Defining your business identity is essential, even if you are a freelancer. While positively tunnelling the power of personality for your brand requires consistent effort, preparation, and thought, it ultimately means appealing to your target audience. As a solo entrepreneur or a freelancer, your brand needs to appeal to your customers’ values and needs, display your personality, while keeping things professional. Brands with a character and identity resonate with people. Customers become loyal and feel they can rely on a brand when it has a personality and someone behind it. As a freelancer, your focus should be on personal branding that represents you and your business. 

1. Your personality is your brand, so evaluate who you are 

Freelancing is a business that is audaciously all about you. As a freelancer, you are the face of your brand. So it would be unnatural to present a false front to the world. The most crucial aspect of branding for a freelancer is the personal part. To strengthen any weak spots, you will have to look inward. 

For starters, think “why this business?” Try telling your origin story or infusing your passion into your business. Make it personal. Storytelling is one of the most significant branding tactics that can engage your target audience, and a for a freelancer, probably the most effective. 

Remember though; good branding is understanding what your customers values. Your brand story may be personal, but make your customer the hero of that story. 

2. Create a brand that embraces your personality 

What makes a personal brand stand out from a corporate brand is the opportunity to be more authentic. In freelancing, the connection with your audience can be much more intimate and immediate. This one-to-one connection allows you to show a little bit of real you to your customers. You don’t have the pressure of presenting yourself as a big, sleek corporation. Start small with a way that you feel natural. Instead of framing proper Oxford-style sentences, you can use your slang that sounds friendly and personable. Tell people how you get the work done, the methods you use, and the struggles you face. 

When it comes to building a brand as a solo entrepreneur, show your personality. Design it around your authentic self but don’t stage it to complain or rant about your life. Let’s be honest here. People don’t care about your business or brand. They care about their problems. Hence, be the solution. 

3. Craft your message, have a networking and marketing system in place 

For any business, whether it is a corporate one or freelancing, marketing and networking is the key to success. The issue with freelancers and solo entrepreneurs is that they tend to do marketing only when they have no work or are out of projects. Marketing is the backbone of your brand identity. It is the medium in which your vision and voice can ride and reach the minds, ears, and eyes of your audience. 

You need to have a marketing system in place. Test all the possible marketing media for branding. From social media to email, web, landing pages, and more, use every possible media to your leverage and see which one works the best for your brand. Track your marketing tactics, and change it immediately, if it doesn’t appear to be working well for your brand. The best thing about being a freelancer or a solo entrepreneur is your agility. Experiment. Try new tactics. Remember, you are not a corporation, so you don’t have to act like one.    

4. Offer personalised service 

Even if you think you are not in the service industry, as a freelancer, you are in the service industry. This is a good thing, as this allows you to offer personalised services. Follow up with your client after every project with a friendly text or email. Send your clients links to news or industry updates. Have lunch with them. Whatever you do, make sure that your customers know how much effort you are putting in to maintain this relationship. 

5. Add value to your service and compete on price 

As a freelancer, one of the most powerful thing you can do is deliver a ridiculously high value to your customer at an incredibly competitive price point. You are free to be innovative and experiment with unorthodox methods or techniques without the need for approval. Ask yourself - How can I reduce my cost while still delivering insane value to my customers? It is not about undercutting your profits or margins.