35 Personal Branding Strategies to Build a Magnetic Brand in 2019

Abhik Shome
Aug 31, 2018 · 23 min read
by ABHIK SHOME

It’s no secret that personal branding is the key to success in today’s world of heavy competition.

It has the power to shift you from a red ocean full of competition to a blue ocean full of endless opportunities.

In 2019, people are making their buying and hiring decisions based on the brand of a person behind a product or service. They want to see if the person backing the product has a reliable personal brand which has authority in the industry.

Bottom line — It doesn’t matter if you are an entrepreneur, executive or a freelancer. You need to have a great personal brand if you plan to get ahead in life.

Based on that, here are 35 actionable personal branding strategies to grow your personal brand and make it remarkable both online and offline.

Let’s dive right in.


This section on Personal Branding Strategy will give you a step by step process on how to grow your personal brand and make it remarkable both Online and Offline.

Use these 35 actionable strategies, tips, and growth hacks to build rapid influence in your industry in 2019.

The section is divided into 2 parts:

  1. Online Personal Branding Strategy
  2. Offline Personal Branding Strategy

Online Personal Branding Strategy

Let’s not let this opportunity slip away.

Here are 31 step by step online personal branding strategies which leverage the internet to make you stand out from the crowd.

1. Define your target audience

What do they want in life? What are their biggest aspirations? What are their biggest fears? What are their main problems and roadblocks in overcoming those fears? Where do they hang out the most?

Conduct a thorough research on all these questions and then base your message on how best you can meet their needs and expectations.

2. Identify and narrow down your niche

a) Identify your niche

Think of what you are most passionate about and what comes naturally to you. Once you identify that superpower, make it your niche.

For example, If you have a lot of passions but overall you are most passionate about improving lifestyle, select lifestyle design as your niche.

b) Narrow down your niche

For example, after you select lifestyle design as your initial niche, you can narrow it down to address a specific community and make your brand message custom tailored for them. So instead of lifestyle design, it can now become lifestyle design for entrepreneurs or lifestyle design for single dads.

This way your message comes across as tailor-made for a particular set of demography and hence more appealing to them.

Pro tip — If you have more special qualities, you can connect them under the umbrella of your main superpower.

For example, if apart from lifestyle design, you are also good in personal finance, then after creating a string of lifestyle design related content, you can connect your insights and tips on personal finance as an actionable strategy to achieve a perfect lifestyle.

3. Stand for something

Create a movement by representing something which is unique to your personality and instantly identifiable to you.

Remember to always be original even if at times your opinion does not have the popular vote.

Have a set of values and own them by structuring your personal brand around it. — Click to Tweet

Pro tip — Help people self-identify with your movement by giving them a title by which they can identify themselves and other members of the community with.

A great example of this is Russell Brunson and his Funnel Hacker Movement.

Russell Brunson is the Founder of ClickFunnels, a sales funnel software company. He created a movement around his brand by addressing his community members as Funnel Hackers.

This gave the members something to identify with and added a sense of purpose to what they were doing. It made them loyal to the brand as they felt part of a community of entrepreneurs with similar values, ethos, and goals.

4. Create a Mini-Manifesto around your brand

This manifesto will list down all the values, mission and vision of your community in a mini-document. It will act as a rallying cry for the community and reinforce the values whenever the community is in doubt.

It will show your industry what you stand for and against. This will help fellow members of the industry self-identify with your values and be magnetically pulled towards your brand.

Here’s an example of Russell Brunson’s Funnel Hacker Manifesto.

Pro tip — An awesome way to add more meaning to your manifesto is by asking your community to print this out or have it as a mobile wallpaper.

5. Create a personal branding statement

It tells your target audience (your prospective customer) what they can hope to get from your professional skills in the form of results and ultimate benefits.

It should look something like this.

For example:

“I help B2B companies (target market) double their leads (result) with LinkedIn ads (skill).” — Click to Tweet

You can use your personal branding statement as part of your social media bio and as an introductory line while networking in meetups and conferences.

6. Create a strategic bio

Take advantage of it by crafting your strategic bio beforehand which highlights the single biggest benefit your audiences can get from you. Then connect this benefit with your superpower or special skill.

The bio should be not more than 50–60 words. Additionally, mention all your media features and showcase your noteworthy achievements. Leverage it to the hilt by making it a common bio for your own blog and all your media columns/features.

Remember that the bio should reflect your values and what you stand for.

7. Use your headshot as your profile pic

Use a headshot (where your face covers 60% of the image) as your profile pic for all your profiles and business resume.

8. Have a brand logo

Have a brand logo which imbibes the ethos and values you stand for. Create something which stands out and communicates your message visually in the best possible manner.

Treat the logo as more than a piece of design and more as your brand identity. Your customers will treat this image as synonymous with you. So make something which represents your core message.

9. Focus on having a uniform design language

Create templates for social media graphics and videos with a common color scheme and appearance. This will make your brand language consistent making you stand out and get identified in front of your target audiences.

10. Start creating content

Start a blog or a vlog based on your product and niche. Select the best keywords in your industry and start creating consistent content around it. — Click to Tweet

What are the main pain points of the target audience? What are the strategies that work well in your industry? What are the latest trends in the industry? What are the popular tools to grow a business in your field?

Write and make videos about all this. Put the articles in a blog and videos on YouTube and other social media channels (more on that later).

Above all, focus on being an evangelist of your niche to the outside world.

Think what kind of information an outsider would need to get into your industry and create content around that. The more consistent you are with your content, the faster your brand will grow.

The goal is to make yourself synonymous with your industry.

11. Give high-value assets for free

It can be a piece of software or a free report solving some specific need or query in your industry.

After creating it, give it away for free on your blog in exchange for the prospect’s email. This way you will be seen as an expert who does not hold back on giving value first. Doing this pulls all the critical levers in building an epic personal brand.

12. Focus on SEO

This traffic will consist of people actively looking to get information in your industry and thus qualify as high-value leads.

If you can be the person who addresses their needs, they will start seeking you or your content for further advice. This will build your personal brand effectively for that niche.

To execute this perfectly, you need to rank on the first page of Google (or any other search engine) and typically for the top 3–5 keywords in your niche. Doing this is a bit hard and can take a bit of time. Having said that there are a few growth hacks to rank faster for your content.

SEO Growth Hack 1

SEO Growth Hack 2

Instead, use long tail keywords.

For example, if the main keyword in your industry is ”Internet Marketing”, then focus on a long tail keyword like “Internet Marketing for Freelancers” or “Internet Marketing for Home Based Entrepreneurs”.

The goal is to find keywords with high traffic volume but low competition.

Pro Tip — Use a tool like Ahrefs to find low competition keywords with high traffic volume.

13. Build a list

Also with Facebook’s January 2018 update effectively killing organic reach for Business pages, it will be a smart move to move your audiences to a platform you control completely — your email list.

First, drive traffic to your site. Then once the traffic is on your site, ask them to submit their email IDs in exchange for some awesome content (lead magnet or content upgrade).

Once they sign up, win their hearts by delivering exclusive top quality content not available anywhere else.

Consistently giving value at a place where you are seen almost every day is a great way to engineer an awesome personal brand.

14. Grow your social media audience (organic)

Start putting dedicated efforts every day to grow your social media audience. Focus on channels where your target audience hangs out the most and start putting high-quality content which helps them. — Click to Tweet

Here are the exact steps to follow.

STEP 1

STEP 2

Once the members of the group notice your content, they will visit your profile.

STEP 3

STEP 4

I understand the narrative about not taking your work home.

Over time you will build up an audience that will start associating you with your niche, thus forming stepping stones towards a robust personal brand.

15. Be omnipresent online

The more omnipresent you are, the more sticky your message will become.

Also, this is a good way to take advantage of the mere exposure effect which is a psychological phenomenon where people prefer things familiar to them.

The more frequent and omnipresent you are with valuable content, the more preferable you become. — Click to Tweet

You will start building up a niche follower base of qualified people eager about your industry. You will become their go-to source for all things related to your field.

16. Get into new social media channels fast

17. Repurpose your content like a pro

Take your existing article and record a video of you speaking about it, upload the video to Youtube and audio as a podcast.

Also, ONE hot way of standing out with your content in 2019 is by making infographics. Make an infographic out of your article using a simple design tool like Visme.co.

Search Engines love Infographics coz they simplify big complicated ideas into visually compelling and easy to understand images. It increases a visitor’s time on your site and also increases the chances of your content being shared in the community.

All this adds great karma points to your brand reputation.

So take your present content and add more modes of delivery to it.

18. Get a vanity URL

The URL should either be your name/ your name + your niche / reflective of your niche.

Do not play around much with it. Don’t go artsy with fancy names that have nothing to do with your industry. Stick to basics and connect the name to an industry keyword. This will be great for making the audience see a connection between you and your industry.

Also, this will be great for Social Media organic search optimization.

19. Build a Facebook Group to propel your personal branding

Simply start an FB group in your niche, and provide consistent value to your group members through high-quality content.

Solve their problems, talk about the latest trends, share the latest hacks and tools, do everything to win their confidence. The more value you provide, the more your target audience will see you as a leader in your industry.

Building your personal brand on Facebook goes a long way as this is where people spend most of their time.

The key is to focus on groups, not on business pages.

20. Ask questions

A primary way to build a relationship with your email list and FB group is by asking questions. This will help you get critical insights and also build a rapport with strangers.

21. Have a professional email signature

Put your headshot in the signature along with all your social profiles. This way your email will stand out on a pitch.

Use a free tool like HubSpot Email Signature Template Generator or a paid tool like Wisestamp to get this done right.

Your personal branding image will skyrocket after this.

22. Do what the pros do

Find a mentor who is currently where you want to be. Study their career history and map out the path they took. List out all the strategies and base your plan of action around it.

23. Network with influencers

Once there, start giving real value without an intention to sell. This way you will be seen as a valuable member of the community and not an annoying salesperson. Your ultimate aim should be to give so much value that your name becomes synonymous with everything good about your industry.

The value-first mindset to connect with influencers

Start connecting with Influencers online. Reach out to them with a “value-first” mindset. Provide them value upfront by giving your core service for free.

Now I know the word “free” can make some of us frown. But when you do it to build relationships with people who are the stalwarts of your industry, then this free work will pay itself off in no time and skyrocket your growth.

Just imagine a great video testimonial about your work from the biggest influencer in your industry OR an influencer blasting a mail to his 100k strong list recommending your work. You see the value now?

Networking tools and hacks

Connect with influencers using networking tools like Meet Leonard or Duxsoup. These tools will help you send automatic connection requests to industry filtered members on LinkedIn. For finding email IDs of influencers, you can use a tool like FindThatLead.

Another way to connect with influencers is by joining their courses/paid mastermind groups. Once a part of the group, provide upfront value to all the members to get on the radar of the influencer.

24. Get on major media platforms

To do this right, you need to first build relationships with these platforms. Use the same value-first mindset and offer your help or something of high value for free.

Once you get their attention, pitch them to feature you on their platform. Show them the value you can offer to their audiences with proven results of your work.

Once accepted, give actionable value and do not hold back. The goal is to win the hearts of the platform’s audiences. In the end, offer the audience a free cheatsheet or strategy call in exchange for them signing up for your newsletter.

Leverage media logos to build authority

Add brand logos of all your media features on your website and social media profiles. Put pictures of your speaking gigs and TV appearances. This will build a lot of authority for your personal brand.

25. Be helpful and have a knowledge-based mindset

The days of information ownership and competing for knowledge are over. Share your expertise for free without holding back anything.

We live in a value-centric, knowledge-based economy. If you are not sharing, you are losing out to someone who is giving it all for free and building an unbreakable bond with your audience.

Start by answering questions on Quora and other channels. Join all the industry forums and be the gateway people need to get into your industry. It will pay off in the long run.

26. Document and showcase results

For example, if you are in the field of SEO, make it a point to screenshot your rankings for the targeted keyword. This will come as handy proof that you deliver on what you do.

Likewise, if you work for your clients, make it a point in your contract that you are allowed to showcase the results you bring for them.

Also, a very effective hack is getting video testimonials. When a number of your clients come on camera and share their success stories from working with you, your Personal Branding will skyrocket immediately.

One of the world’s leading consultants, Sam Ovens has 1000s of video testimonials on his site — consulting.com

Pro tip — Run paid ads on your video testimonials targeting potential clients.

27. Do webinars and live streaming

Apart from that, you can take advantage of various paid but cheap webinar software like Demio which allow you to collect leads.

Do webinars with pure value and no sales intent. Add your personal touch to it by being yourself, sharing personal stories and epiphanies along the way. It will make you charismatic and relatable to your audience.

28. Create chatbots

Again, like any other personal branding strategy, make the chat conversation sequence authentic and true to your voice. The audience should feel like they are having a conversation with you over a cup of coffee.

Pro tip — Use a tool like manychat or chatfuel for setting this up.

29. Invest in paid ads

Use smart targeting hacks. Target people with an interest list of brand names only hardcore fans in the industry know about.

The ad should offer something of value to your target audience and show your knowledge on the subject.

Retarget the visitors of your site with a lucrative offer.

30. Get on YouTube

Also, since its an audiovisual medium, the impact is higher and more intimate to the senses than the written word. All this adds great brownie points for your personal branding.

Now simply creating videos and putting it on YouTube may not work for your brand. Instead, you need to optimize your videos for YouTube’s algorithm.

Here are some quick tips on how to get traffic for your YouTube Video:

1. Keyword optimization — Do thorough keyword research. Use this 6 step process to optimize for your keyword.

  • Search for your keyword on YouTube and see YouTube’s search suggest recommendations. These are keywords which people are actually searching for while looking for your topic.
  • Go to a famous channel in your niche and search for the most popular videos. Click on them and see the tags they are using. Use a tool like VidIQ chrome extension to do this.
  • Make a list of all the keywords and tags you collected and then go for the ones with low-level of competition.
  • Try to use your main keyword at the beginning of the title and also use them as tags.
  • Write a thorough video description, describing what your video is all about and the things the viewer is going to learn. Use the main keyword naturally wherever possible.

2. Content Optimization — Be energetic and expressive in your videos. Start with a hook where you state what will the viewer learn from watching this video. Hype it up by saying what all will you reveal by the end of the video.

Mention the main keyword early in the video and use it wherever it feels natural to do so. Deliver on the promise by giving real transformational value so they are hooked till the end. Have multiple Calls-to-actions to subscribe and comment on the video. The Youtube search engines will pick it up and show your video to people looking for that topic.

3. Design Optimization — Have attractive thumbnails having your picture along with the title of the video.

4. YouTube Funnel Optimization — Create a funnel with your videos by offering a free checklist or report which acts as “The Next Step” for the viewer after they watch your video. Offer the checklist by making it available through a landing page where they can get it in exchange for their email.

5. Video Promotion — After optimizing, post the video on your blog post, social media and other forums as a helpful resource for someone looking to get answers on your topic.

6. Consistency — Be consistent on your video posting schedule. Make it a habit for your viewers to expect a video from you on a specific day. For example, you can have a YouTube banner which says — New videos posted every Monday and Friday.

For more YouTube optimization resources, I highly recommend checking this detailed article by Brian Dean of Backlinko.

31. Start a Podcast

A lot of top CEOs prefer to listen to podcasts over videos. Standing out there can mean connecting directly with your industry leaders and evangelists.

Distinguish your content by interviewing industry leaders, experts, and giving actionable content which your listeners can implement easily for quick wins.

For further resources check out this awesome guide on podcasting by Pat Flynn.


Offline Personal Branding Strategy

Having said that, building your brand offline have the added dynamics of physical presence and personal touch to your brand. This aspect can be very powerful while building your brand name and business relationships.

Let’s look at 4 step by step offline personal branding strategies to leverage your brand in the physical world.

1. Start doing public speaking gigs

Here is a great hack to do this perfectly.

Go to meetup.com and search for your niche/industry. Hit up all the meetups happening in your city related to your industry and say you want to give a 30–45 minute presentation on a hot topic in your industry. More often than not they will get back to you with your slot as a guest speaker.

Taking it to the next level

2. Network at masterminds and conferences

Become seen to the extent that your name becomes synonymous with your industry. Reach out to influencers and have the value-first mindset by providing value upfront to impress them.

You can use networking tools like Dux Soup and Meet Leonard to first connect with these influencers online and then meet them personally.

3. Write a book and give it away for free

It is best to launch a book when you have a thriving email list and an active blog. This is because it will come in handy for marketing the book. Having said that, it is not a necessary requirement as you can always run ads or collaborate with an influencer to leverage their list.

Now let’s come to the content of the book where a lot of people get stuck.

Follow these easy growth hacks to write a book fast.

Growth Hack 1

Growth Hack 2

Growth Hack 3

Making it available through dropshipping and digital download

Now, here’s where it starts to get really interesting!

After writing and editing your book, give it away for free and only charge for shipping.

Yes. FREE.

Now before you start to frown, hear me out.

Books hold tremendous power in making your brand impactful. They create a great initial touchpoint between your target audience and your brand.

Also, they are a very personal item and tend to quickly become an intimate part of people’s lives. This can lead to amazing word of mouth exposure and formation of a loyal tribe. Imagine the number of sales and long-term brand equity you can generate from the tribe. Why restrict it all with a price tag?

So use the free + shipping method to quickly gain massive exposure and brand loyalty.

A great example of this is Russell Brunson’s now iconic book — Dotcom Secrets.

4. Merchandise giveaway

Create t-shirts, cup and other stationery items with your brand logo or catchphrase on it and give it away for free to your superfans.

These superfans will flaunt your merch with pride which in turn will lead to great word-of-mouth advertising.

The key here is to create merchandise only when you have built a sizable following so you can leverage your superfans to promote it.

Pro Tip — Use a site like printful.com to drop ship your t-shirts.

Dropshipping resource — Dropshipping can be a critical tool to make your personal branding be active and present in the physical world.

For further reading, here are two awesome resources on Dropshipping.


Enjoying the article?

Click here to get the complete Personal Branding Guide.

The complete guide includes 3 powerful Personal Branding growth hacks, 3 personal brand case studies (Neil Patel, Tony Robbins and 1 surprise case study) and much more.


The Next Step

But studying is one thing and taking action is another.

That’s why I have put together a collection of bonus content for you to take action right away.

BONUS 1

The Implementation checklist is filled with many actionable steps written in crisp to the point execution sequences.

  • Learn how to never again be confused about what to say to your audiences and what stance to take while communicating your sales message on Social Media (Point 1 and 2)
  • Set your social profiles to speak your brand without any daily efforts from you (Point 3 and 4)
  • Discover the 1 method which will put you in front of millions of target customers and help you generate leads on autopilot! (Point 5 and 6)
  • The 1 smart tactic which can help you build relationships with influencers and even get promoted by them on their own platforms! (Point 13). ← This is my personal favorite (word of advice — Please be genuine and honest while using this).

There are 17 such high-value actionable points arranged in order of execution.

Grab it while its available for free.

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  • The character type tools are perfect especially if you are a newbie and do not know what positioning you should have.

Get all of this by simply clicking the image below.


Originally published at thestartingidea.com on August 31, 2018.

The Starting Idea

Fast paced actionable strategies & tools on Online Marketing, Conversion Optimization, Personal Branding, Content Marketing, Growth Hacking, Startups, & Entrepreneurship. We help modern-day entrepreneurs shorten their path to biz growth. FREE membership — https://bit.ly/2pkIIAD

Abhik Shome

Written by

Founder — The Starting Idea | Contributor — Inc. & BI | Author — Skyrocket Growth: 230+ Free Tools to Grow Your Biz | Get it free here — https://bit.ly/2SLJfgi

The Starting Idea

Fast paced actionable strategies & tools on Online Marketing, Conversion Optimization, Personal Branding, Content Marketing, Growth Hacking, Startups, & Entrepreneurship. We help modern-day entrepreneurs shorten their path to biz growth. FREE membership — https://bit.ly/2pkIIAD

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