How can you balance promoting your brand with providing value for your followers?

Balance the information between the levels of expertise. For example, a beginner might need a tactical training and information on how to start, while an intermediate writer might be struggling with mindset.

Always put your audience first. It’s easy to get tangled up in thinking about your voice or your goals or your worries. We all do it. But when you focus on what your readers want and how you can help them, you’ll find your voice, achieve your goals, and reduce your worries. It helps you get out of your own way so that you can help them and yourself as you go.

Establishing your brand as an author early on is crucial. It not only boosts visibility but also strengthens book proposal efforts. For self-publishing, it's equally vital for marketing. Balance between promotion and value is key. Remember, it's about engaging your audience, not just selling. Know your audience, provide value, and maintain authenticity. Engage with your followers, and test and optimize your content strategy for best results.

The best way is to never forget your why. What is the reason why you chose some pain points and decided to do something them? Why are you choosing to offer value in a particular area or areas? What inspired you to set out on a mission to build your brand? Remembering the reason why you started is the best way to ensure you never lose your way. Ideally promotion is great, but when it comes at the cost of sacrificing your why, then you need to introspect and find a balance. That way, you get to build your brand, increase your followers and still maintain the value system backing you up.

Show don't tell. When you show something rather than telling it. Your audience will be able to relate with your content and it will be easy for them to find value in it as well as promote your brand

Okay, let’s take this bit of advice a step forward, because come on – if people want useful info, they ask a search engine or AI. You need to teach people what you know in ways that they’ll enjoy. Today, valuable content has to engage as well as educate. It sounds like more work, but if you make it fun or interesting for yourself, it’ll probably be fun and interesting for your audience too.

Emphasis on “easy” – CTAs work best with actions that require two steps max. No one wants to jump through multiple hoops, even for a freebie. Community signup? Username and password. Boom! Instant access. Newsletter or lead magnet? Email address and submit. Boom! Newsletter or downloadable in the inbox. You can collect personal data later, after you’ve proven your value and ease first.

Practice first, and do what you can maintain. You may want to upload sassy blog posts twice a week, but try writing those posts twice a week for a month without posting them. Just write them to yourself on a private file. If you find yourself writing rants once a week or even once every two weeks, that’s fine. That’s you. Set that as your schedule and you'll stick to it. Best of all, you can change it if you start to struggle or want to do more. As long as you tell your readers what’s going on, most of them will go with it.

Answering questions and thanking supporters is an easy way to engage. People hate having their questions ignored and love being thanked. Asking for opinions and suggestions is less effective and sometimes backfires, making you look like you’re grasping for interaction instead of making conversation. Keep that approach to a minimum, maybe even reserving it for a select group of your best followers. They’ll feel honored, and you’ll get better feedback.

Track your results, but remember that numbers only tell part of the story. Changes in your data may have external factors that your tracking program has no way to measure. You can also ask long-time readers to volunteer to participate in a survey or focus group. Choose candidates who are likely to respond, even if they’re kind of antagonistic. Tell them they’re part of a select few and offer some sort of freebie to sweeten the deal. This feedback will likely yield smaller results that are harder to quantify, but they’ll pertain to your efforts more closely.

You can have the best of both worlds. You don't have to choose between your brand and the value that you provide for your followers. If you make adding value to your followers a part of your brand, you'll always promote yourself in the best light. And the more value you provide in your content for your followers, the more trustworthy your brand will be.

The secret? It's all in the blend. Think of your content as a specialty coffee; the right mix of beans (your brand's story) with the perfect water temperature (helpful content) can create an unforgettable experience for your audience.