Set Your Personal Writing Brand Apart With These 3 Tips
Hey Friend, hope you're enjoying your weekend.
It’s Peter here with this Sunday’s writing digest… and it’s a juicy one!
Without further ado, let’s get right into it.
Quick backstory for context
If you didn’t already know, I’ve been a freelance web designer (officially) for the past two years.
Before that, I tried building out several WordPress blogs for my own projects and they all tanked.
I wasn’t sure why since I was following the gurus advice to the letter, which consisted (more or less) of:
- Your site must be visually stunning to be considered ‘professional’
- Pick a keyword-focused domain to appease the SEO overlord - Google
- Copy what’s already working in your niche with a slight twist - don’t try to be creative
As a beginner, everything I just mentioned seemed reasonable.
In fact, most of the personal brands I looked up to checked all the boxes.
My conclusion: it had to be me.
I was convinced my low-level skills in graphic design, SEO, etc, were to blame.
So I kept trying and trying.
Fast forward to landing my first high-ticket web design client.
It was a small law firm based out of Los Angeles, “F Your Ticket” (you can check them out here if you’re curious to see the live site. And no, I’m not affiliated with them or anything like that).
As you can probably guess, I built the site following the guru advice mentioned.
The same advice that resulted in previous failures, no less.
After weeks of hard work, the day finally arrived to take it live.
I was proud of the design, and my client was super happy with it.
That thing looked great!
But did it help my client get more business? Nope.
Needless to say, over the next few days he went from happy to… very unhappy.
That’s when I knew I had to do something drastic or my reputation as a web designer was toast.
After a few sleepless nights and countless hours of research, I found my answer.
Up to that point, I understood branding to be entirely visual… the colors, fonts, images, logos, etc.
As it turns out, this is only a small portion of the bigger picture.
For a brand to truly resonate and stand out, it needs to be wrapped around a narrative… a brand story.
All the marketing, sales, and social content needs to appear as if written by a specific persona that appeals to the ideal customer.
So I went back and changed all the website copy to do just that.
Do you think it worked? You bet.
Leads and sales increased across the board, and the brand now appealed directly to the ideal client, visually, but more importantly, narratively.
The lesson here for you as an aspiring digital writer trying to stand out in a sea of copycats and generic ChatGPT noise: craft an appealing writer persona.
How, you ask?
Let me share how I’m doing it for my writing brand so you can apply it to yours, too.
3 quick tips for crafting your unique writer persona
These tips are a combination of timeless branding advice by copywriting legend, Dan Kennedy, and my studies into successful storytelling writers, such as Nathan Baugh from World Builders.
Just like in any good story, there’s a hero, so your writer persona must embody heroic qualities that your ideal reader resonates with.
1. Identify your core values and principles
What are the core values and principles that are most important to you as a writer?
Just like superheroes all have a set of guiding principles, you can establish your own moral compass as a writer.
This could involve reflecting on the themes and messages you want to convey through your writing.
Aligning your work with these core values will not only create a strong brand but also provide a sense of purpose and fulfillment in your writing journey.
2. Create a symbol or logo for your writer persona
In the spirit of superhero branding, design a symbol or logo that represents your writer persona.
This visual element can be used across platforms, from social media profiles to personal blogs and newsletters, providing a consistent and recognizable brand image.
This not only enhances your online presence as a writer but also gives you a visual symbol to represent the heroic qualities you want to convey through your writing.
Here’s mine, for example:
My personal brand logo + the Philosopher's Stone symbol = Writing Alchemy
3. Craft a compelling origin story for your writer persona
Just as superheroes have memorable origin stories, writers can benefit from crafting a narrative that explains their journey and the driving force behind their writing persona.
Share your origin story to add a personal touch to your writer brand, making it more relatable to readers.
It allows you to connect with your audience on a deeper level, transmitting a sense of authenticity.
Putting it all together
You may have seen my AI-generated writer persona at the very top of this digest.
He’s a work-in-progress, but let me give you what I have so far…
Petercelsus, Writing Alchemist Extraordinaire
I named him Petercelsus, which is a play on Paracelsus, arguably the most famous alchemist to ever live.
When researching him, I discovered so much about his life and achievements that resonated with me, and so, I thought the combination of the symbol (shown above) of the Philosopher’s Stone, a staple in alchemy, and my feather personal brand logo, was the perfect visual logo to include throughout my online presence as a writer.
My core superhero values are:
I stand for the never-ending pursuit of knowledge, wisdom, truth, courage, creativity, and the overall betterment of mankind.
I stand against ignorance, the broken education system, cowardice, lies, copycats, mediocrity, and evil.
I’m working on a backstory for him, but in the meantime, this helps set up the foundation going forward.
I think you can do the same as well.
What do you think?
Well, that’s it for this week’s digest… hope you got something useful out of it!
As always, feel free to reach out by simply hitting reply or connecting with me on the social platforms listed below.
Until next time, remember to write better so you can live better.
Cheers friend,
Peter “Petercelsus” Llontop
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