“Building Your Brand as a Freelancer: A Step–Step Guide”

# Define your unique value proposition.

# Identify your target audience.

# Create a professional website and portfolio.

# Establish your online presence. 

# Network with industry professionals.

# Maintain consistency across all platforms.

# Measure and adjust your strateg.

                    BRANDING

Branding is not a new concept, it’s already been there for a very long time. When people heard about branding they think that there is some business that is doing their branding. But there is one more concept of branding, and that is personal branding. When someone wants to showcase themselves as a brand to the world, it becomes personal branding.

  What is Personal Branding?

Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon, once said “Your brand is what people say about you when you’re not in the room.” Your personal brand will be defined the way you present yourself in front of others. If you showcase yourself as a Sketch Artist to the world, your personal brand will become the Sketch Artist. And if you showcase yourself as a sales expert then your personal brand will become the sales expert. It’s totally up to you how you present yourself to the world.

Importance of Personal Branding for Freelancer

Whether you are a student, employee, business owner, job-going person, or looking for a job, personal branding is important for you. The chances of getting a job increase if you have a strong personal brand online. If you are a business owner or an entrepreneur personal brand will help you to grow your business faster. If you are a freelancer and provide various services then you can easily get inbound leads and projects. For a freelancer, the biggest success is the day when they start getting clients automatically who are ready to pay for the service as much as they want. And this is only possible through strong personal branding.

Steps To Build Your Personal Brand If You are a Freelancer

Let’s see what exactly you have to do to build your personal brand if you are a freelancer.

1. Identify your niche (Determine what you want to be known for?)

If you are a freelancer and want to build your personal brand then the first and the foremost step is “Determine what you want to be known for”. Until and unless you don’t know about this you can’t build your personal brand. You can’t be an expert in every industry. Most freelancers provide multiple services. But you can’t build your personal brand with this. You have to present yourself as the master of one skill.

2. Setup your personal portfolio website. Once you decide what you want to be known for, you have to set up your personal portfolio website. This is a must, you can’t take it as optional. A personal portfolio website tells others about you, your work, and also presents you as a professional person.This is  where your audience meets with you. But if you don’t know how to code and don’t know how to build your personal website then don’t worry. Because there are multiple portfolio website builders available and you can choose an easy website for your personal portfolio.

3. Publish at least two blog posts per month. Blog posts show your knowledge and experience in your industry and also build authority. With blog posts, also write guest posts on websites that have your audience and who is not your direct competitor. This will help you to bring your personal brand in front of more people and get more projects and opportunities.

4. Post regularly on your social media handles. Social media is not a time pass thing. It’s one of the powerful tools that bring you an amazing opportunity. Most freelancers are utilizing it smartly and getting amazing results. LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram are the three most powerful social media channels. Start posting daily on your social media pages. It won’t provide you with instant results, but if you will be consistent, you will be shocked the results.

5. Start posting highly valuable videos on the youtube channel. People consider YouTube as one more social media handle. But the reason we don’t mention that in the fourth point is that it’s more than the social media channel. YouTube has a very large audience size with a higher attention span than other channels which makes it a more powerful tool than others. Start creating video content around your topic and post on your YouTube channel. In the beginning, you may feel shy or hesitate to record videos but with time you will become better at it. And don’t forget you are doing this to build your personal brand as a freelancer so you have to show your face.

6. Be the part of different communities and share value over there. There are so many communities out there online on different social media channels and these communities have lots of amazing members. You have to join the communities related to your niche. Just go and be a part of those communities and start sharing valuable content over there. If you will share valuable content on a regular basis you can lose lots of clients for your freelancing service from there also.

7. Attend Physical events related to your industry. Search for different physical events happening in your city. And start being a part of those events which are directly or indirectly related to your industry. You can find lots of great opportunities over there and find some high-ticket clients also for your freelancing work.