branding Archives - Chloe Anagnos

By now you may have heard of the “Instagram aesthetic” – a diminishing trend of cultivating the perfectly curated feed native to the platform. This phenomenon enabled social media influencers to expand their realm of influence and generate a following based upon creating relevant content that resonated with a specific audience. So, how did they do it?

By creating a strong, personal brand.

Though this idea may sound repulsive to some, personal brands can be extremely effective ways to generate income and leverage greater influence among a specific audience. Some equate this practice to “taking pretty pictures” or “writing a blog every now and then” but creating a personal brand and monetizing influence takes time and intentionality.

The investment may seem more than anticipated, but creating a strong brand can lead to many benefits, including more credibility and exposure within your field, additional streams of revenue, and a more personal connection to your audience. The dedicated following that comes with having a personal brand may just make the journey worth it to tackle your dream projects.

Ready to give it a go? Here are some factors to keep in mind when establishing a strong personal brand.

Choose your niche

The most renowned personal brands are typically quite specific and are focused on a certain niche. Choose a topic that excites you and brings you passion. You don’t have to drop all of your hobbies but when it comes to generating a following, choosing one topic in particular like fashion, marketing, psychology, or fitness can help target a specific audience while allowing you to become known in your field.

Find someone to follow

Because personal brands exist for nearly every idea, find an influencer or brand you resonate with, and follow them closely. What topics do they post about? What patterns in their content strategy do you recognize that you can implement? What interviews, podcasts, or blogs about their journey do they share in regard to getting started? Take note, and learn from their example.

Cultivate a social media following

Building a strong and faithful following online is one of the most effective ways to have an audience to both serve and sell to. Create content with your target audience in mind and develop a strong tone to your writing.

Focus on writing to one clear person and you’ll begin to attract the people you would like to influence. Post about similar ideas and as with a personal brand, don’t be afraid to become a bit vulnerable on your journey. Additionally, invest your energy into the platforms where your audience spends most of their time.

Define your audience

Develop a content strategy and examine your analytics as you generate traction or ensure you have a clear idea on the front end of who you’re targeting. Implement marketing tactics and practices that most closely resonate with your audience.

For instance, podcasts may work well with millennials, but YouTube is more effective with GenZ.

Create partnerships

Influencer marketing and affiliate marketing are great places to start in this respect. If you don’t have the follower count to make connections try looking for like-minded people online who are doing the same thing as you. Come up with giveaways or encourage your audience to look into partners’ websites and contents, and ask them to return the favor. Finding your competition and working with them will benefit you more often than not.

Collect information

Most influencers focus on growing an email list so they have the rights to information, so in order to build out your brand to leverage influence, ensure you are creating content that serves and creating lead magnets to convert your audience.

Create a strong community

We live in a digital age and many people online are in search of the community they don’t have. Use that to your advantage – having a specific audience that attracts like-minded people is a strength. Instead of making your brand just about you, bring your audience together and they’ll follow you over a cliff.

When it comes to marketing, there’s always something else you could be doing. Another platform to be on, another software to utilize…the list goes on and on.

But when it comes to your strategy, there are four significant components that can and should be considered in every decision you make.

Establish your target audience

If you shoot for nothing you’ll miss every time, and by trying to reach everyone you’ll end up helping no one. You must have a target audience and it has to be specific.

For instance, by simply establishing your target audience as WOMEN, you are targeting 3.8 billion people. That’s essentially half of the world’s population. On your first ad campaign, you’re probably not going hit them all.

A buyer persona is a helpful exercise to establish who your ideal client is, but again, you must have a target audience. It will significantly narrow down the platforms you invest time on and the kinds of content you need to create.

Establish a marketing strategy

A marketing strategy is a must (hence the name of this blog). And mentally knowing your objectives simply isn’t enough. So plan, plan, and plan.

It doesn’t mean every decision you make has to be by the book, but you should have a plan in place as a framework and foundation to guide your brand. It may not include your daily workflows or the most minute decisions on your agenda, but your strategy is your foundation for every marketing decision you make.

If you’ve never formulated a marketing strategy, now’s your chance to start. Open your favorite bottle of wine and check out these quick and easy to use templates to inspire you. Your plan will develop and grow over time, but putting a strategy in place will help when you’re caught in a rut.

Be consistent

Consistency is key, and before you take on anything else, make sure you are consistently executing the marketing practices you have in place now.

Automate as much as you can with platforms like Later, and wait until you’ve done something consistently before you analyze the results for at least a month (preferably a quarter) before you drop it or change it substantially. Sometimes, you just have to show up, rain or shine. (And until you show up consistently, you won’t know what to fix or improve.)

If you loathe a particular strategy you know is effective for your target audience, hire someone.

Websites like Upwork can help you find talent so you can delegate the tactics you don’t necessarily enjoy.

Whatever you’re doing, do it well, and just do it consistently.

Follow through your objectives

Finish what you start, and take action. Telling someone else about your idea or writing about it in your journal isn’t going to wish it into existence. You have to do. So take action.

If you’re overwhelmed with being consistent with everything you’re implementing already, schedule what you plan to do. Create an annual calendar with benchmarks of the goals you would like to accomplish this year. And if not this year, the next one.

Need to ramp up your understanding of SEO? Put it on your calendar. Set alarms.

Along with that calendar, keep a running tab of all of the ideas you’d like to implement. Instead of becoming distracted, keep your list in a document close by where you can quickly jot down your objective. When you have time, revert back to the list…and schedule it! To be successful over time, you have to follow through.

You are important, and your goals and aspirations are a priority. Implement these marketing musts to ensure you are being proactive in investing in the one thing you have got to stop brushing off: yourself.

How to Create a Personal Brand

4 Marketing Musts to Keep Your Strategy on Point