7 Steps in How to Create Your Own Digital Marketing Brand as a Business Owner or Entrepreneur
As a business owner or entrepreneur, you have a voice you shouldn’t hesitate to get out there. You could be the key to assigning a human side to an otherwise corporate brand. When consumers connect with humanity, they’re willing to invest their attention, time, and money in it. Building a personal brand, you’ll also find it will help you get your name out there, potentially leading to business partners and sales as well. Here are the 7 steps in creating a basic digital marketing brand for a business owner or entrepreneur.
Determine your values.
What do you believe in? Create a list of quick bullet points on the sort of values you want to communicate in your personal social media and digital marketing brand. With values, you’re letting people know who you are and what you’re about. What are you passionate about and how does it connect to your business? Think of where you want to be in five or ten years. Use this information to guide your presence on platforms like Instagram, Facebook, and elsewhere.
Define your key traits.
Write down five key personality traits that define you personally. Values are beliefs and traits are behaviours. That’s the difference. Are you an agreeable person? Are you open-minded? Investigate yourself and give some thought to what your top five behaviours are.
Personal image.
Like it or not, appearances count for a lot. Once you know your values and traits, take this information and apply it. Get professional headshots done. Decide on a unique email signature. Consider beginning a blog to help you get your personal message out there. Always dress the part, when you’re out at networking events or even when you’re simply out for a walk.
Target audience.
Not everyone is going to like you, regardless of how likeable you are. Appeal to your target audience by knowing who’s important to you and who you’re chasing. The audience you want to focus on are the person who pays, the person or people who influence the person who pays, and your general supporters. In digital marketing or social media, a brand who succeeds is a brand who knows the finer details of who their targets are.
Build your online presence.
Once you have a defined image and professionally done photos ready to deploy, start developing your online presence. Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, podcasts, blogs, securing a unique URL if you don’t already have one for your brand, etc. Set up all the accounts you need, websites, etc. Reserve your username across everything, even if you don’t intend to use it immediately.
Start releasing blogs and content.
Blogging is considered, by many marketers, to be the best way for small businesses to build their brand. Some key strategies to use when blogging on a digital marketing campaign is to incorporate social media sharing buttons, syndicate your blog across social media, to write on topics you can re-use again and again, and to join online communities where you can meet others and possibly share your blog when/if appropriate.
Identify an influencer or expert to help guide you.
After you have the basics down, you can continue growing by following in the footsteps of an expert. Consider hiring a Toronto digital marketing agency to help provide insight into how to move forward. If you’re not seeing your business numbers increase direct from your personal branding moves, there may be something an agency can identify that needs changing or improvement.
