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7 Ways to Build Your Brand With Content Marketing
Content marketing along with Personal Branding is a really powerful combination. By creating content you share your expertise and provide value to your audience. The content can range from anything that a customer can consume, including blog posts, white papers, videos, podcasts, cheat sheets, and basically anything in written, audible or visual form.
Modern content marketing is part of inbound marketing philosophy, by which you let the customers come to your rather than chasing after them. This way you have a higher chance of attracting relevant customers to your brand while also diminishing the costs you’d need to spend on traditional push marketing tactics.
Content marketing for your brand includes creating, curating, and distributing whatever content you produce. This process can help you:
Attract your target audience
Inform the audience about your brand
Educate people regarding your brand
Generate leads and sales
Have your customers become your brand advocates
Here are Seven effective ways you can build a personal brand with content marketing.
1. Write an eBook
One of the best, fastest and most effective methods to build a personal brand with content is to author a book. Writing a book shows off what you know about your industry and niche. Through your extensive writing, you have an opportunity to share valuable, personal insight, as well as your own voice and perspective.
Book authorship is a powerful form of content marketing. Publishing a book boosts your credibility, visibility, and authority, and can also help grow your community.
A book calls attention to you, since it’s an accomplishment that not many have achieved. Additionally, writing a book sets you apart as the person “who wrote the book” on a topic, which can make you the expert. It’s an excellent marketing tool, not just for building your personal brand, but also for attracting leads and clients.
Writing a book may seem overwhelming and out of reach, especially if you’re short on time or don’t consider yourself a good writer. Don’t worry, you have options - and you don’t need a book publisher.
If you have a lot of blog content, consider compiling your most popular posts into an eBook.
If you are a better speaker than writer, use your slide notes from a previous presentation, or jot down notes about your topic. You can even record yourself talking into your computer or smartphone. Outsource the transcription, editing, and formatting of your recording so that it’s ready for online or print publishing. You can self publish on Amazon Kindle.
2. Start a Blog
One of the best aspects of our digital world is that you have the ability to publish content with the greatest of ease. By regularly blogging on relevant topics that interest your target audience, you build a community, and position yourself as an authority. Over time, this can help you become a trusted resource for information on your niche.
Blogging is a form of content marketing that has proven results. Check out some of these convincing blogging statistics:
81% of U.S. online consumers trust blogs for information and advice.
96% of B2B buyers want content from industry thought leaders.
Small businesses that blog get 126% more leads than small businesses that don’t
Blogs have been rated the 5th most trusted source for accurate online information.
61% of U.S. online consumers have made a purchase based on recommendations from a blog.
To build a personal brand with blogging, focus on topics that you know about, and which pertain to the audience you want to attract. Talk directly to your reader, and share personal stories, experiences, and anecdotes. Offer valuable information with the goal of educating, entertaining, and motivating your readers.
It’s important to publish consistently since it takes a long time for blogging to reap benefits, especially when it comes to search engine ranking, visibility, and authority. Writing only a few blog posts on your website won’t have the results that regular blogging offers.
You can also Blog on other platforms. But having your own home base ( your own website domain) is preferred when it comes to online real estate and blogging. You don’t want to build a house on rented property, however platforms such as Medium and LinkedIn offer content publishing and increase your chances of getting noticed.
But beware, you don’t own these sites, so if they go away or change their policies, your results could be negatively affected.
You should also consider guest blogging on authority and industry niche sites to reinforce your personal brand’s credibility and authority. Writing for these websites gives you access to their wide-reaching audiences and provides additional social proof.
Medium and LinkedIn allow you to publish your blog content on their platforms. If you’re short on time and can’t create new content for these sites, you can also re-publish your existing blog content on them. This will increase your content’s impact, reach, and visibility.
3. Answer Questions
Your ideal clients are often looking online for help - they’re not only asking questions in Google, but they’re also going to other platforms for answers. In other words, they’re searching for your expertise. Assisting people with their most pressing questions is a gesture of goodwill, which also enables you to showcase your knowledge. In the process, you’re forming online connections and trust, while building your personal brand through content marketing.
Go to the platforms and places where people ask the most questions. For example, Quora is a website dedicated to answering questions. Create an account, choose your topics of interest, then start answering questions. It’s as simple as that. You can even include links to more information in your answers - but don’t be spammy or salesy with those links. Your goal is to attract an audience and build trust, not to sell anything.
Twitter is another platform where people are looking for information - performing an advanced search in Twitter helps locate tweets with questions and conversations that you can join in on. Searching popular hashtags in your industry is another way to find people on Twitter who need assistance.
And don’t overlook your own blog comments as a potential treasure trove of opportunities to answer questions from your audience. After someone has read your post and asked a question, be sure to reply with an answer. Other website visitors check the blog comments too, so don’t ignore questions. Take advantage of these types of online conversations since they contribute positively to your personal brand.
4. Post Consistently on Social Media
Whoever your target market is, it’s likely that they use social media.
According to Statista, in the U.S. alone over 70% of the population uses social media.
Analysis from Kepios shows that there are 4.74 billion social media users around the world in October 2022, equating to 59.3 percent of the total global population. That’s a substantial audience. Social media is your chance to network and interact online with potential prospects.
Unfortunately there’s also a lot of noise on social platforms. To stand out, and attract the attention of your ideal audience, post content that represents your personal brand’s values in a way that educates, entertains, or motivates people. This type of content should also maintain an informal vibe, which people prefer in their feeds. Your consistent effort with targeted content will entice the appropriate people to you and grow a community.
Pay attention to your goal of building a personal brand through your content. Since you’re packaging and marketing yourself as a brand, think of social media in those terms. Although you may shy away from being front and center, you’re the CEO and leader of your own brand - so act like it through your content.
Don’t be afraid to publish posts or photos of your everyday life. Take advantage of the casual tone to publish more personal content, including your opinions and unique thoughts relative to your industry. These practices position you as a wise, but relatable thought leader and innovator in your niche.
Social media platforms rely heavily on visuals - to keep your personal brand identity cohesive and consistent in color, style, and format, use a free graphics tool like Canva. With Canva, you can develop templates, which makes creating themed and branded content much easier and faster.
5. Incorporate Video into Your Strategy
Video is a form of content marketing that will boost your personal brand quickly and effectively. And, as a form of free content, video is also easily accessible for your audience.
Since video is extremely engaging and personal, it often builds emotional connections much faster than blogging or other forms of content. Your face, voice, and personality can come alive and captivate with video. It’s more similar to in-person interaction, so it’s terrific for relationship building.
You may notice that video “shows” are popping up on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube. Anyone, anywhere has access to create an online show (just like a television program). You don’t need to be a celebrity or have any audience to begin video recording and publishing.
Video production can be overwhelming due to the costs that many associate with it, but you don’t have to get too fancy or technical with your content. Use your smartphone to record or broadcast live video. People today want to see you unedited since it’s more authentic, transparent, and real.
Sometimes you may wonder what topics to discuss in your videos. Your blog is a terrific resource for topics. Conversely, if you don’t have a blog but have videos, you can turn your videos into blog posts. Repurposing content will save you time while amplifying your reach across multiple platforms.
6. Start a Podcast
If you’re unsure about video, podcasting is a good alternative. You don’t have the pressure of showing your face on screen, which makes podcasting less unnerving, and people will still hear your voice on a podcast, which is almost as good as video when it comes to humanizing yourself and building trust.
Podcasting statistics illustrate that the medium is increasingly popular.
There are 383.7 million podcast listeners globally.
It is predicted that there will be around 424 million podcast listeners worldwide by the end of 2022.
As of June 2022, there are over 2.4 million podcasts with over 66 million episodes between them.
Listeners are downloading podcasts on their mobile devices to listen on the go - almost 70% of podcasts are consumed on a mobile device. The mobility factor makes this type of content accessible, convenient, and appealing.
If starting an official podcast is out of the question, then an alternative is recording your blog posts as audio files. Creating an audio file is as easy as reading your blog posts into a microphone or headset on your computer and recording your voice. You can use apps like Stitcher or SoundCloud to neatly add the audio file to your blog post.
7. Appear in Guest Interviews
There’s a reason celebrities appear on interview shows in tandem with their movie releases - it’s a way to promote their product in a more conversational manner. At the same time, it gives movie executives the chance to capitalize on their celebrity star power (aka their personal brand).
When you appear on people’s blogs, podcasts, and video shows, you’re gaining more reach and higher exposure for your personal brand. Interviews give you access to other people’s tribes, and introduce you to new audiences.
One of the biggest advantages is that you gain immediate influence and authority through association. In the process of being interviewed, you’ll be viewed as a legitimate expert in your field by the interviewer’s community. In other words, there’s a trust transference that occurs from the interviewer to you as result of the interview.
Interviews are also a networking opportunity. You foster relationships and increase rapport with industry colleagues and leaders, which further promotes your personal brand.
If you are serious about Developing , Launching , Monetizing and Scaling your Personal Brand , Join my Free Masterclass : https://bit.ly/3PBFMSIL
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📃 About Vandana Nanda
📖 My Story : The Journey Thus Far
Vandana Nanda, is the Founder and CEO of Winbrand Academy, an Online Personal Branding and Digital Marketing School.
After working in the corporate world with IT and Education companies for over two and a half decades, Vandana decided to venture online in 2020 on a full time basis.
Working online with Time Freedom and Financial freedom has been a long cherished goal for her. Vandana has travelled the world and experienced both extremes of life , going from being a successful corporate executive and a homemaker to being a single parent and bringing up two young children while also focussing on a full time corporate job.
She has been able to bounce back, learn new skills and continue on her path to achieving Financial and Time Freedom. She has made it her mission to achieve financial freedom herself and also help thousands of people across the globe to find financial freedom by doing what they love. Through Winbrand Academy ,she is helping Entrepreneurs, Small Business Owners, Real Estate Agents, Insurance Brokers, Authors, Actors, Musicians, Lawyers, Teachers, Industry-Specific Professionals, and of course, people with a specific Passion from around the globe brand themselves.
Vandana’s purpose is to help people brand themselves as Leaders and Authorities in either their specific niche or in whatever their passion is while creating an income doing what they love.
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