When researching ‘branding yourself’ online, I found A TON of websites sharing tips on how to build your brand. They said things like:

• know your ideal client and competitors
• choose a business name
• write a slogan
• select your brand colors
• design a logo
• complete a branding package
• define your brand

and so on…Man is that vague.

While some of these things are important to building your brand, just doing these things alone won’t build a thriving business.

Before jumping into my 5 steps to building a brand online, let’s define what a brand actually is:

A brand is expectations, experiences, stories, and relationships that lead to a consumer’s decision to choose one product or service over another.

---

---

The benefit of building a brand online is creating relationships and trust that will continue to organically grow your business. To get started, dive into these 5 building your personal brand steps:

1. Determine Your Ideal Audience

This is a must and should be the very first step you take when starting a business. You know the saying when you’re speaking to everyone…you’re speaking to no one.

Knowing who your ideal audience is allows you to learn their goals and struggles.

When you know who they are, what they struggle with, and what their goals are, you are set to design your service and content that will attract the exact client you want to work with.

2. Define Your Value Proposition

Now that you know who you are speaking to, it’s time to define what about you makes you/your business/offer unique?

Brainstorm – what do you do differently?

This important step will help you set yourself apart from every other business in your industry.

3. Be Fearlessly Authentic

I cannot stress this enough. When you act like someone else, or just copy what some other successful business owner is doing…eventually your audience will see right through you. People can smell BS a mile away, and this is the fastest way to break trust.

What others are doing works for them because it’s created by them. YOU ARE NOT THEM.

Building a know, like, trust factor with your audience can only happen when you are your true self. No matter what that looks like.

Will you push some people away? Of course, you will. And that’s okay cause friend, you’re not made for everybody.

When you be yourself, you will attract those that are anxious to work with you. And remember…people are going to judge you no matter what you do, so just be YOU!

4. Create Valuable Content

Remember in #1 we talked about identifying your ideal audience? And how when you do that, you position yourself to learn their goals and struggles? When you know their goals and struggles, you can create offers, experiences and content that speaks directly to those goals and struggles.

Talk about talking directly to your ideal audience. 😉

5. Show Up Consistently

You hear me talk about this all the time because friend…it’s the truth. Consistency is the key to becoming successful at anything.

Create a workflow that takes the stress off of showing up consistently. Set reasonable goals and build up from there. Remember, the day you plant the seed isn’t the day you eat the fruit. Just keep going.

---

How To Start Branding Yourself – Recap

1. Determine your ideal audience
2. Define your value proposition
3. Be yourself
4. Create valuable content
5. Show up consistently

There you have it, friends. When you’re ready to start branding yourself, follow these 5 steps and you’re setting yourself up for success. If you need help building your brand, I’ve got you boo! CLICK HERE to learn more on how we can work together to start building the brand and business of your dreams.

Looking for more brand building business tips? I think you’ll love these posts!

• How To Turn Followers Into Customers
• Personal Branding Photography Benefits
• 6 Things You Need To Know When Marketing Your Business

Hey Brand Photographer

Looking for a community of other brand photographers that will support and motivate you to grow your own thriving photography business? Join us on Facebook – Scale Your Brand Photography Business with ksromano

P.S. If you liked this post and feel others can benefit from reading it, let’s pay it forward! Pin on Pinterest and share on Facebook and Instagram….or email….or text…or shout it from the rooftop! Whichever is your fancy. 🙂