Agency Personal Branding Musts: They're not what you think...

Agency owners that want to grow a 7-figure agency have 2 choices:

1. Purposefully grow their personal brand to make life easier
2. Ignore the opportunity personal branding offers and take the uphill route

You wouldn't be reading this if you were taking choice 2, so let's discuss how to grow your personal brand as an agency owner in 2023.

This article isn't going to cover the basics in detail, we're diving into the nuance of personal branding. So just to make sure we're aligned, here are a few things you'll need - these are the basics:

• A target audience (these are your clients... The more specific, the better)
• Regular content on at least one channel
• A track record of results (if you don't have that yet, make sure you get them quickly so you can shout about them)

Those three are non-negotiable. If you're not consistently delivering content, on at least one channel, where you are targeting a specific audience then start there. This article won't help you if you don't have the basics in place.

Assuming you do, let's dive into 3 core elements of an agency owner personal brand that will stand you apart from the competition instantly.

1 - Stand for something

Agencies are getting lost in a sea of sameness, and so are agency founders.

Why?

Because everyone is so scared of p*ssing someone off.

Trust me when I say this... The day you get a negative comment on one of your posts is the day you've graduated from personal branding pre-school. You should celebrate.

If you want to truly stand out in 2023 as an agency owner, you need to stand for something.

But what?

Agency positioning wizard, Roland Gurney, calls this a narrative. In the past we've called it a philosophy, a manifesto, or even simply a stance.

Whatever you call it, you need to have a belief about the way you work that you would die on a hill defending.

I'll give you an example.

Our belief is that Lead Nurture is more important than Lead Gen. Whenever we come across anyone that is prioritising lead gen in their marketing, we challenge them to think longer term. That's just one of many beliefs we have that we defend at all costs - these beliefs combine to shape our view on Full Funnel Authority Building, which is the way we approach agency marketing.

What is your core philosophy and narrative?

What are the beliefs about your work that you would die on a hill defending?

If nothing springs to mind, then take a day to really consider your unique view. If you've got something... Great... Shout about it, and wait for those negative comments, they're a good sign.

2 - Build out your IP

Once you stand for something, it's time to make it memorable.

We're bombarded with information from the second we wake to the moment we put our head on the pillow. If we're going to remember something new, it needs to feel new.

Intellectual Property, or IP, is a great way to make sure your views and philosophies stick in people's minds.

Generally speaking, IP is created by designing models around your thinking.

For example, how do we communicate Full Funnel Authority Building? In two ways:

In our genius model showing the strategies we deploy to build authority

2. In our full funnel diagram that shows the purpose of each level of the funnel

Your IP doesn't have to be in the form of a model, but truthfully, it helps. You're all agency owners who have access to wonderful designers - make it beautiful.

And before you worry about giving away your secrets, realise this... Your IP and your process is your most under-utilised sales and marketing tool. Authority building is about growing trust in your prospect pool. Show people how you work, and they'll want you to do it for them.

3 - Design an audience journey

The final element you need will help you build community.

The best agency personal brands have a way to transfer their audience away from the original channel they connected on.

For example, if people find me on LinkedIn, we're happy to connect. However, our aim is always to transition people to our email list.

Why?

Because we have more personal access to them and we also 'own' that traffic.

What's in it for them?

Better, more in depth and regular content. We email 5 times per week and most emails are packed with high value agency growth education - this is how we build a community around our audience.

If you want to develop your personal brand this year then think about the next step in your audience's journey.

Once they've connected with you on your pillar channel, where can they go next?

Email list?

Podcast?

YouTube?

Discord?

Private LinkedIn group?

Where's the next step?

Develop this and over time you'll see huge development in the quality of relationships you create with your audience.

Bringing it all together

Developing a personal brand doesn't happen over night. It takes consistency and commitment. However, if you've been working at it for some time and you feel like you're not getting the traction you're looking for, implement these 3 strategies. You'll see the quality of engagement and interaction increase over the next 2/3 months.

Becoming An Authority Agency

For those of you that don't know me, I'm Oliver Duffy-Lee and I run a company called Authority Agency.

If this article inspired you to jump start your Agency's marketing, then there are a two ways we can help:

The Agency Advantage Podcast

Every day I share my thoughts and insights I have from working in the agency world for over 10 years - each episode is always less than 10 minutes.

You can check that out?here :?https://open.spotify.com/show/4n7hdfxdRYMz0XAWd06JPQ

Agency Growth Audit

If you want to move faster, you can book an Agency Growth Audit with one of our Scale Specialists. It's a super-quick, free call where we'll help outline what's slowing your growth and show you what's possible in the next 90 days.

If that's you, can you book?here :?https://content.authorityagency.co.uk/

I'm very happy to be here on your journey to building the agency of your dreams.

If you ever need any advice, send me a DM.

To your success,

ODL