How do you start to spread your message as a personal brand entrepreneur? When building your brand, you want to get your message as far and wide as possible in order to reach potential customers and the people you want to serve. In this article, I’m going to walk you through a host of marketing activities that will help you do this.
Not everything in this article will be for you. I don’t want you spinning your wheels trying to do everything at once and be everywhere at once. That is not what building a business of you is about.
This ultimate guide is an opportunity for you to get an overview of different activities and answer all the questions you have about how to create a marketing plan, how to get your first 100 email subscribers, how to increase your website traffic, understanding video marketing, getting started with Facebook ads, and a whole lot more.
The tactics get more advanced as the article goes on. Bookmark this guide so you can keep coming back to it as you build and market your business. Start by taking a look at the 3 things every personal brand entrepreneur must do daily. And I mean must. Even when you are fully booked, you should still be taking these actions. They will help you market your business, bring in new customers and help you to serve your existing ones.
This guide to how to market your personal brand covers:
- How to stand out as a personal brand entrepreneur
- How to create a marketing strategy
- How to create great content that attracts customers
- How to drive more traffic to your website – and keep it there
- How to save time by repurposing content
- Why you need video in your marketing strategy
- How to get started with email marketing
- Getting started with social media advertising
- Making use of chatbots
- How to outsource your marketing
- How to market your book and sell more copies
- How to get press coverage for your brand or business
How to stand out as a personal brand entrepreneur
We live in a noisy world. Everyone seems to be a coach or a mentor these days. How do you stand out? Here’s the good news: as a personal brand entrepreneur, you are an original. Your marketing efforts should build a rich media experience which helps people to fall in love with you so you become somebody’s favorite.
To do this you need to think of your brand as an online media company. You are an authority in your niche and as such, you need to plan the most effective way of getting your message out to your audience.
By becoming somebody’s favorite, you are creating an expectation that you will always deliver high-quality content in a certain way, possibly on a certain day. You do not want to disappoint people. You want to build trust and certainty in your community.
Building your brand and connecting with your audience is a two-way street. It’s all about getting to know who your tribe is and what they want, while at the same time allowing them to get to know more about you. Before you go any further, check out this training session where I discuss the importance of showing the behind-the-scenes of your business and share a few ideas on how you can do it for yourself.
Key Takeaways
- With so much work and effort put in behind-the-scenes, why not show more of it?
- You don’t need to be tied down with fancy gear to give your audience a peek.
- Just because you are showing BTS doesn’t mean you have to lie about it.
- You can show different types of BTS content from scenes with your team, progress reports for upcoming projects, what you enjoy in your downtime – the possibilities are endless.
Get more inspiration about how to do this and be remembered by people by listening to episode 311 of Youpreneur.FM where my guests and I talk about creative personal brand content marketing. We talk about why it is important to be your true self online, how to look outside your marketplace for inspiration, and a whole lot more.
Another great conversation you should listen to is my interview with Jay Baer about the power of talk triggers. If you haven’t come across the idea of talk triggers or read Jay’s book (and I advise you to do that), this is about using word of mouth to get more business. Word of mouth accounts for 90% of all purchases. You need a strategy for how you are going to leverage that.
As entrepreneurs, we all need to be good at communicating with our customers and target market. I see so many people struggle with selling and knowing what words to use. But a lot of the time you will have already closed the sale long before the moment you think you need to do it. Here’s how to know exactly what to say, the little tweaks in your language that will help you spread your message and get customers without asking them directly.
A question I get asked a lot by people with personal brand businesses is how to choose what domain to use. Despite what many people think, using your personal name as a domain has plenty of growth potential. Have a listen to episode 342 of Youpreneur.FM where I talk about how to develop a domain which appeals to your tribe and will grow with you. How does the story of you fit with the story of your brand? Find out in this article about how to use brand heritage as a personal brand.
Part of your business as a personal brand entrepreneur is likely to be speaking. This is an excellent way to spread your message and widen your audience. If giving keynotes and presentations is part of your business, then take a look at this guide on how to create a speaker website that gets you booked.
Your image is vital to your brand. If you haven’t invested in professional headshot photos yet, then you need to. They are part of your visual branding – whether you like being in front of the camera or not. Read this article on how to use your professional headshot as a powerful marketing asset and get that photo shoot booked. How do you tell your brand story with visuals? You need to think like a creative director. Follow these steps to make the most of your visual content.
Your reputation is what people say about you when you’re not in the room. With the internet, there’s a pretty big room for people to say things about you that you’re not in control of. Here are 5 ways to protect your personal brand online.
How to create a marketing strategy
How do you go about pulling all of this together? You need to create a marketing strategy. This is essential. You need to know what actions you are going to take, why you are taking them, when they will get done and be able to measure the results.
I see too many people posting across social media, for instance, with no clear idea of what they want to achieve. You need a plan with solid marketing ideas or you are wasting your time. Here is how to write a simple content marketing strategy. Check it out, you won't regret it.
You also need to understand what is coming up in your business and niche in order to plan your content. Episode 319 of Youpreneur FM is well worth a listen to find out 4 simple steps to planning your content.
Part of your marketing strategy will be using social media. How do you choose which platform to be on? How often should you post? And what do you put on there anyway? This article takes you through how to promote your business on social media.
Our opening keynote speaker at the inaugural Youpreneur Summit was John Lee Dumas who spoke about creating a marketing funnel that works. In his inspiring speech, he shares everything you need to know about building a highly profitable marketing funnel that could lead to a multi-million-dollar business.
You've got your strategy in place and you are creating and sharing content. How do you know if all that work is having an effect and bringing you customers? You need to be measuring your metrics. Learn how to measure the success of your content marketing including knowing the metrics that matter and the ones that are just a waste of time.
How to create great content that attracts customers
You have a strategy in place, know who you want to serve and what you want to do. How do you create great content that attracts customers? Focus on what your ideal customer wants to know. How can you help them? You’ve got to listen to your audience and create content with purpose.
I deep dive into how to create and market content to attract your perfect customer in episode 344 of Youpreneur.FM. I’ve also written about how to create content your target audience will love.
You need to be creating content that converts. This article sets out 3 keys to creating content that converts by going through all the steps you need to take to create epic content.
One thing you want to avoid when you’re creating your content is copyright infringement. You’re creating original material but you might need an image or a piece of music to go with it. Make sure you know the rules on how to avoid copyright infringement online.
How to drive more traffic to your website – and keep it there
How is your website looking? Your website is your very own piece of internet real estate. It’s your online home and you want people to come in and invite themselves to stay.
Search engine optimization (SEO) helps your site be found when people are looking online for information about your niche. As a personal brand entrepreneur, you want to position yourself as an expert.
When people are asking questions about your area of expertise or looking for someone to help them solve a problem, you want your website to come up. This guide walks you through how to increase your traffic with keyword research.
You need to optimize your website for search in the right way. In the past, people used all kinds of shortcuts to game the system. Search engines wised up to that pretty quick. But there are lots of easy things you can do to optimize your site. Take a look at these onpage optimization secrets to turbocharge your traffic.
You have six seconds to make that vital first impression when someone comes to your website. Getting people to your website is one thing. Persuading them to stay there is another.
I sat down with my personal graphic designer, Greg Merrilees, to talk about website design branding secrets that rock. Listen in to learn about designing a cohesive website which aligns with your brand, how to build trust, and use social proof.
If you’re reading this and thinking, ‘that’s more I need to do’ that’s ok. Creating a personal brand is an evolving process and so is your website. That’s one of the joys of building a personal brand. People are buying into you. As you grow what I call your entrepreneurial ecosystem with products and services, create great content which helps your customers and hone your message, you will need to update your site.
I discussed why your personal brand website is never finished with Matt Eldridge and there is a lot of valuable information in there about how to make sure your website stays ahead of the curve.
How to save time by repurposing content
This article has covered a lot of work so far. You don’t have to do it all yourself. You can ask other people to build your website, do your keyword research and on-page SEO, and draw up an effective marketing strategy. All this will save you time and help you concentrate on the people you want to serve.
But only you can create your message. The good news is though, you only need to do it once and you can create a whole lot of material from one piece of content. This is the power of repurposing. You record one video or write one blog and then turn it into lots of other things. Learn how repurposing content frees up time and widens your audience and stop spinning your wheels.
If you’re looking for more ideas to make your content stand out, then here are 5 super creative ways to repurpose blog posts. These are great ways of widening your audience so you can reach more of the people you want to serve.
Why you need video in your marketing strategy
Video traffic has rocketed over the past few years. People are not just watching Youtube but Facebook lives, IGTV, Instagram stories, and a whole lot more. I love video and it is a key part of my marketing strategy. Why? Because I can talk to people face to face.
I might not be able to see them but they can see me and on many of these platforms they can ask me questions in real time or direct message me. I am a firm believer in P2P – person to person – relationships. Video helps me build those with my community. Here are some stats about video if you still need convincing:
- 62% of all Google searches now include video results
- 65% of humans are more visual learners than anything else
- 82% of mobile video viewers are more likely to share video content on their phones
- Viewers subconsciously retain 95% of the message within our videos
I talked about this when I started my vlogging experiment last year on episode 314 of Youpreneur.FM about taking my P2P philosophy to the next level. I hope it inspires you to get in front of the camera.
How do you create a successful video marketing strategy? I tell you now, it’s not about having all the latest equipment. If you want to, you can invest later on but first things first, you need a plan, you need to actually get in front of the camera and make a habit of shooting video, and you need to distribute it. Find out more about understanding the video marketing sweet spot and press that button!
Recording yourself and doing a number of takes is one thing but what really sets you apart is live video. Giving people the opportunity to see you just talking to them and sharing your message. If this makes you nervous, don’t be. I had to learn to love it but now I can’t get enough of it. Here are 7 steps to broadcast to Facebook live with confidence. It’s a very powerful way to communicate.
How to get started with email marketing
The money is in the list. That’s still the case, even with social media and all the other things going on. Having people on your email list is vital to your success. No-one can take those contacts away from you and you get to have a regular conversation with people who are interested in you and what you have to say.
If you’re just starting out, learn how to get your first 100 email subscribers. Having 100 people on your list might not sound like a lot, but you do not need that many people to start spreading your message. Email marketing is about quality over quantity. You want people on your list who are eager to hear from you and will tell others about what you have to say and what you can do for them. Here’s my guide on how to build a good quality email list.
As with all marketing, consistency is key. You need to show up in people’s inboxes regularly. If you have a list that you only email occasionally or you’re put off by email marketing because you’re not sure you can commit to a regular message to your fans, then you are missing out. But it doesn’t have to be a chore. Here’s the secret to how to deliver a weekly email consistently.
How do you persuade more people to come onto your list and get all that great behind the scenes content and information you’re sending out just to those people who trust you with their email address? You need an opt-in offer. There are many ways to do this from cheat sheets to video courses. I know people often struggle with figuring out what to give away so here’s how to create a magnetic opt-in email offer.
When someone signs up to you email list, what happens next? You need to have a strategy in place for nurturing people on your list. They signed up for a reason. I’ve broken down the steps you need to take and even what to talk about with 5 tips for creating your first email marketing funnel. Are you looking for something more advanced? Then uplevel your brand with these 6 strategies for email marketing funnels.
Getting started with social media advertising
Are you using social media advertising? It can be a low-cost way to reach exactly the kind of people you want to put yourself in front of. Take Facebook ads for instance. You can specify the location, age, and interests of the people you want to see your ads. I walk you through how to make sure you're spending your ad bidet wisely with 5 tips to get started with Facebook ads that explode your list.
You can accelerate your progress by learning from big brands. Here are 5 tactics large agencies use which you can apply to your Facebook and Instagram ads. If you're looking for a strategy to consistently grow your page with a modest but consistent ad spend, then here is a way to supplement organic growth with advertising. It explains why you need to focus on growing your organic Facebook traffic before spending money.
Sometimes there are tricks to getting the most out of platforms which might seem unbelievable but do work. Facebook ads with the right targeting and placements have the ability to generate high-quality leads. Here are some surprising things that will get you better results from Facebook ads.
Making use of chatbots
One of the newer tools you can use in your marketing is chatbots. If you're wondering what a chatbot is or how one could be of use to you, then you need to read this guide on how to create a great user experience with chatbots. It takes you through how chatbots work, the difference between ManyChat and Landbot, and how to get the right balance between personal and factual in your chatbots' interactions.
How to outsource your marketing
Are you wondering where you are going to find the time to do all these marketing activities? Or thinking, ‘this really isn't my thing'? You can market your business effectively without having to do it all yourself. Many of these activities can be outsourced. Here's how to outsource in order to market yourself better. Making yourself do work you don't enjoy or trying to fit in your marketing when you have clients to serve is no fun. Let others use their expertise to help you.
How to market your book and sell more copies
Have you written a book? Or are you thinking of writing one? I have written two bestselling business books and I also love talking to other authors about how they wrote and marketed their books. I've learned a lot along the way both as a published and a self-published author, including that the only person who is going to actually sell your book is you. No-one is going to do it for you.
Most books don’t sell more than 250 copies. But there are lots of actions you can take to make sure your book sells far more than that. Find out how to sell the first 1000 copies of your book. You can also hear me talking about marketing strategies for how to sell more copies of your business book on Youpreneur.FM.
How to get press coverage for your brand or business
Good old-fashioned press coverage is still a useful way to get the word out about what you’re doing. Like all marketing, you need a clear strategy and to know who you want to appear in front of. These days it’s easier than ever to get in touch with journalists. If you would like to see yourself in newspapers or magazines, then take a look at this advice on how to get press coverage for your brand or business.
Remember, the key to marketing your business is to have a plan, make it measurable, and focus on taking key actions consistently.
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Chris founded Youpreneur® in 2015. He is a serial entrepreneur, keynote speaker and author of the bestselling books “Virtual Freedom” and “Rise of the Youpreneur”. He hosts our weekly podcast, Youpreneur.FM, as well as our annual conference, the Youpreneur Summit. Chris is based in Cambridge, UK.
