You Must Brand Yourself Or You Will Perish
Are you a writer? Do you aspire to expand your presence far beyond your personal blog or web pages?
I believe that mostly everyone who writes for a living understands that visibility is essential to being successful in this craft, but we aren’t necessarily good when it comes to our personal marketing.
In the competitive world of writing, standing head and shoulders above the crowd will soon establish a brand for yourself. Let’s take a look at some of the ways you can attract the business you deserve through your ongoing personal marketing campaign.
What Is Your Brand? — Is your brand your name, your person, your product, or something else? Well, it could be all of the above. For example, I am Matt Keegan and I am also The Article Writer. In addition, I am Matthew C Keegan, LLC and my writing qualifications extend well beyond articles to include: press releases, web content, blogging, copywriting, SEO, and more.
Sure, being The Article Writer can seem a bit limiting, but it really helps me out with the SERPs! Overall, I would prefer to be known as a freelance writer, a catch-all term with few limits.
Beyond blogging, which is a very important way for me to showcase my talents, there are other ways I can market my brand and so can you:
- Attending conferences and seminars as a guest speaker.
- Write a book, collaborate on a report, publish an exhaustive product review, etc.
- Submit articles to print publications including newspapers, magazines, and newsletters. Online versions work quite well too.
- Write personal press releases and seek out media attention.
- Hold seminars where you are the lead speaker. Leverage key guest speakers as needed — let some of their visibility rub off on you!
- Appear as a guest on a television or radio program. Podcasts are very cool and a terrific way to get exposure today.
- Network, network, network — social communities are a fantastic tool for marketing your personal brand. If you can only join a few, become highly visible in at least one.
Of course, appearing everywhere is one thing, but offering something of value (especially for free) is another thing. Contest giveaways, advice or assistance, and mostly any other service you offer for no charge will raise your visibility in no time. Friends will remember the good you did for them and talk about you on their blogs, mention you in their newspaper columns, and invite you as a guest for their upcoming seminar or conference.
Personal branding never ends, it is constantly changing, and it is the one task you must do or you will perish as the implementers step over the slackers. Marketing yourself isn’t always an easy task, but the benefits will positively impact your business and your bottom line.
Aaagh!
That’s the sound of me despairing because I share a name with a popular soap opera character and it’s impossible to brand my name.
Actually, I think I’m at least partially branded under my blog name. That’s okay, I just need to make sure that I hold onto it.
Laura, you are much more famous to me than some soap opera starlet. Yes, Writing Thoughts, just like The Article Writer, are brands we can be known by.
Nothing wrong with that!
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