5 Marketing Channels to Grow Your Personal Brand

By Alison Osborne
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In this digital age, there’s been an increasing importance placed on our own personal brand. But we’re often left wondering how we go about creating and growing a brand for ourselves. What tactics should I be using? What elements do I need? How do I spread my knowledge? These are all valid and common questions. 

Below we break down 5 marketing channels that can get you started growing your personal brand. Some require more of a time commitment than others and some may be better for various stages of your growth. Overall, these 5 channels are a great jumping-off point and can be used in partnership with one another in your brand development. 

1. SOCIAL MEDIA: Grow Awareness

One of the most popular marketing channels people recommend is social media. Many make the assumption that social media is an easy marketing tactic to manage and grow with. This couldn’t be more wrong. 

Social media can be a powerful tool to help you grow your personal brand if used strategically. It’s not as simple as just throwing out random posts on LinkedIn or retweeting an article on Twitter. 

In order to scale on social media, you have to think about: 

  • What value do I bring to audiences?
  • How can I curate my feed to position me in my industry? 
  • What are the goals of my social media accounts? 
  • What does my brand aesthetic look like on social media? 
  • How much time do I have to dedicate to social media?  

And once you’ve answered all these questions, it comes down to consistency. Stay consistent with your brand, messaging, value, and posting cadence. 

2. NEWSLETTERS: Provide Value

Newsletters are a great marketing tactic once you’ve developed awareness with an audience and you’re working to build a deeper connection with them. 

When getting started with newsletters, first think about where these audience members are coming from and ensure that there’s consistency in their journey. For example, if they’re coming from your website, try to have the same branding, messaging, and name so there’s no confusion around where this newsletter is coming from. 

Use newsletters as a resource to provide even more value to your audience. Expand on blog posts, give expert insights or tips into your profession, give exclusive access to content or deals, and share some of your latest updates. 

If you’re offering some sort of service, you can add it to newsletters but ensure that it’s not the main content piece (or offer your service later on). You want to think value-first, and a great way to do that is through providing whitepapers, guides, reports, webinars, etc..

Some platforms to explore for your newsletter are: 

3. PODCASTS: Connect With Your Audience

As audio content continues to be on the rise, podcasts are a medium that we see many flocking to for the purpose of growing their personal brand. 

Podcasts are an amazing tool for both brand awareness and consideration, since they’re such an intimate medium. Many podcasters have built authentic connections with their listeners and have a consistent and dedicated audience. 

Creating a podcast definitely requires a greater lift than channels such as social media or newsletters, but with good reason. Aside from growing your personal brand, as your podcast scales and you build that connected audience, you have the opportunity to turn your show into another revenue stream through monetization strategies such as sponsors, merch, or subscription platforms like Patreon. 

Your podcast should be focused on a topic that you feel comfortable and knowledgeable speaking to. Maybe it’s copywriting, digital marketing, architecture…. the options are truly endless. 

Then start listening to podcasts that you love and ask yourself:

  • What do you like about these podcasts? 
  • What do you like about the host? 
  • Do you like the length of the podcast? 
  • Are there elements of the podcast that stand out to you? 

Once you’ve answered these questions, see if there’s a way for you to replicate some of these elements in your own show. Maybe you love a conversation format where the host brings on a guest like The Tim Ferriss Show, or perhaps you prefer solo discussions like Huberman Lab, or even a co-hosted podcast where it’s just the two hosts having a discussion like Fleurish. 

4. SPEAKING ENGAGEMENTS: Build Credibility

This marketing channel can take some more time to build up, but speaking engagements are an excellent source for growing your personal brand. 

Speaking engagements are a quick way to get your name in front of an audience and position you as a thought leader in your field. Typically, you’ll need to focus on other marketing channels first and establish leadership and credibility before moving on to speaking engagements. You’ll also need to ensure that you have your topics, value, and target audience nailed down. 

With that being said, you can always start small and work your way up. Maybe your friend has a podcast that can bring you on as a guest and you can speak to your expertise. Even in your own workplace, ask your boss if you can host a workshop to share your insights and expertise with other employees.  

When you’re ready, start exploring events, conferences, or podcasts that are all in your topic field. Typically for these types of engagements, there will be forms that you can fill out to submit yourself as a potential speaker. You’ll need to provide a description of your presentation, maybe even a deck to start. Make sure that you have all the necessary details identified and collected. 

5. GUEST WRITING: Share Your Expertise

This tactic might be easier to achieve before you start looking to book speaking gigs. Guest writing for publications is an effective way to get your name and knowledge in front of a new audience, and provide you with content to share with your own followers once it’s published. 

Depending on the publication, it can start to immediately provide you with credibility you can amplify through your other marketing mediums such as social media, newsletters, or a press page on your website.

Create a list of publications that are already writing on the topics that you’re an expert in, maybe it’s wellness, lifestyle, real estate – I can pretty much guarantee that there’s a publication for your industry. Once you’ve identified these publications, determine how you can submit a guest post, most of them have webpages for this (possibly found in their footer). Usually, the publication will accept two types of guest posts; one where you pitch them the title of the article along with a brief description, or outline of what it will look like, or an option to submit a piece you’ve already written for publication. 

Just remember that guest posts don’t necessarily mean that you’ll get paid for your article. Sometimes the value you get from having your name out there and the credibility that comes with it is worth more than the paycheque.