A personal brand strategist is a professional that helps you develop a plan to achieve your personal branding goals.
If you are struggling with the following:
- Understanding what you want to be known for
- Clarifying how to differentiate yourself from your competition
- Knowing which topics to cover in your posts, blogs, and videos
- Identifying what you need to do in order to attract your ideal clients
- Or finding ways to position yourself as a thought leader in your niche
Then working with a personal brand strategist is precisely what you need.
However, when learning about the topic, it can become overwhelming to find out there are many different types of personal branding companies and different types of personal branding specialists.
In this article, we will explore:
- What is a personal branding strategist
- What are the differences between them and other personal branding specialists
- Why is it essential to have a personal brand strategy
Let’s get started!
BONUS: Take a look at the type of results you can expect when working with a personal branding strategist.
Contents
What Does a Personal Branding Strategist Do?
A personal branding strategist is a person who understands how to connect your personal brand to your intended audience.
A strategist will use many resources and techniques to help you reach your personal branding goals. Below are five essential improvements a personal branding strategist can help you achieve.
Help You Craft Your Brand Identity
Personal brand strategists can help you identify the elements that will make up your brand identity.
These can range from your strengths and weaknesses, your brand message or statement, your purpose, and your unique value proposition.
Brand identity also refers to the elements that compose the image of your brand, such as: logo, icons, color palette, and other branding elements.
However, it is important to note that this will largely depend on each strategist.
Most strategists focus on setting goals and designing plans to achieve these (hence the “strategy”). This means that they will likely go over some components of discovery that can be used as inputs in your strategy.
Other personal branding strategists might prefer to work with people who already have some elements defined for their brand (brand style guide and other baseline elements) and will focus on elevating the brand.
Study Your Niche to Guide You on How to Approach the Market Best
Personal branding strategists have an array of knowledge and tools to help you define who your audience should be, how to approach them, and how to get them to come to you.
For instance, one thing a personal branding strategist should know how to do is an “ideal customer profile.”
The better you get to know your audience, the easier it will be to speak to them, interact with them and create content for them.
Another activity a good personal branding strategist should offer is competitor research.
Not all market research is about who your audience is. It should also be about gaining insights on who is already offering similar services and how to gain authority in that niche.
Using your strengths and differences as strategically as possible is key.
Competitor research also helps you be able to identify the type of content that you need to create to dominate your niche.
Help You Identify The Best Channels to Promote Your Brand
Being strategic about the channels you pick to promote your brand and your products is critical in the process of reaching your ideal audience.
As we mention in our article on how to “Choose the Right Channel to Build Your Personal Brand in Social Media,” some of the main factors to consider are:
- Your niche
- The services and/or products you offer
- Personal style
- Type of content you create
- Available resources
Personal branding strategists offer resources and insights on analyzing your brand according to these factors and offer a great diagnosis to pick the channels that will be an excellent fit for your personal brand.
Help You Plan Your Content Strategy
Personal brand strategists help you understand the topics you need to cover and in which order, to attract, educate, and convert readers into clients.
An essential aspect to build a great personal brand is to deliver consistent and valuable content, so it is critical to be organized.
Some personal branding strategy services help their clients with timelines and project management.
At Latinpresarios, for example, as part of our Personal Branding Strategy Service, we offer project management, so there is clarity around:
- The order in which you should tackle topics
- When is it that you should record videos
- When will your feedback be required
- And more details depending on your particular strategy
Personal Branding Strategists Help You Set Goals
Another fundamental element of personal branding strategy is setting goals and creating a clear path to achieve these.
Personal branding strategists use their expertise in business and marketing to help you set goals based on your brand’s resources and potential.
The plan will serve as a map of your personal branding journey. Ideally, this plan will have milestones and dashboards to measure and track your progress.
Some personal brand strategists may offer services of data analytics and tracking.
This way, you get data on your progress with your brand on social media, website traffic, calls booked, sales, and other important key performance indicators.
What Is the Difference Between a Personal Branding Strategist and Other Personal Branding Specialists?
The rise in the need to develop personal brands has brought a wave of specialists with different backgrounds.
As other types of personal branding specialists come up, such as consultants and coaches, the question may arise: what are the differences?
Even though each specialty may offer some particular services, it is likely that there is going to be some overlap.
For example, there might be a personal branding coach that focuses on building personal brands on LinkedIn. Their strategic and tactical advice will be focused on that platform.
Yet, most of the principles of discovery and strategy will apply to other channels.
What can often happen is that these professionals offer similar services.
However, there are key differences that you might find when searching for a personal branding expert.
Personal Brand Strategists
Personal brand strategists may work on a specific part of the personal branding journey, such as the strategy phase.
They might offer services limited to the strategy component of your overall personal branding efforts. Most often, they will not execute for you.
They will work with you on the discovery and planning phase, but after that, it will be up to you to execute that strategy.
Personal Branding Consultants
Consultants likely have the most significant overlap with personal brand strategists.
All of them should be personal branding strategists as well because they need to have a strategic mindset in order to be able to help their clients.
Personal Branding Coaches
Coaches are experts that give you companionship through your personal branding journey. They help you find and develop the tools you need to get ahead.
Many times, they offer the insights and the orientation needed to take a personal brand to the next level but might not offer services related to execution, such as:
- Video production
- Design
- Writing
- Copywriting services
- Other content production and distribution services.
Why Is it Important to Have a Personal Brand Strategy?
Becoming a thought leader in your niche takes time and resources. Being able to effectively distribute them in ways to maximize revenue with the least amount of risk is incredibly important.
Personal branding strategy services can provide the necessary guidance to achieve the goals you set in the most efficient ways.
Having a strategy is vital to being in control of the steps you take on your personal branding journey.
This way, you get a clear notion of how much and how long it takes to make progress.
How To Pick The Best Personal Branding Strategist
Personal branding strategists, ideally, will have expertise in areas like marketing, design, psychology, and business in general. Ideally, they should also have a basic understanding of your niche.
Many personal branding strategists are experts in one area, but they usually are part of a team of people with diverse backgrounds to offer the best service possible.
At the end of the day, it will all come down to what best suits you.
You might want to knock on some doors and learn more about the service you’re being offered before making any final decisions on who should join you in your personal branding process.
Talk to a Personal Branding Strategist
A personal branding consulting session is always a great starting point for understanding what you should do next in your personal branding journey.
