I've worked with about 25 CEO personal brand growth clients.
I've consulted with about 200 more.
In both cases, after learning a bit about what they do, I say something like:
Which outcome do you want the most? Clients? Customers? Followers? You can't want multiple things, but I'd love to know which is your top priority.
I ask that because your top outcome informs every decision you make on creating your brand identity, constructing your profile, creating your content, and more.
General Examples
- One of my clients is retired. He sold his startup for about $20 million a couple years ago. He has nothing to sell. All he wants is a large following. The content I create for him has wide appeal and is somewhat generic. I still get creative and add personality, but it's a lot of listicles and other easy-to-consume stuff.
- One of my clients runs a big email marketing agency. He couldn't care less about influence. He never wants to write a book or speak at a convention. He just wants clients. The content I create for him is 95% email marketing tips, how-to guides, and case studies.
- One of my clients has offers for businesses and consumers. They range from $100 to $10,000. The content I create for him is all about marketing, but we do a healthy mix of wide-appeal, deep education, and social proof.
People love saying things like "quality, not quantity" in the content world, but 3 words isn't enough to explain this.
It all depends on your outcome.
For some, high-quality and niche-specific is best.
For others, somewhat generic and wide-appeal is best.
But enough telling you.
Let me show you...
Profile Examples
What does JK want?
More members in his high-ticket community.
He talks a bit about himself, then pitches his newsletter, which sells the program.
This is a client-acquisition profile.
What does Dan want?
A lot of things: following him, joining his newsletter, and being one of his fitness clients.
He can pitch multiple outcomes because he has a massive following (beginners should stick to just 1 outcome).
What does Ben want?
Newsletter subscribers. His header photo sells his newsletter. His location sells it too.
That's what he wants most.
Content Examples
What's the goal of this content?
Building trust in his high-ticket community, which leads to it getting more members.
Social proof is a big part of his content strategy. So is posting deep education that usually doesn't get a ton of likes.
What's the goal of this content?
He wants multiple outcomes, so he mixes high-engagement stuff to get followers/subscribers and lower-engagement case studies to get clients.
Again, as a beginner, you should have 1 primary outcome. I'm showing you this because it's useful to see the two types of content right next to each other.
What's the goal of this content?
Having a ton of people to see content that is useful enough to make them want to join his newsletter.
It has wide appeal, but there's enough substance to make people subscribe instead of just leaving a like.
Summary
- Don't build your brand aimlessly.
- Instead, pick your top desired outcome.
- Then build a profile that gets you it.
- And a content strategy that gets you it.
- And a DM strategy that gets you it.
Start with the end, then reverse-engineer to the beginning.
That's how you build the right way.
