Branding Yourself
Welcome to Week 1 of the No B.S. Class on Freelance Writing. This week, you’ll build a foundation for your future. You’ll learn how to position yourself in the market so that you stand to gain the most. You’ll figure out exactly who you are as a writer and how to communicate that to prospects. To get started, I’ll discuss a crucial aspect of freelancing that isn’t often mentioned: branding. Most often, we use “brand” as a synonym for “company.” Famous brands like Apple, Coke, and Ford have intertwined their company with their branding, and so the company and the brand become one. And that’s exactly what you want to accomplish. Just as large companies build brands, individuals should, too. If you don’t have a brand, people probably won’t remember you. Most writers fail to understand branding, so when you are competing against those writers, you will blow them out of the water. Developing a brand is one of the strongest advantages you can give yourself. In writing, branding takes on a different flavor. Instead of promoting a product, you are promoting a service that you directly provide. In other words, you are promoting and selling yourself. ​
You are your brand. In this module, we will go over what makes a good personal brand and how to develop your own. Forming Your Voice
A brand always begins with a vision of what you want to bring to the world. For most companies, having a vision means using a product to impact the global community on some scale. In writing, the means of impact is your stylistic voice. Your writing voice is your product. It’s what you want to get out into the world in order to help others. Developing your voice comes from experimentation and stylistic choices that will narrow your scope until you have decided on becoming a particular type of writer with a particular tone. And after you have solidified your voice, you can build your brand. Maybe you’ve already found your voice. You put your own twists on writing and have worked in a specialized niche or two. If so, you can skip to the “Generalize or Specialize?” section. If not, then you need to find your voice before you do anything else. What makes a voice? How do you form yours? Here are four simple steps to find out: Step 1: What’s your style? Every writer has a different style. Some are highly conversational and humorous at points. Others prefer a more formal tone. Finding your style is the first step in creating a voice. Your style will naturally emerge out of your writing, but it may take a while to uncover. You might have a friendly, colloquial style, or a polished, professional approach. Maybe you are somewhere in between. Find where you are on the spectrum. You’ll also develop some unique traits that you might not even notice. This is where asking others to help comes in handy. Maybe you ask a lot of rhetorical questions as part of your style, or perhaps you have a habit of writing short sentences. All of these factors combine to create your style. Exercise
Try to define your style in a single sentence. For example, “My style is
polished and informational, but I’m not afraid to use humor.”
Step 2: Who is your audience? Naturally, your audience will greatly impact your tone. Writing with lots of random jokes in it won’t go over well with an audience of lawyers. Likewise, a strict, formal approach won’t work if your audience is young children. Your audience is a crucial factor in forming your voice. Step 3: What is your niche? Now that you know your target demographic, ask yourself what your niche is. This step requires serious thought, and we’ll cover it in more depth tomorrow. For now, consider what niches you’re interested in. Your style needs to be appropriate for your ideal niche and its audience. For example, I write for entrepreneurs, startups, and established businesses, and my writing voice (part casual, part formal) is ideal for that niche. Every niche tends to have a certain tone that is true for that entire niche. For example, most tech websites read similarly to one another. Even more specifically, all tech websites about Apple products tend to read alike. While you don’t need to stick to these conventions, they provide benchmarks you can use to adapt more quickly to your chosen niche. Step 4: What do you want to do with your writing? Writing can be used for several purposes—to inform, to persuade, to discuss, and to share opinions and ideas, to give a few examples. Your purpose is another element that will inform and affect your style. If you are writing to share opinions and ideas, you will probably take on a more casual style. But if you’re writing to persuade, your style must be influenced by rhetoric and use techniques that will convince the reader of your point. Step 5: Declare your voice. If you have been writing for more than a week, you know all of the previous steps, but this is the most important aspect, and I see so many writers overlook it. This is where you connect the dots from the last four steps. Personal style, audience consideration, niche appropriateness, and purpose all coalesce to form your unique voice. Your voice will take some time to polish and fully identify, but these building blocks will show you the roots of your voice. As you move forward and continue to write, take a look at your answers to these questions and search for those elements in your writing. Exercise
Look at a piece of your writing and see how you incorporate these
four elements. How is your style evident? How do you write for your
audience and your niche? Is your purpose clear?
Generalize or Specialize?
After you’ve found your voice, it is time to decide what you want to do as a writer. There are two main options here––you can generalize or specialize. A generalist writer could also be called a “jack of all trades.” This person has nominal experience in several fields and has the bare minimum of knowledge needed to write in all of them. A generalist writer may write a biography, an FAQ page, and a product description, all in one day. Typically, generalists don’t have mastery in any one field, but their range of skill allows them to work in many areas. A specialist writer works in only one or two fields. For example, a writer may specialize in writing biographies and cover letters. This writer may define their niche as solely writing for private clients in a biographical manner. This type of specialist would not take on certain tasks, such as writing a magazine article. Both categories have their pros and cons. Generalists are usually looked down upon because they only have a passing knowledge in any given field. However, they have the chance to work with more types of writing. Specialists don’t have the flexibility that generalists do, but they have the chance to become leaders in their respective niches. From my personal experience, it’s much better to specialize— with one or two exceptions. I label myself as a professional writer, and my work primarily consists of writing ad copy or blog posts for companies. I also write in areas I’m passionate about, such as writing for writers. However, I don’t usually look for work outside of these limits. As such, I’ve built a reputation for outstanding copywriting and blog writing. If you are starting out brand new to writing, I would recommend getting a taste for the types of writing out there. Once you’ve found an area you like, specialize within that area. It is crucial to specialize in some form, or else your brand will be ineffective. “Jack of all trades” does not make for a memorable brand. So many freelance writers brand themselves as a jack of all trades, and as a result, it’s impossible to distinguish them from one another. They’re all offering the same service, and thus they all have an equal shot at getting jobs. You, however, want an advantage in the market. That advantage comes from branding yourself. Creating and Communicating Your Brand
Your brand is the result of all of the above factors. It communicates who you are and what you do. Most importantly, your brand is an overarching atmosphere that tells people about you and your work. It is evident in your emails, your website, your social media profiles, everything. Your brand has to be evident in everything you do. To effectively communicate your brand, you have to communicate your voice and your purpose. I do this by maintaining a consistent brand identity. Whether I’m writing copy or emailing a prospective client, I keep my brand intact. To do this, I use specific phrases unique to my brand that concisely describe what I do. I tell people about my voice and my purpose. As a baseline for your personal brand, you need to answer two important questions: ● What is my voice? ● How can I help the reader? I communicate my voice with the phrase “professional yet approachable.” That’s what I want the client to remember about my voice, so I emphasize it. I communicate my purpose with a phrase like “better your brand with the power of story.” This statement reveals how I can help the reader. These elements are the foundation of your brand. Over time, you can build upon it and make it more cohesive and compelling. But for now, focus on conveying your voice and telling the reader how you can help. Be unique, and show how you can solve problems. People want their problems solved, and they want them to be solved by someone they trust. You have to become that trustworthy person, and your brand will build trust in your worth. After you have landed your first few clients and get a few testimonials, your brand will become more trustworthy, landing you more clients. This creates a powerful cycle that will always be in motion as long as you are working. Exercise
Write out two statements, one for your voice and one for your
purpose. Why should anyone trust you? How can you solve
problems and save the day? By establishing your brand early on, you’ll stand out from the crowd. People remember feelings strongly. Your brand should make the reader feel relieved because they’ve finally found the right person for the job. Homework
Complete all of the exercises in this section and think about different
niches you’d like to write in.
Tomorrow, you’ll choose a niche for yourself and learn how to optimize your brand for that niche.