… let’s think about personal branding.

As the new CMO, you are responsible for ACME Corporation’s brand positioning.

You were hired to re-position their brand to Generation X, Millennials, and Generation Z demographics.

ACME’s website and marketing materials have not been refreshed in years. Marketing is not producing quality inbound leads and the sales cycle is long.

As the CMO of Acme … you’ve observed other companies that have successfully launched personal branding campaigns.

Wikipedia defines personal branding as:

“The practice of marketing people and their careers as brands. It is an ongoing process of developing and maintaining a reputation and impression of an individual, group, or organization.”

You believe the solution to Acme’s marketing problem is to launch a personal branding campaign.

You want to promote the Acme brand alongside members of your sales and marketing team. You want to position Acme’s brand by promoting Acme’s company culture and personality.

How to Approach:

You’ve been paying attention to personal branding campaigns on LinkedIn, Instagram and across the Web.

You’ve noticed that some people are shameless self-promoters of themselves. And you’ve noticed some people do not attach a product or service to their personal branding.

You recognize that publishing content for the sake of publishing content is not an effective strategy. In fact … you know that over-exposure and poor messaging is a real concern when launching a personal brand campaign.

You’re going to take a different approach.

Based on your research, you know an effective personal branding campaign requires high-quality content creation and brand assets.

How to Plan:

All marketing campaigns should start with research.

For Acme’s personal branding campaign, begin by studying and following influencers who are good at personal branding.

Document the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT) that you discover. And then analyze and compare your SWOT to ideate a strategy for Acme.

Brainstorm content ideas and determine which marketing channels are most effective for personal branding.

How to Get Started:

• 1. Make a decision on what type of brand assets (photos, videos, audio, logos, custom graphics, etc) you will need to launch an effective campaign.
  2. Finalize which channels, software and vendors you will use to produce and promote your campaign.
  3. Write as many slogans, catchphrases, value propositions, and headlines about your personal brand that you can think of to get your creative juices flowing.
  4. Determine what your monthly and annual budget will be to produce and manage an effective personal brand campaign for Acme.

Next Steps:

• 1. Share your personal brand campaign research and notes with a few trusted colleagues to ask for feedback.
  2. Create a project development and marketing plan that documents your goals, objectives, timelines, budgets, and KPIs.
  3. Meet with your team members who will help you create the brand assets and marketing materials for your personal brand campaign.