Do this to help your personal brand succeed...

When you start out writing online it’s tough.

I remember spending hours hunched over my laptop.

Going through every word with a fine tooth comb, constantly changing the structure.

Then exhaustion creeps in from staring at the same words for too long.

And when you’ve finally overcome the rush of anxiety and hit post.

It flops… crickets.

Hours of work, just wasted.

You see, the problem was there was a lack of clarity in my writing.

It didn’t hit my target audience on the nose and make them pay attention.

What I find frustrating is there’s a tonne of lazy advice out there that says all you need to do is to choose your content pillars and subtopics and just start writing.

And this may have worked in the past.

But your audience is much more sophisticated now, because there’s an abundance of information.

So this begs the question, what do you do instead?

Well, I’ll tell you… my writing changed dramatically when I laid out my “creative brief”.

It’s essentially my bible.

It brings razor like precision to my writing because it tells me why I’m writing, who I’m writing for and what I’m writing about.

And I sit down every week and memorise it, like a Catholic kid at Bible study.

So here’s my 3 steps to crafting your brief:

Define your mission & identity

You need get clear on where you want to go and how you’re going to get there.

This is your north star.

You’ll need a brand identity, one that becomes instantly recognisable the more you post.

Get clear on your message and how you want to present it.

Who are you targeting

This is your chance to get to know your target audience.

You need to know the pain they are running away from, and the core desires they’re chasing.

I keep a running tally of my ICP’s core desires and pain points, which I can draw on in my writing.

It’ll help you enter the conversation going on inside their mind.

Your content will be a lot more emotional if you know what you’re audience is thinking.

The solution you are offering

Get clear on your how your offer benefits your target audience.

Look at what the competition are doing and work out what you do that is different.

If you have a unique mechanism you offer will stand out more.

That’s all for this week.

See you soon,

Jack

P.S. If you want some help building your personal brand let me know.

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