5 Things That You NEED To Know For Your Personal Brand

The word “personal branding” is getting more and more looked upon as people realize that being convenient is not enough anymore.

Everyone wants to start as soon as possible, so they look for the best social media to start on, or the best strategy to build a brand from 0…

But they all don’t know the basics.

They lack the basic knowledge needed to truly understand personal branding and surpass your competition.

It’s like trying to build a house without being an engineer – you might get lucky or you might find yourself under a lot of bricks.

To avoid this, you must be aware of these 5 basic concepts of personal branding that EVERYONE interested in it should know.

Without further ado, let’s get started!

1) What even is “branding” in the first place?

If you were to look up on Google for the meaning of branding, you would probably get this…

“The promotion of a particular product or company by means of advertising and distinctive design.”

In all honestly, that’s a lame-ass explanation.

Branding is how you want you or your company to be perceived by others.

A brand can be a statement, a promise, a logo…

But at its essence, it’s about perception.

For example, let’s take Apple.

Why do you think that Apple is so well-known and respected worldwide?

Sure, they make good phones and computers…

But that’s not the reason.

Apple is a multi-billion dollar company because it managed to create a product that represents the brand.

When someone buys an iPhone, they’re not buying a phone…

They’re buying status and privacy.

Apple is perceived as privacy-orientated and quite expensive for most, and this of course is reflected in their products.

Another example is Harley Davidson, where their motorcycles represent freedom to express themselves.

So, to sum it up in one sentence…

Branding is the art of giving a deeper meaning to your product/service.

2) The difference between a corporate brand and a personal brand

Would you agree that Kanye West and Nike have similar marketing strategies?

If you have at least a little experience in marketing, I’m sure you wouldn’t.

So why would they have similar branding strategies?

That’s almost a paradox, but still, many people can’t tell the difference between corporate brands and personal brands.

To understand it, you don’t need to know every aspect of branding…

After all, it’s not rocket science.

Corporate Branding wants to create a culture around the object, where the product is a mere representation of a deeper meaning the company has.

Take Harley Davidson for example – their motorcycles are not just objects, rather they represent freedom and uniqueness for anyone who rides them.

On the other hand, personal branding aims to establish a deep emotional connection (you can read about that later in the doc) with the audience.

Yes, they still create a cult, but this time it’s around a person.

For example, take Taylor Swift and her “Swifties.”

She basically has an army of people who would die for her without even knowing her!

Just take a look at her community.

Her community will support her, defend her, and buy anything she’s going to sell them.

Most of those girls – yes, her marketing is aimed mainly towards teenagers – bought the ticket for one of her biggest concerts in Milan TWO times just to see her more. (From a distance of almost a kilometer…)

And hell, if you even dare to say something against Taylor near some Swifties… well, you could be skinned alive lol.

If you think that Taylor Swift is a too extreme example as you won’t ever be as famous as her, let’s take another one…

For example Tyson 4D, a well-known copywriter guru in the biz-op niche.

That guy’s objective is supposed to be to teach everyone how to be a copywriter and gain hundreds of dollars just by writing some words.

The claim might sound weird or scammy, but many people – especially those who come from 3rd-world countries – tend to believe it easily.

This guy is quite famous in his industry, and his community has many common points with those “Swifties.”

They believe every word he says, buy everything he has to sell, and defend him to their last breath no matter how much proof there is about his scammy attitude.

To sum it up:

Corporate branding is about imprinting in an object a deeper meaning and creating a culture around it…

Personal branding is about creating a strong community around a person through emotional connection.

3) Why you should know your audience from the inside out and how you can do that

Personal branding is all about connecting with your audience…

But if you don’t even know who they are and what they like, how are you supposed to do that?

You simply can’t.

On the other hand, if you conduct deep and thoughtful research on your audience…

Where you can learn how to make them instantly trust you…

Well, everything changes.

Doing that is simple, actually.

You can conduct the research in 3 steps:

1st: In a Google doc, write down these 3 categories.

• Pains and fears

• Dreams

• Obstacles

• Competitors

These are going to be what you’re looking for in your audience.

You want to know what they are currently struggling with and/or what keeps them up at night (pains and fears)...

You want to know what they aspire for and what their situation would look like without the problems they’re facing (Dreams)...

You want to know what stops them from achieving that ideal situation (obstacles)...

And you want to know what your competitors are doing that’s working (competitors).

2nd: Ask people in your network questions about the first 3 categories.

Of course, they must be in your target audience, or it wouldn’t make sense.

You can ask questions like: “What are you currently struggling with?” “What would your ideal situation look like without those problems?” “What’s stopping you from achieving that?”

Just make sure that you’re not forcing these questions into the conversation…

Rather make them sound as natural as possible.

You can do that by simply approaching others as if you are genuinely curious about what’s going on in their lives…

And trust me, people LOVE to talk about themselves – especially when someone’s willing to listen closely.

You don’t even need to talk that much, just let them rattle and rattle about their business.

3rd: If you feel like it’s not enough, go on the internet.

This step is quite tricky, but you will get used to it quickly.

You see, the internet is full of people talking about their problems…

And you can take advantage of that.

Go on YouTube, Reddit, LinkedIn, or any other place where your audience is talking about their problems without anyone asking them to do so.

You will find a goldmine of information (in copywriting it’s called Indirect Voice Of Clients, aka IVOC) that you can use to further know what’s going on in your audience's mind.

Quick tip – they aren’t going to explicitly say “I’m struggling with X”...

So you have to make an effort into trying to understand what they are trying to say indirectly, hence IVOC.

4) Why having a Creative Strategy is crucial for your brand and how to come up with one

A Creative Strategy is a blueprint you develop to share your value propositions to your target audience.

To put it simply, you define your brand’s objective and how you want it to be seen by others.

It’s important because it allows you to keep your ass glued to the ground and not say or do stupid stuff that could harm your brand…
Plus, it helps you and your team follow a common goal for your eventual campaign.

To write a Creative Strategy, you need to outline in a document:

• Your business objective
  

• Your brand USP (unique-selling-proposition)
  

• Your single-minded proposition (a statement of what your brand does for others)
  

• Your brand insight ( your brand objective collocated in your prospect’s context)
  

• Your brand voice (how you want your content and ads to be perceived by others)
  

• Your target audience (not much to explain here lol)
  

• How your CTA’s are going to be framed (if they are going to be bold or indirect)
  

• Your marketing channels (Where you want your strategy to be shown)
  

• Your primary message ( a statement that explains what your brand wants for its audience)

And two more important points that need more explanation.

One of those is your creative strategy statement, AKA unique angle.

That’s a thought you want someone to think after reading or watching your content/advertisement.

For example, let’s take a brand that produces cat food.

Their creative strategy statement could be:

“Cats deserve a special treatment for their tummy that can equate to the love they give us”

I know it’s complicated to understand, but don’t worry –I’m going to provide you with a creative strategy that got me into the final call for a creative strategist position.

It has been complimented by the CEO in person, so I’m quite proud of it 🤭

The other point is the get-who-to-by-where formula.

I use it to better define the brand’s objective and strategy.

Let’s take the brand of before as an example.

Using that formula, you would get something like:

Get cat owners

Who wants their cats to have the best, most luxurious natural food without any additives

To finally see their cats being healthy and playful

By providing them with high-quality food that represents the love they have for their pets

Whereas other big brands don’t care at all about their cats, they just want to make money

For the sake of simplicity, you could templatize it like this:

Get [audience] – who [problem]  – to [dream] – by [primary message reframed] – whereas [what your competitors are doing wrong].

5) Emotional Connection — How to bond with your audience

As we already talked before, emotional connections can make people adore you without even knowing you in person…

But how can you do that?

Well, it’s fearfully simple.

You can use 2 simple tacts that will most likely ensure your success with that:

1. Talk about your failures or low states in life

I know it’s not the best thing in the world, but your audience will feel even closer to you…

Almost as if you were a long-dated friend!

You’ll demonstrate that you aren’t scared to talk about your failures, and it shows how human you are – an essential factor that many “personal brand specialists” seem to avoid.

Yes, you must look professional… but you are a human too.

When others see that you are too perfect, they start to smell fakeness, hence they don’t trust you that much.

Instead, if you apply what I just said, you both show that you are human and so confident to show your mistakes without problems.

Take Kanye West – the more he talked about his tragic life events, the more people comforted him and helped him out.

If you show the world who you truly are, others are going to appreciate it.

2. Storytelling 

If used correctly, it’s like the holy grail of personal branding.

As humans are naturally wired to stories, using them allows you to sound more believable and persuasive.

The objective is to either solve a problem, engage with your audience, or fulfill a need.

The best part?

You can do it quite simply.

Just make sure to include these 3 key aspects:

1. Characters (Target Audience):
   
   Every story has characters that the audience can relate to. 

   
   In this case, your characters are your target audience—specific personas that represent your customers.
   
   By understanding your audience’s desires, challenges, and values, you can create messaging that speaks directly to them, making them the hero of your story.
   

2. Conflict (Customer Pain Points):
   
   In marketing, the conflict is the problem they are facing or the challenge they need to overcome.
   
   Your job is to understand what frustrates your audience and how your product or service can help them out.
   

3. Resolution (Your Product or Service as the Solution):
   
   Every great story offers a resolution, and in marketing, this comes in the form of your product or service.
   
   Position what you’re offering as the solution to the customer’s conflict.
   
   By framing your product as the answer to their problem, you provide a great conclusion to their story, making your offering the best choice.
   
   WARNING – DO NOT OVERUSE THE THIRD STEP. If your objective is to include it in a content piece, it’s best if you skip this part. You can do it once in a while, but if you always include this people are going to assume that you just care about money.

4. Bonus tip – start your story in the middle of the action.

   
   For example, you could say: “This sounds like when my boss screamed at me “YOU’RE FIRED! during a marketing event. You see, it happened 1 year ago…”

   
   It will have much more effect than if you start by saying “It was a long time ago, and I was doing x…”

You can use storytelling in both written content and videos!

Now that you know these 5 basic concepts, you’re already 2 steps ahead of your competition.

Go out there and crush it!

P.S. – This is just the first section of the exclusive document I give to my newsletter readers.
If you join it, you will receive the second part (How to grow a personal brand on social media) and the third part (tips and tricks to better establish your personal brand.)