PERSONAL BRANDING
How much does personal branding cost in the UK?
A plain breakdown of what each part of a personal brand costs in the UK, what drives the price, and where you can save.
What a personal branding agency does day to day, how it differs from a PR or marketing agency, and how to tell if you need one.
A personal branding agency gets you known for the right thing by the right people. It pins down your story and what you want to say, then turns that into things people actually see: photographs and video, a website, social posts, sometimes ads. Good ones keep it all consistent and take the work off you.
“Personal branding” sounds woolly, and agencies don’t help when they describe their work in abstract language. The reality is far more concrete. A personal branding agency listens to you and writes things down. Then it photographs and films you. It builds your pages and posts the content.
This guide walks through what that work looks like and how agencies differ. It also covers when you’d be better off doing it yourself.
It’s a team that markets a person instead of a company or a product. Most of its clients are people whose name is part of what they sell. Think founders and CEOs. Business owners and authors. Consultants and speakers too, plus the odd creative or public figure.
A business brand answers “why should I buy from this company?” A personal brand answers a different question: “why should I trust this person?” The agency’s job is to give an honest answer to that one, and to give the same answer everywhere someone comes across you.
Agencies name the stages differently and shuffle the order. Most decent ones still cover this ground.
This stage is interviews and long conversations about your background, what you do, who you do it for and why you bother. It’s where the good material turns up. Moments and opinions come out, along with the hard-won experience that sets you apart from everyone else doing similar work. A good agency also uses it to find out what you’re not comfortable with.
Next, the story gets shaped into something you can use. Who’s your audience? What do you want to be known for? Which handful of themes will you keep coming back to, and how do you sound? Get this right and you’ll never again have to explain yourself from scratch to every photographer, designer or copywriter you hire. It’s the heart of brand design.
Then comes the look that sits alongside the message. That covers colours and type, a logo or wordmark if you need one, and a photographic style. With a personal brand, your own face usually counts for more than any logo.
This is the photography and video. Then there’s copy, plus graphics. Some agencies make all of it in-house. Others plan it and bring in freelancers. A few only do strategy and leave the making to you.
A brand needs somewhere people can find it. Normally that’s a personal brand website you own, plus one or two social platforms where your audience already hangs out.
Last comes the weekly grind of planning and writing content, then publishing it before reporting on how it did, sometimes with ads running behind the posts that do best. People underestimate this part. Yet consistency is what makes a brand stick. It’s exactly why so many agencies sell social media management as a monthly service.
| Type of agency | Main focus | What it usually doesn’t do |
|---|---|---|
| Personal branding agency | Your story, image and content, across channels you control | Varies: some skip production, some skip websites |
| PR agency | Coverage in media you don’t control: press, podcasts, awards | Day-to-day content, websites, photography |
| Marketing or digital agency | Selling a company’s products or services | Building the profile of an individual |
| Single-medium supplier | One thing done well: photos, film, web or social | Joining the pieces into one consistent brand |
In real life the lines blur. Lots of PR firms now make social content, and lots of web studios sell branding. So ignore the label. Look at what they actually make, and ask whether it fits what you need.
Read how UK agencies describe themselves and most land in one of four camps:
No camp is better in the abstract. If you’re a B2B founder who only cares about LinkedIn, a specialist might suit you perfectly. If you’re an author or speaker who needs photos and a showreel as well as a website and social media, one team doing the lot can save you an awful lot of chasing and coordinating between suppliers.
A few things should make you walk away.
You probably need help if:
You probably don’t need one yet if:
To get a feel for what each piece costs, read how much personal branding costs in the UK. Comparing agencies? Our 12 questions to ask a personal branding agency will help.
At first it’s mostly talk. You’ll have a few conversations and field some questions that feel quite personal. Then you’ll get a written summary of who you are and what you want to be known for. Before any creative work starts, you should see a clear scope and fee.
After that come the shoots and the build. Expect a day or two of photography or filming. Draft web pages follow, with a first batch of content. You review all of it and comment. Once everything’s live, a good agency takes on the routine work and checks in with you often enough that your part shrinks to approving content and turning up for the odd shoot.
We started out as the team behind bestselling author Jack Cartwright’s own brand. We ran his social media and videos for him. We also made his ads and book covers and built his website, so he could get on with writing. Now we do the same for founders and authors, for speakers, for creatives, for business owners of all kinds. One team handles brand design and websites. The same people do photography and film, plus social media. Start a conversation and we’ll talk it through, then agree a brief and scope with you, plus a fee, before any work begins.
Yes, when your reputation brings in work directly and you lack the time or confidence to build it yourself. It isn’t worth it while your offer is still fuzzy, or if you like making content and can keep it up. Before you pay anyone, be clear about what you want to change.
Expect the foundations to take weeks. That means positioning and photography plus a website, and the timing depends on scope and how fast you can review work. Visibility and trust take months of consistent content to build. Be wary of anyone promising quick results.
Not necessarily. Your face and voice are still usually the most persuasive part of a personal brand. A good agency starts with whatever you’re comfortable with, such as still photos or written posts, and helps you build from there.
Often, yes. Many agencies write and schedule posts on your behalf. Agree a tone of voice and an approval process first, so nothing goes out that you wouldn’t say yourself.
Personal branding is mostly building: making the content and presence that show who you are. Reputation management usually means dealing with problems, like negative reviews or bad coverage. Some agencies do both. They’re different skills.
A plain breakdown of what each part of a personal brand costs in the UK, what drives the price, and where you can save.
Twelve questions to ask any personal branding agency before you sign, what good answers sound like, and the red flags to watch for.
A sensible order for building a personal brand, from your message to your ads, so each step makes the next one easier and cheaper.
Four quick questions, and we’ll show you where we’d start. Your answers come straight to us with your message, so you won’t have to explain it twice.
A 30-minute introduction call on Microsoft Teams, Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm. Your answers come with the booking, so we’ll be ready for you.
Prefer to talk it through? Make an appointment for a 30-minute call on Microsoft Teams, Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm.
A closer look at the work behind each part of your plan.
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