The Expat's Playbook For Building A Global Personal Brand
Leaning into your expat status can actually enhance your credibility and personability.
If you're an entrepreneur or small business owner, personal branding matters. More often than not, it's your face that people associate with your business. But how do you maintain a solid personal brand when you live and work abroad? Here are some tips.
Start With Clarity: Define Your Brand Identity
This is a great exercise for any business owner if you've never done it. Start by identifying your niche. Who do you serve? The more specific you can be, the better. For example, as an expat coach, my niche is women who want to move to Italy. Yes, I can help men, too, but my brand and marketing are aimed at women who are ready to change their lives by moving to Italy like I did!
If you can align your expertise with your expat story, great. Your experience can help you generate content for your blog and social media. I frequently write about the changes I've experienced living in Italy, and this is how 80% of my clients find me.
Localize Your Brand…Without Losing Your Global Edge
Living abroad may open the door to additional business opportunities. The key is finding a way to apply your business strengths to the local market.
If, for example, you're a writer, you're bound to meet locals who struggle to communicate with their customers in English. This could create an opportunity for you, as the resident expat writer, to take on local clients for bilingual content.
Stay open to the possibilities. Pay attention to how people react when you tell them what you do, and listen for opportunities.
Optimize Your Digital Presence
Having an online presence is even more important if you're living abroad. Select the digital channels where your target audience is most likely to be found and build your strategy accordingly. If you run a company serving B2B, you will likely get more out of your efforts on LinkedIn than TikTok, for example.
Maximize the time you spend managing your online presence by using social media scheduling tools like Buffer. Keep in mind that your audience is in a different time zone, so schedule your content for the hours they're most likely to view it.
If you serve clients back in your home country as well as your new country, consider having a profile in each language and posting content in both languages. LinkedIn allows you to create multiple versions of your profile in different languages, and with Facebook Pages, you can enable posts in multiple languages.
Use Your Story As Branding
Remember what makes you unique: in addition to whatever features and benefits your products or services offer, you have a story to tell, and that should be part of your personal brand.
People are fascinated by expats who give up everything to move abroad. Find a way to weave your story into your business. Patti Perez, who conducts workplace investigation and leadership training, lives in Rome and frequently shares stories of her life as an expat, tying them back to the work she does. Lauren Bonheim, an expat coach, shares content about being an expat in Panama. These expats have found a way to use storytelling to brand themselves.
If your content leans more toward the informative or technical, find small ways to weave in a little personalization where possible. With such a flood of content available online, the surefire way to stand out is to show some of who you are.
You can also generate a little PR for yourself by pitching U.S. and international media outlets, podcasts, and blogs that are interested in the story of an expat entrepreneur.
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Build Strategic Relationships
Networking should be about building connections with others in your field, finding other expat business owners to connect with, and fostering relationships with potential customers.
To find others who get what it is to live abroad and run a business, look for expat groups in your area. You might be surprised how helpful and comforting it is to connect with other expat entrepreneurs. And you never know what collaboration opportunities might pop up! If there aren't local groups in person, search for online expat groups for business owners, as they'll be the group that gets your unique situation.
If you don't have local customers, you'll have to build your relationships online. Seek out groups and organizations that cater to your target market or industry. You can also participate in industry groups online, as well as attend online events and workshops to further your connections in your niche.
Be Consistent…But Don't Burn Out
Everything about your life changes once you move to another country, so give yourself some slack when it comes to building your personal brand abroad. You may find that you now prefer to work in the afternoons, since that's when your clients are awake. You might decide to dedicate one day a week to scheduling social media and blog content, and work on serving your customers the rest of the week.
Remember that automation tools are your friends. They will allow you to schedule blog posts and social media, as well as automate responses to customers. The key to solid branding is consistency, and that means you'll need to find a rhythm that suits your new expat lifestyle and be open to that changing over time.
Living in a country other than the one where you first launched your business doesn't have to hinder your ability to build your personal brand. It can, in fact, enhance your credibility and personability. Even if you're 5,000 miles from your target market, you can still be top of mind. Focus on storytelling and weaving your expat experiences into your business messaging.
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