How much does personal branding cost?
Are you thinking about starting a business around your skills and expertise? Or do you have one and are just trying to create and grow a brilliant personal brand online? This blog is going to explain the 3 main options out there for creating a personal brand and clear out the time vs money vs outcome questions you may have. Don’t worry I’m going to explain all the different ways you can go about creating and growing your personal brand so it is super clear which is the best option for you.
When creating your personal brand presence you have three main options:
DIY (do it yourself)
Put together a team of freelancers
Hire a specialistic personal branding agency
Now that I’ve outlined the three options, have a think how would you like to go about creating your personal brand.
Do you want to do everything yourself?
Do you want to put together and coordinate a team of freelancers?
Do you want somebody with experience to take care of it all for you?
Now that you have an idea in your head on how you might go about creating your personal brand, I’m going to explain each option in more detail.
DIY
No I’m not talking about arts & crafts or assembling Ikea furniture, I am talking about doing all of your personal brand creation yourself. From strategy, through photography and copywriting all the way to designing your brand identity and website. Usually this option is great for those of you who:
1. Have more time than money to spend.
2. Are up-to-date with branding and marketing trends.
3. Understand business and brand strategy.
4. Know how to take great photos (of themselves!)
5. Know how to style a great looking brand and design a logo, business cards, brochure and all.
6. Know how to come up with messaging, write persuasive website copy and understand how to do SEO.
7. Are ok with using the tech and understand how to build a website.
This is a lot of work for one person! And also, it’s a lot of skills for one person to master. Because of the complexity of the task, it is highly unlikely that ones hard work will translate into the desired result that they would be proud of. Therefore, it is unlikely that such personal brand presence will bring the ROI one is looking for.
How much?
You can DIY your personal brand with minimal budget if you’re ok with the DIY look and slow progress. You’ll still need to pay all sorts of platforms for hosting your domain and website, delivering email services and enabling smooth communications which will be an investment of approx. £200 per year. Plus, you’ll need to account for the hours that you’ll spend creating your brand, instead of running your business, winning and serving clients.
So who is the option best for?
DIY is great for those who have the time and aren’t stressed about the amount of hours / days/ weeks / or months! it’s going to take to see a return on investment. Also, it’s a great option for those entrepreneurs still experimenting with their brand’s positioning in the market, which is totally okay!
DIY personal brands don’t just take up your time, but it usually takes long time overall to finish the project because you’re doing everything yourself, with no instruction manual at hand! With this being said, you can also run into the problem of not having the skills to finish every component of your personal brand to top standards, therefore you’re risking developing something that won’t appeal to your ideal customers.
Need help tweaking your diy Squarespace website? Take a look at our Squarespace Expert Call where we can either take care of your tasks or co-create with you whilst developing your technical know-how and confidence to update your Squarespace website all by yourself.
Putting together a team of freelancers
With this option, each component we talked about before such as brand strategy, copywriting, photography, brand identity design and website will be developed by a different person with expertise in that specific field that you have to find, vouch, meet and sign an agreement with. This means you could potentially have 7 different people working on different aspects of your personal brand (AH so many people!) and having to coordinate them all! This approach might result in conflicting advice, opinions and creative styles and ultimately lead to a diluted and mediocre outcome.
This option also comes with a hidden cost - because you’re working with so many suppliers, you’re paying each one of them for meeting, briefing and communications time, whilst also spending a lot of your own time, coordinating between everyone involved. What’s more, each of your suppliers might have different lead time, leaving you hanging between receiving one deliverable and the next, ultimately delaying the launch of your personal brand online.
How much?
This option will see you spending anything between £2000+, depending on what level of suppliers you’ll find. With this option, you need to account for re-doing things as unfortunately, not all suppliers you’ll find will be up to scratch.
So who is this option best for?
Putting together a team of freelancers works well for those entrepreneurs who can be their own project manager and can successfully articulate their brands mission and creative vision to several suppliers, whilst also keeping the creative style of the brand, on-brand (this is called creative direction). If you’re an entrepreneur who is unsure of your brand’s overall strategic and creative vision, and you’re not confident briefing, leading and managing a team of people, this option isn’t right for you.
If you are considering putting together a team of freelancers but would want a brand expert help you nail the strategy and creative vision, then take a look at our 3-month brand mentorship programme.
Hiring a specialistic personal brand agency
Now that we’ve looked at DIY and team of freelancers options, let’s take a look at working with a specialistic personal brand agency (such us Visuable). A full-service agency will usually have a streamlined process of bringing your personal brand to life and will take a leading role to guide you through it, ensuring that each aspect of your personal brand is created to high standard, and within YOUR budget (YES!). A full-service agency will pull together and manage a creative team of experts who will deliver each component of your project, whilst ensuring that all suppliers involved sing from the same hymn sheet, unlike the team of freelancers. This approach will result in a beautifully coordinated and highly effective personal brand presence for your new business. Not only will the brand presence be effective, but the voice of the brand will be the same throughout. When you have one creative team helping with your brands vision, everything will be on message and on-brand!
Working with a full-service specialist agency will also save you time and money - you won’t be required to manage the project and you won’t need to pay each supplier for anything other than work delivery. It will save you (a lot) of money because a personal brand agency are experts in the field and we (Visuable) will get it right the first time too! There will be no need for experimenting with what works and what doesn’t.. because we KNOW what works - we’ve done it over 100 times by now!
Doesn’t Visuable sound like the perfect solution to bring your personal brand to life?
How much?
A specialistic agency will ask for £2925+ for all-in experience (depending on the tier of packages you require). A basic package will have all the essentials included - an in-depth branding questionnaires, design style, photos and a website and will ensure that all aspects of your brand are well coordinated.
So who is this option for?
Entrepreneurs who are looking for a go-to place for all things brand. It’s for those who are serious about creating an effective brand presence for their business. This option is also for those who would like direction on their strategic and creative vision. This is for those who want to focus on their business and clients rather than the nitty gritty parts of creating their personal brand and want to rest assured that their personal brand is the best it can be and have the highest chances of succeeding in the saturated marketplace!
If you’re interested in all-in personal branding package, take a look at what we offer:
So, which option would you like to go for?
No matter which option you choose, you’re still taking the first step on your personal brand journey. Whether you choose DIY, putting together a team of freelancers or working with a specialistic personal branding agency, make sure it’s the right option for you and your wallet. If after reading this, you’re convinced that a full-service agency is the best option for you, do not hesitate to contact us. We’re here to help you create a brilliant personal brand that converts!
Lidia xx
Want to read more?
Check out our other posts on branding.
