You invest a lot of time crafting and executing content marketing strategies in your paying gig. But when it comes to marketing yourself, what kind of investment are you making?

Are you like the barefooted shoemaker’s kid – knowing but not following your industry’s best practices to achieve personal professional success?

Now is the perfect time to change that. Whether you’re looking for a promotion or new job, or you want to pivot your role or industry, create a content marketing strategy to support your personal brand in 2021.

What is a personal brand?

Before getting into how to craft your personal content marketing strategy, it’s important to understand what a personal brand is.

“Think of it as your reputation and calling card to the world. It’s a requirement in our socially connected world,” Anh said. “Regardless of industry or role, your personal brand helps you connect with prospective employers, clients, customers, collaborators, and so on.”

Gabriela Cardoza explained in the chat that a personal brand helps you:

• Differentiate yourself
• Build thought leadership
• Grow trust and credibility
• Build a network

Frankly, you already have a personal brand. From the moment you engage with people, they form perceptions that create your brand. But if you craft a personal content marketing strategy for your brand, you’ll set yourself on a better path to achieving your goals.

Here’s how to take the seven steps to create your personal content marketing strategy.

1. Craft a brand mission statement

All good content marketing strategies start with understanding what the organization is about and what it wants to achieve. Thus, the first step in your personal content marketing strategy is to create a personal brand mission statement.

“The mission statement aims to create an emotional connection with your audience. It describes the brand’s purpose and why it exists,” writes Social Sprout’s Sarah Aboulhosn.

While Sarah was writing about an organization, the same applies to individuals. Here’s how Gabriela broke down the components of a personal brand mission statement:

• Who you are
• What you do
• What you stand for
• What your unique value is

I’ll add one more – What do you generally want to achieve with your brand?

Here’s a personal brand mission statement that might work for a content marketing writer:

I use my creativity and sense of business to help B2B brands engage with their audiences through compelling content. I work to ensure my content is equitable and inclusive. I want to grow my recognition as a go-to resource in the content marketing industry.

TIP: If you work for an organization, you can’t develop your personal brand without considering your employer’s brand because you’re tied together publicly. Tweak or supplement your personal brand mission statement accordingly.

2. Write an editorial mission statement

Put together your personal editorial mission statement, which connects to your brand mission.

CMI’s Jodi Harris writes that a great content mission statement details three elements (I’ll go into more depth on each later):

• Core audience – who you aim to help (serve) with your audience
• What you’ll deliver – the kind of information you provide
• Outcome or benefit – the things your audience can do (or will know) because of your content

You don’t need an elaborate statement. Just give a brief overview in a sentence or two.

With your personal brand and editorial mission statements complete, you now have the required footing to develop a content marketing strategy.

3. Detail your brand’s content marketing goals

Your personal content marketing can help you achieve your professional goals (to get a raise, a new job, more clients, etc.), but those aren’t your content marketing goals.

Content marketing is about creating and distributing content to attract and retain your audience and, ultimately, drive profitable action.

Here are some personal content marketing goals to consider:

• Build brand awareness: Get your name out there.
• Earn brand trust: Help people see you as a valuable, reputable resource.
• Deepen brand loyalty: Connect with people on a deeper level (e.g., signing up for your newsletter, sharing your content).
• Attract strategic partners: Get people to want to help you (and them) (e.g., guest blogging and conference speaking).