Updated August 17, 2022
Anyone who didn’t win the billion-dollar Mega Millions jackpot this yr must learn this text.
With the discuss concerning the Great Resignation (or Great Reshuffle), I wager you’ve contemplated the way forward for your money-making work. Even in case you’re fully happy along with your present employment, it’s good to plan for future promotions and pivots (particularly surprising ones).
And that requires doing one thing at present that ought to really feel very acquainted: creating a content material advertising technique.
This time, although, you’ll create it for your private model.
Not certain it is advisable make investments the time?
Consider these sensible phrases from a CMWorld Twitter chat a couple of years in the past that also ring true at present:
“Careers in marketing make personal branding even more important. If you can’t develop your own brand, people might not have the confidence that you can help them develop a company’s/product’s/agency’s brand,” Mike Myers tweeted.
The chat’s visitor speaker, Anh Nguyen, agreed: “All the knowledge and experience gained for your personal brand can be scaled for content marketing for a client or an employer.”
The information and expertise you acquire from advertising your #PersonalBrand could be scaled for employer or consumer #ContentMarketing, says @AnhTNguyen by way of @AnnGynn @CMIContent.
What is a private model?
Before you may craft your private content material advertising technique, it’s vital to know what a private model is.
“Think of it as your reputation and calling card to the world,” Anh mentioned within the Twitter chat. “Your personal brand helps you connect with prospective employers, clients, customers, collaborators, and so on.”
Gabriela Cardoza defined within the chat that a private model helps you:
- Differentiate your self
- Build thought management
- Grow belief and credibility
- Build a community
You have a private model already. Every time you have interaction with folks, you create perceptions of who you’re of their minds.
When you craft a content material advertising technique for your private model, you’ll set your self on a path towards shaping these perceptions that can assist you obtain your targets.
Craft a #ContentMarketing strategy for your personal brand and get on an intentional path to achieving your goals, says @AnnGynn via @CMIContent. Click To Tweet
Use these seven steps to create a documented content material advertising technique for your individual model.
1. Craft a model mission assertion
All good content material advertising methods begin with understanding the mission and targets. Thus, step one in your private content material advertising technique is to create a mission assertion.
Here’s how Gabriela broke down the parts of a private model mission assertion:
- Who you’re
- What you do
- What you stand for
- What your distinctive worth is
I’ll add another – What do you need to obtain along with your model?
Here’s a private model mission assertion which may work for a content material advertising author:
I take advantage of my creativity and sense of enterprise to assist B2B manufacturers have interaction with their audiences by compelling content material. I work to make sure my content material is equitable and inclusive. I need to develop my recognition as a go-to useful resource within the content material advertising trade.
TIP: You can’t develop your private model with out contemplating your employer’s model since you’re tied collectively publicly. Tweak or complement your private mission assertion accordingly.
You can’t develop your #PersonalBrand without considering your employer’s brand. You’re tied together publicly, says @AnnGynn via @CMIContent. Click To Tweet
2. Write an editorial mission assertion
Put collectively your private editorial mission assertion, which connects to your model mission.
CMI’s Jodi Harris writes that a nice content material mission assertion particulars three parts (I’ll go into extra depth on every later):
- Core viewers – who you goal to assist (serve) along with your viewers
- What you’ll ship – the type of data you present
- Outcome or profit – the issues your viewers can do (or will know) due to your content material
A content mission statement answers the why, who, and what of your #content, says @joderama via @AnnGynn @CMIContent. #ContentMarketing #PersonalBrand Click To Tweet
You don’t want an elaborate assertion. Just give a transient overview in a sentence or two.
With your private model and editorial mission statements full, you now have the required footing to develop a content material advertising technique.
3. Detail your model’s content material advertising targets
Your private content material advertising may also help you obtain your skilled targets (to get a elevate, a new job, extra shoppers, and so forth.), however these aren’t your content material advertising targets.
Content advertising includes creating and distributing content material to draw and retain your viewers and, finally, drive worthwhile motion.
Here are some private content material advertising targets to contemplate:
- Build model consciousness: Get your identify on the market.
- Earn model belief: Help folks see you as a invaluable, respected useful resource.
- Deepen model loyalty: Connect with folks on a deeper degree (e.g., get them to enroll for your e-newsletter or share your content material).
- Attract strategic companions: Get folks to need to assist you to (e.g., visitor running a blog and convention talking).
Once you outline your content material advertising targets, you may zero in on the correct viewers.
4. Detail your target market
You know what you need, however what does your viewers need?
First, describe who your viewers members are. What industries do they work in? What roles or titles have they got?
Then element their pursuits and behaviors. What do they need to know? What are their ache factors? Where do they stay (on-line or geographically)?
Let’s say you’re a content material advertising specialist for a monetary providers firm. Your objective is to construct consciousness of your identify and abilities. Your viewers members are managers and administrators of content material advertising, communications, and advertising within the finance trade. They need to know extra about the way to get buy-in and funds help from their agency’s leaders. They test LinkedIn each few days however by no means use Facebook.
5. Identify your content material candy spot
Think of a Venn diagram. In one circle are your content material advertising pursuits. In the opposite circle are your viewers’s pursuits and wishes. Where the 2 circles overlap is your content material candy spot.
These are the first matters that your private content material advertising ought to cowl.
You may also decide most well-liked content material codecs and distribution automobiles. For instance, in case your viewers prefers podcasts over movies and also you’re trying to construct a subscriber database, you’ll need to create a podcast fairly than begin a YouTube channel. Or, in case your viewers often attends an trade convention, you could possibly submit a proposal to talk on the occasion. If your objective is model consciousness, you could possibly provide visitor blogs on websites your viewers visits.
6. Build your content material calendar
Now that you’ve recognized your matters, codecs, and distribution platforms, it’s time to construct an editorial calendar. But bear in mind, you’re only one particular person – and also you most likely have already got a day job. This is just not the time to be bold.
I like to recommend creating a minimal viable calendar – the least you already know you may create and publish often. If that’s only one weblog submit a month or a quarterly LinkedIn profile evaluation, that’s wonderful. If you try to do an excessive amount of and fail to hit on each cylinder, you’re extra seemingly to surrender completely. By setting practical expectations, you’re extra prone to preserve going.
Create an editorial calendar for your personal #ContentMarketing. But don’t attempt to do too much, or you’ll give up, says @AnnGynn via @CMIContent. #PersonalBrand Click To Tweet
7. Set measurable targets
Now that you’ve documented your objective, viewers, content material codecs, and frequency, you need to add numbers and dates to the non-public content material advertising targets established in Step 3.
For instance, in case your content material advertising objective is to earn model belief, your metric is likely to be to achieve 50 subscribers to your e-newsletter within the subsequent three months.
It’s vital to attach measurable targets to all of your techniques – it’s key to understanding how nicely your content material works.
TIP: You may wrestle to give you practical numeric targets at first. Don’t let that stop you from setting them. If you discover your numbers had been unrealistic in your evaluation, change them. That’s one of many perks of creating your model – no shoppers or bosses to complain concerning the shift.
Connect measurable goals to all your tactics so you’ll know if your #Content is working, says @AnnGynn via @CMIContent. Click To Tweet
Make your self accountable
The hardest a part of your private content material advertising technique could also be that you simply’re doing it alone. Without a boss or consumer anticipating your content material, it’s simpler to push off the work.
Set deadlines for each step within the content material manufacturing and distribution course of. Mark them in your calendar. If you get overloaded and know you gained’t meet one, transfer it out, however don’t take away it from the calendar, otherwise you’ll by no means get it executed.
Want so as to add another layer to your accountability? Get an accountability companion. Share your manufacturing calendar with that particular person. Treat this companion as you’ll a consumer or boss – allow them to know when the step is finished or inform them concerning the revised date for completion. (You can do that just by utilizing the calendar’s notification system.) Even higher, develop into the accountability companion for them too.
Let’s get began. On what date will you full your private model content material advertising technique? Note it within the feedback, and I’ll attain out that day to see in case you’re executed.
Cover picture by Joseph Kalinowski/Content Marketing Institute