In the noise and excitement of the ever-growing digital world, it can be hard to get your voice heard amongst the crowd. How can you use your personal brand to show up online, attract your dream clients and stand out as a leader in your industry? The very first step is to write your personal brand statement. Similar to laying the foundations of your house, the very act of writing this statement will give you clarity on who you are, what you offer, your niche, USP and target audience. It’s a statement that will impact and inspire your potential clients to take action and buy into your service or product. Here is a step-by-step guide to writing your personal brand statement, with tips and tricks to get you noticed.
A personal brand statement is the most important part of building a personal brand. This statement (usually a few lines of text) explains what you do and who you do it for, which is essential to provide the clarity needed for your audience both online and offline. It’s a way of explaining what you do in a more specific way.
For example, ‘I’m a Copywriter’ is too general and doesn’t describe your target audience. A statement like this will leave people guessing ‘what kind of copywriter?’.
Instead, choose ‘Supporting female entrepreneurs and course creators with copy that converts’.
This is a strong statement that communicates your niche and who you serve.
Once you create a statement that shows your core message, you can use this message across all your platforms, creating the consistency you need for a powerful personal brand. What’s more, writing a personal brand statement pushes you to define your niche, audience and message.
So, take some time for yourself, grab a pen, and note down some ideas. Remember, the goal is to create the clearest, catchiest sentence you possibly can to engage your target audience. After all, you don’t want to attract the wrong type of people to your business either!
With the instantaneous nature of most things in our lives these days, humans have a very low attention span. In fact, human attention span is down to 8 seconds (quite exceptional when you think that goldfish have an attention span of 9!). This means you have only 8 seconds to grab someone’s attention and get as much across as you can about what you do. This is why your personal brand statement needs to be bold, make an impression, and leave people with that feeling of belief and inspiration in your product or service. You ideally want to leave the reader a little curious to know more about you so that they contact you and ask further questions. Once this happens, you have more opportunities to wow them and get them on board as a client.
Always remember process, clarity, credibility, customer, communication. You need to know that you have clarity and direction on your offering but that your audience does too. Although this sounds easy, it can be challenging to get your entire business/brand into one sentence. You’ll spend time continuously improving your personal brand statement, but this is a good structure to follow while you draft ideas.
Scroll through Linkedin, and you’ll see loads of personal brand statement examples. Go and look at what other industry leaders and competitors are writing to understand what works and what doesn’t. Think about what you can offer that they don’t.
I teach and coach Solopreneurs, Founders & CEOs to build and launch powerful personal brands & digital businesses.
Within this statement, I’ve explained what I do and who I do it for clearly and powerfully. I’ve chosen to use the word ‘teach’, but you might decide to use other words like ‘grow, guide or support’. Remember that each word is critical and tells a story about your personal brand.
Along with your personal brand statement, it’s a good idea to write a tagline too. This is a shorter, more impactful version of your core message that’s perfect for using on a social media bio, brochure or business card. Start with your core message and reduce it down to between 5-10 words. Make it punchy and playful; remember ‘the power of less’!
Mine is: ‘Supporting Founders, CEOs & Coaches to launch & build powerful personal brands’
It’s quite similar to my statement, just using fewer filler words, so it’s punchier. I still get across what I do succinctly but leave enough that people will be curious enough to contact me.
Before you begin, remember that your personal brand statement is your core message, not your job title.
Think about who you are and what you do - what action best describes you? Are you someone who is teaching? Perhaps you’re a mentor offering guidance? Don’t get stuck on one action word; try lots of different ones out and see which fits best. Remember that this is a formula you can replicate if you ever change your brand direction. It can evolve and change with you as a personal brand and digital business.
Grab a pen and write a list of verbs:
Which of these actions are aligned with your offering?
Your target audience is your potential clients, the people who will buy your services or products because it resonates with their needs and desires in some way. That’s why it’s essential not just to think about who that person is (for example, CEO, Founders, Coaches) but what makes them tick? What desires do they have or fears and challenges that hold them back? Your personal brand statement is a way to tap into that, showing them that you’re a business and brand they should support and buy from.
Remember to consider who you want to work with too. It’s vital that this is your dream client, someone that you’re passionate about working with.
For example, mine is: I teach and coach Solopreneurs, Founders & CEOs to build and launch powerful personal brands & digital businesses.
>Learn how to define your target audience
Step 3 is where you provide your credibility in some way, giving your target audience a solution to their challenges. Going back to our copywriter example:
Supporting female entrepreneurs and course creators with copy that converts
‘Copy that converts’ will immediately grab the attention of those individuals looking to sell products and needing powerful copy to help them do so. It’s a strong, believable statement that will leave a person feeling, ‘ah, I’ve finally found someone who can support me to source more revenue’.
What makes you uniquely qualified and different from others? What are you doing that makes you stand out amongst the digital noise, something that might impress your customers or connect them to you in some way?
I teach and coach Solopreneurs, Founders & CEOs to build and launch powerful personal brands & digital businesses.
Using my personal brand statement example, you can see that my unique quality is that I don’t just coach my clients; I teach them and support them to build their personal brand and launch it. Additionally, I also support Founders & CEOs (who already have a business and a personal brand) to develop their own personal brand alongside their work.
Make sure to always include a tangible outcome/happy ending to your personal brand statement. For example, ‘copy that converts’, ‘grow your business and increase your impact’, ‘launch a powerful personal brand and business’.
Tip: It can be hard to find clarity on your USP at the beginning of your personal branding journey. Ask a few friends what they think your unique quality is, or brainstorm some ideas with your local business network or online forums.
Here are a few top tips for crafting your personal brand statement…
People see right through a service or offering that isn’t authentic. They’ll see from your work, your online platforms, past work history and even your qualifications that your personal brand statement doesn’t match what you can offer them. Always be truthful, authentic and make sure that your core message is aligned with your values. If you don’t, you could end up doing work that you don’t enjoy with the wrong type of clients.
Keep it short, sharp and concise. Your personal brand statement should pack a punch and leave a lasting memory for the reader. Read it over a few times, play around with the word order and finally show it to a group of people to see what they think. This is a good way of testing its effectiveness before putting it on your profiles.
Tip: Don’t use excessively large or technical words
Imagine you’re in an elevator, and your entrepreneurial hero walks in. You have just a few seconds before the doors open to pitch him an idea you’ve been working on for a long time. How are you going to use those seconds to your best ability?
Use the elevator pitch technique as you craft your personal brand statement:
Always keep your dream customer in mind as you’re crafting your personal brand statement. Do audience research to see the type of language your ideal clients use and incorporate some of those words into your personal brand statement. If you are already running a business, use typical desires/challenges you hear from your customers and use this as a basis to build your personal brand statement.
Don’t be too general with your personal brand statement. The more niche you can be, the better. You want to show off the ‘one thing’ that makes your business and brand uniquely different. Sure, it’s tempting to generalise to attract more clients, but this will inadvertently do the opposite! Remember, a good brand should filter as well as attract. You want to attract those specific people that align with your message and service and filter out those who don’t.
Once you’ve nailed your personal brand statement, everything else will follow on from it. You’ll gain more clarity which will support you to attract the correct type of clients. Because this is so important, don’t rush. Take time to really understand your audience, niche and service before you sit down to write. This will make the whole process far more seamless.
Lastly, personal brand statements are not just reserved for those who run their own businesses. Anyone can create their core message, be it those already employed or students preparing to start their careers. It’s a great way to get clear on who you are, what you do and the direction you’re going - supporting you to grow a business and brand that’s aligned with your values and audience.
Good luck!
Hannah Power
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