How to build a content strategy for your personal brand as a marketer
If you’ve ever gone to the gym before, you’ll notice how almost everyone has a workout plan or routine they follow.
You hardly ever see people lifting weights randomly or wondering what exercise to do next. And that’s because without a plan, they’d quickly lose motivation, burn out, or worse, never see real results.
Well, the same thing applies to your personal brand.
If you keep showing up every day without a clear content strategy, constantly asking yourself “What should I post today?” you’re going to keep running in circles. You’ll end up creating content just to stay active, not to grow.
And eventually, it’ll feel like your efforts aren’t paying off, because there’s no direction guiding what you share or who you're trying to reach.
That’s the real reason many marketers struggle to grow their personal brands to attract the people who need what they offer.
In this article, I’ll walk you through a simple and proven approach to building a personal branding content strategy. One that helps you consistently show up, speak directly to your audience and attract the kind of opportunities you want.
Table of content:
Why build a personal brand?
There's a popular question that goes: What do people say about you when you’re not in the room? Well, a personal brand helps you answer that. It's what you’re known for, trusted for, and remembered for.
Think about it—when names like Bozoma Saint John, Rand Fishkin, Chima Mmeje, or Lily Ugbaja come up, you immediately associate them with something specific they’re known for.
Thousands of marketers can run ads, write copy, or build a funnel. But in that sea of skill sets, your brand is what sets you apart.
It’s the difference between being “just another marketer” and becoming the go-to person for something specific. This is 2025, and people don’t hire because of resumes alone. They hire because of the reputation, brand, or authority you’ve built around your niche.
Freelance brand designer Real Desmond says:
When you build a personal brand, you’re creating a reputation that reflects your values, skills, and personality. This can open doors to new opportunities, whether it’s getting hired, landing clients, speaking at events, or simply building trust with others in your field.
Choosing the right content strategy for your personal brand
Let’s be honest, showing up online is easy. Anyone can post a picture, share a thought, or write a caption.
But if you're trying to grow your personal brand as a marketer, you can’t afford to do it without intention. You need a content strategy that aligns with your core value proposition, not the “post every day and hope it works” approach.
Your content is how people meet you, learn from you, and eventually trust you. It’s not just about visibility; it’s about positioning, and the right content strategy helps you position yourself, show up with clarity and consistency.
When you have a strategy, you’re not waking up every day wondering what to post. You’re not throwing random ideas at your audience, hoping they resonate with them. Instead, you’re building a structure that connects the dots between who you are and what people come to you for.
A good content strategy gives you three major things:
1. Direction – You’re not just talking about everything. You’re creating content that reflects your goals, your niche, and your strengths.
2. Consistency – You show up regularly, not just when inspiration comes. That consistency builds credibility.
3. Cohesion – Every post, every idea, every story you share ties back to your brand message. Nothing feels random. It feels intentional.
And when people start to associate your name with a specific value, idea, or outcome, that’s when your personal brand starts to work for you.
6 ways to build a content strategy for your brand
Building a personal brand is about showing up strategically with content that reflects your expertise, values, and voice. But a solid content strategy helps you stay consistent, build trust, and attract the right opportunities.
Below are six practical, results-driven ways to build a content strategy that aligns with your personal brand and actually works.
1. Understand your goal
Before you start creating content or doing anything personal brand-related, take a step back and ask, Why am I building a personal brand in the first place?
Your content strategy should always start with your goal, your why, and clearly state what you hope to achieve by doing this.
Are you trying to:
Attract clients
Land a new role or break into a new industry
Grow your audience (followers) or community
Build authority in your niche
Knowing this upfront helps you stay focused because when you’re clear on your “why,” you stop posting for engagement and start posting for impact.
On a recent mentorship call, Web3 ghostwriter and personal branding expert Viktor Smart stressed the importance of having a clear purpose.
“The first step in building a strong personal brand is knowing your “why”—because that purpose will keep you going even when motivation fades”
💡 Pro tip: Write a one-line personal brand mission. Something like:
"I help early-stage founders grow their brands through simple storytelling."
or"I use data-driven marketing to make B2B content less boring and more effective."
That one line will guide your content decisions moving forward. And remember, no matter your goal, clarity is key. Without it, your content becomes random, and random content rarely works.
2. Define your content pillars
Now that you know why you’re building your brand, let’s talk about what you’ll talk about. Because without structure, you’ll end up staring at a blinking cursor, wondering what to post (again).
That’s where content pillars come in. We can say content pillars are like the 3–5 key topics your personal brand will consistently focus on. They will act like the "buckets" or themes that keep your content focused, relevant, and recognizable.
Here’s the best part: When you have clear pillars, you never run out of things to say, because you already know the lanes you’re playing in.
Choosing the right content pillars for your personal brand
Let’s say you're a freelance content marketer. Your pillars might look like this:
Content strategy tips (your core expertise)
Client wins/case studies (proof of results)
Behind the scenes/process (how you work)
Marketing hot takes (your personality and POV)
Personal stories/lessons (your human side)
You don’t need to copy that., Your pillars should be unique to your goals, your voice, and your audience.
And if narrowing down five distinct content pillars still feels tricky and confusing, then you should try the PAV framework.
How to use the PAV framework in your content pillars
The PAV framework is designed to help marketers stay consistent with their personal branding content strategy.
Three pillars of a personal brand
It’s an easy way to ensure your content covers the three things every audience cares about:
1. Personality: This is where you let people into your world. Where you share your journey, your big and small life/career wins, the lessons you learned, or the weird side‑projects you’re working on.
It’s what makes you relatable, what makes people want to connect with you, and what makes your personal brand human. Infusing your personality into your content doesn’t mean oversharing every detail of your life.
It means letting your unique values, voice, and character shine through everything you post. DavyCrypt, a Content writer and branding expert, says:
Source: X
2. Authority: Here, you demonstrate your expertise in your skill or niche. This is where you post content that shows you know your skill. You can break down a strategy you’ve used, share case studies, or give your take on a trending industry topic.
This positions your personal brand as an authority and you as a thought leader.
3. Value: This pillar is all about giving practical, actionable insights, advice that can help others. By others, I mean tips that help people struggling in your niche.
If you're a content marketer, share tips that help other content marketers scale. It could be how‑to content, templates, etc. Just share quick tips that your audience can apply immediately.
Once you’ve mapped your content themes using the PAV framework, you’ll never run out of content ideas again. You’ll know what to say, why you’re saying it, and more importantly, who you’re speaking to.
3. Identify your ideal audience/clients.
Before you write a single post, you need to answer one crucial question: Who are you talking to?
Best-selling author and popular marketing genius Seth Godin talks about the need for being specific in branding or marketing because when you try to speak to everyone, you end up connecting with no one.
Knowing your ideal audience helps you tailor your message, content style, and offers in a way that resonates with them. It ensures your brand feels like it was made for them. Start by asking: Who do I want to attract to my personal brand?
Are they startup founders, e-commerce or Saas brands, marketing agencies, or other marketers looking for content strategy ideas?
Let’s take an example.
If you are a content marketer, your ideal audience might be:
Startup founders who need help finding their target audience
Newbie content marketers who are struggling to grow
Your fellow content marketers who also need inspiration and tips to help their careers or the brands they work with.
Knowing this helps you craft content that speaks directly to their needs, frustrations, and goals.
4. Choose your core content formats and platforms
Once you know what to say, the next question is how and where to say it.
This is where a lot of marketers get it wrong. You try to do everything on every platform and end up burning out fast. Don’t do that; do this instead.
1. Pick your primary platform
Start with one platform that aligns with your goals and plays to your strengths.
If you want to build authority and attract clients →Try LinkedIn or X (Twitter)
Source: LinkedIn
If you love storytelling or playing around with visual content? → Consider Instagram or TikTok
If you want to go deep with thought leadership? → Think of YouTube or Medium/Substack
Lastly, if you're building a community or niche audience? → Look into Discord, Telegram, or start your Newsletter
You don’t have to be everywhere. You just have to be consistent somewhere.
2. Choose your content formats:
Different formats let you express your ideas in different ways.
Here are a few to consider:
Short-form writing (tweets, LinkedIn posts, carousels)
Long-form writing (articles, newsletters, threads)
Video (short-form reels/TikToks or long-form YouTube videos)
Visuals (infographics, carousels, mem
Audio (podcasts, Twitter Spaces)
Pick 1–2 formats that fit your style, current schedule, and skill set.
💡 Pro tip: One great idea = multiple pieces of content.
For example:
You can turn a medium article into 3 carousels
Or you can chop up a podcast into short clips
Pull a quote and turn it into a tweet
This is how you stay visible without burning out.
5. Create your personal brand content strategy
You’ve got your purpose, you’ve got your pillars, you’ve picked your platform and formats. Now it’s time to show up “consistently”. That means building a repeatable content strategy that makes content creation easier, not harder.
1. Start with a simple content schedule
You don’t need to post daily to grow. You just need to post consistently. As Matt Burton, video creator and storyteller, says, “Consistency in your craft will always beat frequency in your posting.”
If twice a week is all you can manage right now, do that and do it well. Focus on delivering optimum value always. Choose a realistic frequency based on your availability and capacity; for instance, you can choose to post.
2x/week → which is okay if you're a very busy marketer.
3–4x/week → which is solid for steady growth and visibility
Daily → which is very good and necessary if you are just starting.
Find out what time of day your ideal audience is most active or when people on your selected platform are most active, and stay consistent with that.
For example, some LinkedIn users prefer posting between 8:00 AM and 10:00 AM, while others find better engagement in the evening, between 4:00 PM and 6:00 PM.
Once you've got your posting schedule and time figured out, you can focus on the 3–2–1 content system using the PAV framework.
How the 3-2-1 system works:
Each week, you’ll aim to create.
3 authority-driven content → These posts prove you know your stuff. You could share your thoughts on a trending topic in your niche, share your work process, results you’ve achieved for a client, and how you did it, and everything that shows your expertise and experience.
2 value-based content → These posts help you teach your audience something useful. They’ll help you build trust and make people come back because they know you have content worth sharing.
1 personality content → This is where you bring in your human side. It could be a lesson you learned from a client's job, a personal experience or story, where you are currently in your journey, a win, whether big or small, etc.
Try not to sound like everybody or generic because the personal brands that win are those built by being yourself. Digital marketer and bestselling author Krista Neher says;
Following the 3-2-1 method helps you plan content without feeling repetitive or generic, and it also keeps your brand human, helpful, and trustworthy.
💡 Pro tip: To simplify your weekly personal brand content planning, use our free content calendar template.
Also, remember to track what works and double down on it. Your audience will show you what they like, and you can take note of that by watching out for posts that get:
Lots of saves or shares
Meaningful comments or DM
Higher than your usual reach
That will be your signal to know the content that hits, so you can lean in and do more of that. You don’t need to go viral, you just need to build relevance. And relevance comes from being valuable over and over again.
Don’t be afraid to experiment because not every post will be a hit, and that’s okay. What matters is that you track your results, learn from them, and adjust your content strategy accordingly.
If you want to learn from top marketers who’ve built world-class personal brands, get the Inside the Marketer’s Room book, which breaks down their journeys, experiences, how they achieved it, and how you can too.
6. Put your personal brand out there (How to create an engagement strategy)
It‘s surprising how many growing marketers put out more valuable content than some big ones. Yet, nobody sees it. That’s where engaging comes in.
Because if content is what shows people who you are, engaging will make them see it and care. It’s how you start conversations, build relationships, and get on the radar of people who matter in your space.
And no, you don’t need to spend 5 hours a day commenting on random posts to make this work. You only need to add a simple engagement plan to your personal branding content strategy, and stick to it.
Here’s how it works
1. Warm up the algorithm
Spend 30 minutes to 1 hour before you post, engaging with others in your niche. Comment on a few posts, reply to stories, drop thoughtful insights (not “nice post!”). This boosts your personal brand's visibility and gets your name in front of your ideal audience before your content even goes live.
2. Be proactive, not passive
Don’t just wait for people to come to you. Actively engage with people you want to connect with— potential or ideal clients, collaborators, and marketers you respect. Don’t neglect people who, like you, are also growing.
Repost and share their content.
Add meaningful thoughts.
Ask questions.
The more you show up in their world, the more likely they are to notice yours.
3. Respond like a human
If someone comments on your post or sends you a DM, reply. Treat it like a conversation, not a transaction. Show you’re listening, because people remember how you made them feel way more than what you posted.
4. Be a conversation starter
Not every post needs to be very in-depth. Sometimes, ask your audience questions or share your opinion and invite theirs. The more you create space for interaction, the more engagement you’ll attract naturally.
5. Don’t overthink it
Your personal brand engagement strategy doesn’t need to be complex. Just set a simple rule: “I’ll spend 30 minutes each day engaging with 5–10 people I genuinely vibe with.” That alone will compound over time.
When you start showing up consistently and engaging with others intentionally, everything will start to click. Your reach expands, your DMs grow, your name starts coming up in conversations.
This is what makes a powerful personal brand content strategy.
What’s next?
Building a personal brand as a marketer doesn’t happen overnight, and there’s no one single approach to doing so.
It’s a long-term game, but with consistency, clarity, and the right personal brand content strategy, you can create a powerful brand that attracts opportunities and positions you as the go-to expert in your niche.
Remember, you don’t need to chase virality or be a personal branding genius. All you have to do is focus on delivering value, connecting with the right audience, and staying true to your unique personality and expertise.
The more you show up, engage, and share your authentic self, the more opportunities will naturally come your way.
Lastly, this approach to building a personal branding strategy you've learned will help you stay consistent, attract opportunities, and drive career success for you in the long run.
The best part about everything you’ve learnt today is: you don’t have to do it alone.
Join the Marketer's Room to connect, learn, and grow alongside many marketers who are walking the same path as you.
