How to do a freelance rebrand

And Terri White appears on the podcast!

Aug 10, 2022

Insurance for Journalists is the only insurance designed by journalists for journalists.
They cover all members of the media anywhere in the world, including areas of war (declared or undeclared), rebellion, civil war, and terrorism.
Coverage includes accidental death and disablement, sickness and accident medical bills, medical evacuation and repatriation to your home country*
Get a quote in seconds: https://insuranceforjournalists.com
Get a quote

Branding is a vital component of freelance journalism but it isn't always obvious how to brand yourself. This week FFJ founder Lily Canter discusses her recent rebrand and how her freelance career has evolved over time.

"You are the brand." These are the words that stuck with me the most when I saw a career coach. I was contemplating leaving my full time job to go freelance but I was worried that I didn't have a particular niche. I didn't know how to brand myself. So I decided to go with these words of wisdom and take a generalist approach (Laura Cooke also spoke about this approach in a previous newsletter).

But I still wanted something to put on my email signature and social profiles so I toyed with a few different phrases. ‘Family and consumer affairs’, ‘health and family matters’, ‘personal finance’, ‘money and consumer issues’, all featured on my branding until I eventually settled with ‘money, health and lifestyle’. This worked really well for me for around five years and meant I had a varied client base writing about personal finance for the likes of Metro, loveMONEY and the Guardian, whilst writing about health and lifestyle for Vegan Living, the South China Morning Post and more recently Runner's World.

But I have always had a nagging feeling that I didn't quite fit into any one camp. When I was shortlisted for the freelance journalist of the year at the Headline Money Awards in 2021 I felt like an imposter. I chatted to an editor about this at the awards bash and she responded with 'no! it's amazing that you can do so many different things,' and so I carried on.

But over the past year I have made a concerted effort to build up contacts in the running press and with online publishers who focus on fitness. This has really complemented my side hustle as a running coach. But I have still been writing about money matters and health issues.

And then a few weeks ago I had a brainwave. What if I simply pivoted to running and fitness as my brand? I had enough steady work from these types of publishers and I could see opportunities to build these further. I also work part-time as a journalism lecturer but most of the students I teach are now on sports journalism courses rather than straight journalism, so being a freelance running and fitness journalist would also fit neatly with my one day a week of lecturing.

It may be a midlife crisis but at the moment I identify myself as 1. a runner and 2. a journalist. I plan my work around my running training schedule rather than vice versa. It suddenly made sense to rebrand and all it took was half an hour.

The rebrand

I started with my email signature and stripped out all the links to money and health stories and hyperlinked to running and fitness stories instead. I changed my title from freelance money, health and lifestyle journalist to freelance journalist specialising in running and fitness. I included my UK Athletics coaching qualification as this was now relevant and I listed the fact that I am founder of my own running group. I also mentioned teaching on BA Sports Journalism. Suddenly all the random different things that I do came together and didn't seem so random anymore.

I then did the same on my Twitter and LinkedIn and changed the photos to running pictures rather than a standard head and shoulders. My Instagram account has always been dedicated to running so that didn't need touching.

My website has always been broad as it covers journalism, teaching, Freelancing for Journalists and my academic publishing, so I left this alone. I deliberately had it designed so it was flexible and reflected the different strings to my bow so I didn't need to keep changing it as my work evolves.

The future

I now have my work for the next month planned out and it is all running and fitness focused except for one first person piece on food shopping bills. Although I have pivoted my focus it doesn't mean I can't still write some health or money content for existing clients if I want to. But it does mean that if I approach new editors or specific PRs in the running and fitness field my branding will be much stronger and clearer.

And it is already working. People are contacting me about running related stories and product testing running gear. And these are people I want to hear from. By comparison in money journalism you get a huge amount of bilge. I receive 50+ emails a day about spurious surveys, tangential money related apps and all sorts of other nonsense PR. It is so refreshing to be able to email back and say 'I no longer specialise in personal finance.' Running PR seems to be far more niche and focused and there is less of it which makes for a lighter inbox.

I quite honestly feel like a weight has been lifted. But that doesn't make it permanent. There is no reason why I can't rebrand again in a few years time when I want to focus on something else. Because that is the beauty of freelancing.

What’s coming up

We are soooooo excited about the last episode in our summer reads podcast series. We got all gushy and spoke to our journalism idol Terri White about her memoir Coming Undone. It is a really poignant, powerful and practical episode and Terri gives oodles of insight into the publishing world. She also speaks about journalism and class and how she is adjusting to freelance life. Don’t miss it!

Listen here