Developing a Personal Online Brand

What Every Agency Owner Needs to Know

Digital agencies provide a wide range of services and offer versatile platforms with which to assist their clients. They come in all shapes and sizes, including marketing agencies, design agencies, and creative agencies, as well as dozens of hybrid type agencies in between. Whether you work for an agency, want to start one, or already run one, there’s typically one main goal of that agency and that’s to attract and bring in more clients for your respective agency.
Most agencies go with the digital marketing approach. By using online advertising methods and social media platforms, agencies can successfully promote the visibility and reputation of the agency’s brand and this isn’t a bad way to go about developing your personal brand online. In fact, in some cases it can prove to be highly successful, but there’s a more effective way to bring in more clients and that’s through personal branding.

Personal Brand and What It Is

One’s personal brand is exactly what it sounds like. It’s the visibility, identity, and image you possess. It’s the content you create, the image you project to colleagues and potential clients, and it’s the message you want your agency to convey. You can think of a personal brand like a corporate brand, but much more specific and catered towards you, the agency owner. Your personal brand helps set standards for your agency that others in the business and clients alike will grow to recognize.

Growing your personal brand depends on what your strengths are when it comes to marketing yourself and your agency, but personal brands can be built upon in a number of ways. Blogging about your agency’s specific field and stories relating to it are great ways to keep your content fresh and relevant. Social media is also an excellent way to help present and maintain your personal brand. Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram offer various ways in which you can communicate your brand and grow it through likes, shares, and comments.

Building a Personal Brand and Why It Matters

Building a personal brand gets you recognition, thus growing your business potential and as well as your potential to find freelance work necessary to build your business. That means networking and connecting with potential clients as well as other competing agencies so that you’re always up to date and stay competitive in such a vast online agency world. Connecting with others opens the possibilities of getting your personal brand recognized and recommended. All it takes is one connection who had a great experience with your agency recommending you to another potential client to catapult your agency from start up to a relevant go to place for clients to seek out your services.

Developing and cementing a solid personal brand also helps your agency establish expertise in your agency’s specific field. When you establish a reliable, strong personal brand known for its positive results, potential clients will be more likely to come to your agency for its expertise. A solid personal brand also helps establish a sense of trust with clients. If you’re known for running a trustworthy, successful agency, that’s a surefire recipe for success. Clients want a name they can trust and if you’ve effectively marketed your personal brand with plenty of accumulated trust, that developed trust will turn into more business and growth for your agency.

Your Personal Brand and How to Build it from Scratch

The first key to building your own personal brand is to build a foundation then you can work your way up from there. This means figuring out your niche area of expertise, such as what you are an expert in. The important thing here is to be as specific as possible. Building a brand means etching out an image that showcases your area of expertise and capitalizes on it where others can’t. Figuring out your niche involves thinking about what clients want most, what your competitors struggle with, and what you do best. With those three components to think about, develop your expertise and build upon it.

Next, you’ll need to identify your core values and personality that you want to portray to potential clients. This is not something you have to over think, just ponder what it is about yourself, what values you want to put out there to the public as an agency that will help build the foundation of a recognizable and trustworthy personal brand.

Once you’ve identified your expertise, emphasis, and core values, next you’ll want to establish your social media profiles and consider starting up a personal blog. The possibilities with which to build your personal brand are virtually endless when it comes to social media exposure. Be sure your profiles are complete and that you take an active role in engaging other social media users who are attracted to your personal brand. Personal blogs are a great way to keep your personal brand fresh as well as keep your agency relevant and competitive.

Your Personal Brand and How to Keep It Strong Once Established

Once you’ve built up the foundation of your personal brand, it’s up to you to maintain and grow it. This can be done by making sure you regularly update your personal blogs as well as your social media content. It’s also important to get out there and network. Get the word out about your agency through networking and workshops. By creating a buzz about your agency, you’ll keep it relevant and memorable. You can also sign up for public speaking events. Appearing in person to promote your personal brand is an excellent way to help people connect an actual human to its digital agency, this will help add a more personal touch to your brand and attract more perspective clients.

Building your personal brand doesn’t have to be difficult. By building a foundation using your expertise, core values, and strong marketing tactic, you’ll be well on your way to growing that personal brand into an influencer when it comes to your digital agency.