7 Steps to Creating a Great Personal Brand

Whether you’re selling products or your own services, it’s important to cultivate your own brand, consistent across your online presence. Your brand creates the image of you and your work that you want out in the world. Still confused? Here are a few no-nonsense strategies for building your brand online.

1. Make it pretty.

The first thing you’ll need to think about is the visual. You won’t necessarily need a professional logo design, but you’ll want to think about colors, illustrations, fonts, and icons that you’ll use and how they support what’s most meaningful about your brand. Try to keep all these details consistent across all your media platforms.

2. Keep it organized.

No matter how gorgeous your website is, it’s not really well designed unless it’s user-friendly and easy to navigate. Don’t make a boring version of a cookie-cutter template, but try to make sure your bells and whistles aren’t interfering with lots of different users learning more about what you do.

3. Stay simple.

Brevity is the soul of wit, after all. You might have a real wealth of information to share, but try to keep your content lean and mean. Make your sentences do triple work to get your message across in as little space as possible.

4. Make it personal.

Don’t just use stock photos or withhold any photos of you on your sites. Unique images and personal flourishes and detail can go a long way towards making people feel connected to your story and your brand.

5. Find your voice.

You want to not only be yourself, but the best version of yourself. Whether you’ll be speaking to your audience through words or images, figure out an authentic way to communicate that’s succinct and charming and will make people interested in what you have to offer. Be authentic and real and show and let whatever makes you unique shine through.

6. Your work should speak for itself.

Showcase whatever you are trying to promote—first and foremost. Make whatever you do obvious within the first few seconds of someone visiting your site.

7. Make a statement.

To make a vibrant and useful personal brand statement, you’ll want to answer a few questions first. What are you most passionate/care most deeply about? What top three attributes define how you get things done? What are your top 3 strengths and skills? And, finally: What differentiates you from your competition? What do you have going for you that no one else can offer? Use your answers to these questions to fashion a personal brand statement for yourself. Put this on your site. Put the time into crafting your brand and then it will speak and work for you!