with every mobile camera.

You can even create a slide and then turn it into a video if you don’t prefer to create live videos.

Any animated bit of information that can be uploaded on a video platform will do, provided it is interesting, crisp, fast-moving and above all, useful.

5. Publish valuable content to build credibility and authority

Build credibility and authority with content marketing

The visual quality of your content is icing on the cake. Even the regularity doesn’t matter much these days as Google increasingly focuses on credibility and authority.

This is where you should focus the most when you are trying to build your personal brand with content marketing.

There is no use creating a very sleek video that people should be able to enjoy in 4K HD if after watching the video they don’t gain anything except for feeling impressed.

The same goes for your blog posts. There is no use writing a 2000-word blog post if it is just a meaningless monologue written solely to improve your search engine rankings.

Always deliver value.

Doesn’t matter if you are not Salman Rushdie.

Doesn’t matter if you’re not Steven Spielberg.

As long as you deliver value. As long as people can use your content to enrich their lives, to improve their work lives and personal lives, you’re good to go.

Through regularly sharing useful information – information that can be used in some manner to solve problems and make life easier – you build your credibility and authority.

This makes it easier for people to listen to you carefully and believe in what you are saying.

They are more inclined to share your content and recommend it, or react to it.

The influencers in your field feel good about being associated with you.

Recommended reading: Relevance of relevant content

Conclusion

When you have a personal brand image it opens many doors for you and creates unique opportunities that are otherwise not available to lesser-known people.

Through content marketing you don’t need to force yourself up on people.

Content consumption is very natural these days. Publish something valuable, and people automatically consume it.

You just have to figure out what your target audience appreciates and then start producing it and publishing it.

Make sure that you are not known for the nuisance value of your content. Be known for your content’s authority, credibility and trustworthiness.

Constantly, persistently publishing high-quality, relevant, valuable and authoritative content is the best content marketing strategy for building your personal brand.

So which is better for your business, a business blog or a personal blog?

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A long, long, long time ago when people started blogging, it was completely personal. Many blogging services called themselves “journals”, for example, Livejournal. People wrote about personal stuff. Yours truly had a blog on web design, and I used to manually upload the HTML pages in an “articles” folder and then manually update the index file.

Search engines like Google gladly lapped up blog posts because people created them in droves and soon blog posts began to rank higher than the website. This is because the search engines have this insatiable hunger to crawl and index and then rank as many links as they can find. The more links there are in the world, the happier the search engines are. To their great delight people observed that blogs enjoyed better search engine rankings than conventional business websites. It was not that the search engines preferred “blogs” over websites, it was just that for their algorithms, the content arranged by blogging platforms was more amenable. Because basically, what do search engines like?

Lots of content.
Constantly updated content.
Topical content.
Relevant content.
Socially promoted content.

All these traits were found in blogs.

This, was the inflection point where people started publishing blogs for their businesses to get better search engine rankings. They actually did. Business websites with business blogs got better rankings than business websites with no business blogs.

Now, almost every business has a blog. The question these days is not whether your business should have a blog or not, the question is, how to fare better than other blogs.

So life has come full circle. Blogging started with personal blogging, and it’s again being asked if you should have a business blog or a personal blog.

Both have their place in the world, and whether you should have a personal blog or a business blog depends on what you are trying to achieve. Are you developing a personal brand or a business brand? Does your audience want to connect with you or they don’t mind interacting with a nameless entity as long as they’re getting the information they seek?

Although it has been more than 15 years since people started blogging (in contemporary sense) – this is 2017 – it is still considered as one of the best inbound marketing tools. Have a look at the graphic below from SmartInsights:

In more than 95% of the cases, if there is content marketing, if there is digital marketing, then a thriving blog is always there in one way or another. As you can see in the above graphic, 81% B2B marketers prefer to rely on blogs for content marketing and inbound marketing.

What are the similarities between a personal blog and a business blog?

Both personal and business blog are used to regularly communicate to your customers and clients.
Updates are arranged in a chronological manner with the latest update appearing at the top.
Content is arranged sorted by date in descending order.
Personal business blogs are theme-oriented.
Both personal blogs and business blogs are good for SEO.
A personal blog as well as a business blog can be developed into a platform with a huge audience that can be used to convey important messages or introduce new products and services.
Personal blogs and business blogs can be used to publish important content that does not fit into the main template of your website.
Communities can be created around personal blogs as well as business blogs.

What are the differences between a personal blog and a business blog?

As the name suggests, a personal blog may be used to promote a personal brand and business blog can be used to promote a business.
A personal blog can be more informal. You can write about your personal experiences, your personal opinions, your personal tastes and whatever catches your fancy (while sticking to the main theme of your blog). On a business blog there is less scope to be informal because your business blog does not represent an individual: it represents an entire organization. You have to be careful when you publish content or your business blog because it reflects on the entire company.
There is more engagement through a personal blog because your visitors personally know who is publishing the blog posts and what’s the basic philosophy of the person behind the blog.
Personal blog can be totally personal where you try to explain why your cat leaves and comes randomly and sometimes makes weird faces. A personal blog can also be a business blog, for example this blog where, although I write in a personal style (mostly in the first person) all the time I write about my business. I don’t talk of my political beliefs here; I talk about content writing and content marketing.
People normally stay away from controversial topics on their businesses blog because they don’t want to offend the customers and clients. On your personal blog, if you want, you can piss people off. But then again, if you use your personal blog to promote your business, you have to exercise discretion (if you want to, that is).

If you want to decide immediately without much data, research and experimentation, then a personal blog works better than a business blog merely because blogging is meant to be personal. It’s, mostly, a linear collection of thoughts, opinions, rants, or nuggets of wisdom around a particular topic, in a conversational, personal tone. This is the key…conversational, personal tone. This tone is more human, more personal, and ultimately, more approachable. There are many big companies that, although, have business blogs, for example Google and Facebook, they also encourage their employees to maintain their personal blogs.

But then again, in the end, what matters is, what sort of audience you are catering to.