Pitching better: How to find clients and build your personal brand
5 - Brand Storytelling Best Practices
Welcome to your final class! This class is designed to equip you with the knowledge and skills to succeed as a writer in the professional world. Let's explore strategies for winning clients and boosting your career.
Managing your personal brand: auditing
In the freelancing world, personal branding is crucial. You are your own business, and your online presence plays a significant role in your success. Start by conducting a personal brand audit. Google your name to see what results appear. Is your online footprint aligned with what you want to be known for? Review your social media profiles and clean up any content that may not present you professionally.
Pay special attention to X (Twitter), as old tweets can impact your reputation.
Building content pillars
After the audit, define your content pillars—what you want to be known for. These pillars should align with your mission, interests, and passions. Aim for around six content pillars that showcase your personality and build trust with your audience.
An example of my six pillars are:
- Dyslexia
- Being a business owner at DSLX
- Barcelona / home life
- Volleyball
- Travel
- Writing
My six content pillars can talk to each other and complement each other, but they can also stand on their own.
Within these pillars, I'm able to develop content threads that help to showcase my personality, mission, and vision. They help people relate to me, and they encourage me to stay inspired and creative when creating social posts.
If you take a look at my Instagram, for example, you should be able to clearly assign each post to one of these six pillars.
Building your community
As your social media presence grows, you'll naturally build a community.
Offline, consider your friends, family, and old colleagues or fellow freelancers as part of your community—they can refer you to potential clients, or get you through a tough week.
Online, engage with your followers on a personal level. Respond to their posts and comments, create 1-1 connections via DMs, and become a recognizable username and face to their algorithms.
By nurturing these connections, you'll rank on their newsfeeds and build a community of supportive individuals. I'd also suggest you focus on ways you can help your community members, promote them, lift them up, and they may do the same for you.
Remember: a community's strength lies in the quality of its members, not the quantity.
Leveraging client relationships
Your clients, both past and present, are valuable members of your community. They understand your work and can vouch for your skills. Don't hesitate to ask for their assistance in finding new clients.
Whether your clients are willing to go the extra mile and make a social media post about you, leave you with a strong testimonial, or just keep you top of mind for all things to do with your niche, these relationships are crucial to maintaining!
Wrapping up
Engage with your social followers and ask them for recommendations or referrals. Collaborate with peers in your field to expand your reach. Most importantly, ask your clients for direct referrals and testimonials. These referrals and reviews can significantly boost your credibility and bring in new clients.
Personal branding, community-building, and leveraging client relationships are essential elements for success in the world of freelance writing. With these strategies, you can confidently pitch your services and thrive in your writing career. However, these things take time. It's so important that you give yourself (and your business) the same time and care that you'd give to a client. You're the only person responsible for your growth.
Go get 'em!