Personal branding is a term that makes some freelancers cringe in discomfort and others nod fervently in approval. Proponents of personal branding tout its client-generating potential that will provide freelancers with much-needed stability, especially during these financially hard times. Indeed, having a steady enough project stream lets you keep the lights on for longer or even convert your solopreneur endeavour into a full-time business.
But if you’re a more introverted freelancer who prefers to stick to a close circle of trusted clients, let us first say that there’s no ‘right’ way to run a freelance business. Everyone chooses this career path for very personal reasons, and perhaps you have found a sweet spot that works for you at this stage of your life. Considering that very few professionals actually arrive at a point where they’re satisfied with their input vs income ratio, we’d like to consider that a success in its own right.
With that being said, we cannot deny that in the current competitive climate, staying still may actually mean falling behind the competition. Since they crashing onto the market a few months ago, generative AI tools such as ChatGPT, Midjourney, and DALLE-2 are being adopted by thousands of aspiring entrepreneurs around the globe, making it far easier for non-creatives to build one thing that creative freelancers have had an upperhand in thus far: Content creation.
We may be keenly aware of how tough it is to produce quality content, even with the help of AI. But most clients who are constantly bombarded with messages of the AI revolution do not have the same level of understanding when it comes to content. Personal branding provides a way for creative freelancers to educate potential clients about the edge that they bring, and why it still pays to hire a professional to handle their marketing when everyone else is looking to cut costs with automation.
But what does personal branding consist of exactly? It’s not just about managing a content calendar to post random bits on LinkedIn, Instagram, TikTok, or any other social channel where your core clients operate. If that were the case, literally anyone with an internet connection would be able to build a personal brand. But there’s a reason why some brands are less successful than others. Great entrepreneurs separate themselves from the pack by zooming in on readers who can potentially be converted into paying customers.
To execute personal branding effectively, you will need to know two things like the back of your hand: Your target audience’s pain point and how it links to your solution offering. Without clearly defining these two points, you may as well be looking for a needle in a haystack, in the dark. But get this down to pat, and you’ll become your clients’ go-to freelance copywriter/graphic designer/video editor anytime there’s a project that needs the hands of an expert.
Here are some examples of what that looks like:
If you’ve got a personal brand in mind that you feel highly convicted about, don’t be afraid to go for it, even if it contradicts some of the advice that we’ve given so far. After all, it is your personal brand, not ours, so we can’t tell you exactly what you need to do. What we can say is that there are far more niches out there than anyone can dream of, let alone know what to type into ChatGPT. We’ve seen freelancers who serve women-only businesses, work solely on content that contributes towards social good, or even focus on educating clients within a specific sector on how to up their marketing game. Anything’s a viable niche as long as you can find demand for it.
But just in case you’re still finding it a little difficult to get started, why not try out our freelance incubator programme? We’ve got both online and physical training programmes that can be planned around your schedule as well as exclusive professional networks where you can bounce your personal branding ideas off other like-minded freelancers!
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The good and bad news is that it takes a long time to build up a personal brand, as many as 2-5 years according to industry experts. But the good news is that if you know what you're doing, you can easily generate an audience of paying customers before you even hit the two year mark.
In our experience, most workers in Asian societies tend to be more conservative in terms of when and how we dive into our personal branding strategy — and this includes freelancers. While we will never advocate for being aggressive or behaving unprofessionally online, the fact of the matter is that any opinion that is worth sharing will inevitably ruffle a few feathers.
To that we say, let the naysayers come! For one, comments will bump your posts up the search algorithms of most social media sites as they signal that your content is eliciting a response in other readers. Secondly, (constructive) criticism can help highlight your strategic blindspots so that you can pivot in time before you hit brick walls. After all, most creative freelancers are operating on a solo basis, so if you can obtain free advice and insights, why not?
To truly establish yourself as a thought leader in a particular industry or frontrunner in the service that you provide, you need to showcase content that reflects your own unique thoughts, opinions, and experiences. This is where relying too much on ChatGPT becomes problematic. Whatever ChatGPT spits out is essentially an amalgamation of content that already exists out there. When you copy and paste ChatGPT’s outputs wholesale, you risk sounding like every other entrepreneur out there — especially if your competitors are asking ChatGPT the exact same questions that you are!
And what happens once your audience has seen the same thoughts recycled in different formats over and over again? They start scrolling past your posts and profile — the literal opposite effect of what you’re setting out to do! Worse still, it's no secret that ChatGPT continues to provide inaccurate and outdated information. While developers are currently hard at work to refine its outputs, the fact that ChatGPT draws upon information that is available on the internet — that is itself riddled with errors and fake news. So it remains to be seen whether ChatGPT can be relied upon for accuracy in the foreseeable future.
The best strategy is still to rely on your own authentic experience about what works and what doesn’t, so that you can provide advice that has been tested and proven, and ultimately establish yourself as a thought-leader that your audience can trust.
Does this mean that solopreneurs should stay away from automation? Not at all. In fact, we strongly advocate for all creative freelancers to stay in touch with the latest technological developments and integrate them into their workflows where they can. The key is to use them strategically, rather than a cure-all hack that takes away all the brain and leg work out of building a business.
The most immediate pro that ChatGPT and art generating tools can provide is to cover up a weakness. For example, if writing and/or graphic design is not a strength of yours, then you can use these tools to refine your ideas and outputs into a format that is professional and presentable. You can even use ChatGPT to dress up your promotional content by adding in punchy liners or compelling CTAs. But ultimately, the core message still has to come from you.
Building a personal brand is the next step in levelling up from an extension of your clients’ in-house marketing team to a full-on freelance entrepreneur. At Freelancer Nation, we don’t just link up aspiring freelancers with their dream clients. We also provide them with all the tools that they need to grow their client base and make the transition from solo freelancer to business owner.
If you’re a seasoned freelancer who would like to expand your operations, or even if you’re a budding freelancer who is looking for tips on how to secure new clients, reach out to us at freelancernation.asia and let’s see how we can give your personal brand a makeover!
