Solopreneurs are the stars of the momentum. Research shows that their popularity will rise in the following years. 20% of the workforce is expected to be represented by freelancers by 2020. Plus, considering that there are more and more people opening new businesses, this trend will not disappear anytime soon. So, becoming a solopreneur can bring a series of benefits.
First, you are your own boss. You don’t have any direct reports and you are not obliged to justify your actions in front of anyone. In addition, you are in charge of your own destiny. You choose how to organize your schedule and what your future actions are going to be.
When you are a solopreneur, you shouldn’t put your all your eggs in the same basket. If one client doesn’t want to work with you anymore, this doesn’t mean that you will lose all your income. When you are a solopreneur, you always have other clients who are interested in paying for your services.
With all these benefits in mind, should you quit your job and become a solopreneur? Personal branding is very important when you want to be successful. Even though success doesn’t happen overnight, there are some simple hacks you can follow to succeed in your business.
10 Practical Branding Hacks for Solopreneurs
When you want to stand out of the crowd and win more clients, you should put yourself in your client’s shoes. Think first with the eyes of a client and analyze what he is looking for, what are his biggest concerns, and what problems he needs to solve. Then check how your competitors are responding to all these and write down everything you see they are doing special and unique.
1. Build a strong social media presence
Clients want to know that they are talking to a real person. If you want to be a professional solopreneur, you should use your original name and optimize your profiles on social media. Emphasize your strongest points and show your clients that you offer unique services.
Influence your clients with your marketing strategy by constantly adding the latest information on your social media profile. Don’t be afraid to use as many social media platforms are you want. Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc. all of these will target your audience and help you increase your engagement rates.
2. Look as professional as you can
You cannot win the respect and admiration of your clients if you use a photo from your college years. When you decide to build your brand, one of the first steps should be creating a professional and respectable image. However, showing that you are a professional doesn’t mean to upload a picture where you are completely serious. For instance, you can influence the way others see you by showing a warm and confident smile.
3. Define your brand
This can be difficult in the beginning, but the results will show off in the end. If you want your brand to be recognized, you should first think what your business’ mission is going to be. Think then which are going to be the products and services you are going to sell and what problem they are going to solve for your clients. Continue to develop your business strategy, target your audience and analyze what your clients think about your business.
What is more, you need to keep the market’s trend. Each move should be included in your business strategy and updated according to the market’s requirements. It is very important to know what is happening on the market and thus adapt your business strategy accordingly.
4. Your journey should be a continuous learning
As a solopreneur, you cannot consider that you know everything. We are living in an age when things are evolving extremely fast. So, there will be always new skills and information to discover and learn. Even though your business is going well, and you are on top, this doesn’t mean that you should stop learning. Stay in contact with the people from your sector and ask for advice from those who are more experienced than you.
5. Engage your audience using webinars
You need to keep your audience engaged with new and useful information. Even though your products and services are the best on the market, your customers won’t buy them unless they know about them. Webinars are extremely popular nowadays with 60% of marketers using them as part of their marketing strategy. They help you generate more sales and improve your brand awareness by keeping your clients updated with your niche evolution.
6. Develop your brand message
Each word you use in your brand messages talks about yourself and your professionalism. It is important to use proper grammar and master the writing skills. Any small mistake will make you less credible and make your clients think you are unprofessional. So, when you develop your brand message, you should rely on your writing abilities.
Apart from being flawless, your messages should follow your voice. What is more, you should be clear and organized when you build your messages. Customers are usually attracted by effective messages which are following their voice and answer their questions.
7. Keep an eye on your competitors
You can learn a lot from your competitors. It doesn’t matter which niche you follow. Each sector has influential people from whom you can learn a lot. If someone already did a mistake, why should you do it also? Wouldn’t be it better to know about it and learn how to avoid it? This is what keeping an eye on your competitors does for you. You can easily build your audience by knowing what the others are doing.
8. Stay original
While it is a wise thing to follow and learn from your competitors this doesn’t mean that you should lose your originality. Your clients have chosen you because you have something special and you are different than your competition. This means you should be original and differentiate yourself from the others. For instance, you can be unique with your packaging style. Thus, you will show your clients that you care about them and are preoccupied by making them feel special.
9. Be consistent
A business will stay successful as long as it is also consistent. When you get your customers used to a certain quality, you need to keep it at the same level and even improve it. Your clients are extremely vigilant and will immediately discover when you drop your products and services’ quality. Therefore, considering that your competition is hunting even the smallest mistakes, you cannot afford to be inconsistent and fail your customers’ expectations.
10. Share your experience
Clients like reading about your experiences and will be your biggest supporters when they learn about your achievements. This is how they see you are human and show them you are making efforts to satisfy their needs. Even if you have difficulties along the way, you should also share them. Thus, your customers will see that you learn from your mistakes and do everything you can to become better.
Being a successful solopreneur takes time and effort. Building your branding strategy plays a key role in developing and strengthening your business. You can easily incorporate the hacks above in your branding strategy and succeed in fulfilling your ambitious goals. What is more, these hacks are very easy to implement. Even though the results don’t appear immediately, you will see that these simple measures will start bringing results in time.
Kristin Savage nourishes, sparks and empowers using the magic of a word. She does her voodoo regularly on the Pick Writers blog and occasionally contributes to other educational platforms. Along with pursuing her degree in Creative Writing, Kristin was gaining experience in the publishing industry, with expertise in marketing strategy for publishers and authors. Now she had found herself as a freelance writer.