Why I Recommend Personal Branding for Online Business Owners
If you’ve landed on this post, it’s probably because you’ve found yourself asking something like: “Should I use my name for my online business, or would a separate brand name be better?” If you’ve been struggling with this decision — or if you’re feeling limited by the choice you made when you first started out — this post is for you.
As with most things in online business, the answer is: it depends. And in this post, we’re going to unpack it together.
And, if you’d rather listen, I’ve covered this topic in more detail on the latest episode of the Connect + Create podcast - listen below, or add the show to your favorite podcast app to get notified when I release a new episode!
Personal branding vs. non-personal branding… what’s the difference?
If you’ve been in online business for any length of time, you’ve probably seen plenty of advice pushing personal branding for online business owners. But what does that even mean, really?
Personal Branding is when your business is basically… you. Or at least, a curated version of you. And you use this curated version of yourself to directly connect with your audience. Even if your business doesn’t carry your name, you can still be running a personal brand in practice. If you feature heavily in all your content, marketing, and the delivery of your products or services, then you’re probably operating as a personal brand. You’re the face of it, and everything revolves around your personal skills, knowledge, and presence.
Alternatively, Non-Personal Branding is more about creating a business identity that stands on its own, Separate from yourself. Even if it’s still operating on your skills or knowledge, you as a person are a bit more Separate from it. The name of the business is probably not your personal name, and the reason people buy or engage is less about the connection they’ve built with you and more about your product or service. This is common for agency style businesses, or even product based businesses where people don’t necessarily care who the person behind the business is, so long as the product will solve their problem.
Now, here’s the thing: I do generally lean toward recommending personal branding for most online business owners — especially if you’re a coach, course creator, digital product designer, or service provider. But before you rush off to plaster your name all over everything, there are a few more things to consider.
What makes personal branding such a good fit for online business?
At the time of writing this post, I’ve spent the last 9 years working directly with online business owners on both branding projects, strategy, and also their day to day design needs. In that time, it’s become clear to me that there are certain characteristics of the way that online, creator style businesses operate that call for a certain approach to branding that other small business types don’t necessarily need.
Things move fast online. Most online businesses have a number of digital products, programs or services that ere ever evolving and rotating through their offer suite. They develop new programs, retire old ones, combine products, offer new and improved services, and this all tends to happen rapidly, over and over again.
And the flexibility of personal branding really lends itself well to this style of business. People will always have a stronger connection with an individual over a company or organization. Putting yourself front and center as the primary touchpoint for the business allows your audience to connect primarily with you, rather than any given product or service offering. They follow your journey, trust your insights, and are more likely to stick around through the twists and turns of your business.
If you’re juggling multiple products, services, or programs, personal branding ties it all together. Instead of each offer feeling like its own thing, everything feels connected through you.
But there’s one more piece of the puzzle that I’ve found to be the most effective approach, both for making that connection with your audience, and for keeping things simple and streamlined on the back end of your business. This is where the Umbrella Brand comes in.
Introducing the Umbrella Brand
An Umbrella Brand is essentially your top-level brand identity that all your products, services, and offers fall under. On a strategic level, rather than just having a series of unrelated products, services and offers, it’s more about crafting a suite of offers that operate like pieces in a puzzle or steps along a journey. It’s all about understanding how each one links to the next, and how your content marketing is working to guide people to the right product at the right time.
And then on a brand identity and design level, it looks like creating one, overarching brand design for the top level umbrella brand, and then using pieces of it to brand each offer.
Here’s why I love the Umbrella approach for online business owners:
It massively simplifies your brand visuals. Instead of creating a brand new identity every time you launch a new product, you’re pulling from your existing brand. And this isn’t just about saving time — it also boosts your brand recognition.
It’s so much easier to manage. Whether it’s just you or you’re working with a team, having a unified brand makes life so much easier. No more juggling different brand rules or design assets for each new offer — everything aligns under your umbrella brand.
It’s incredibly flexible. Want to test a new idea, quickly? No problem. With an Umbrella Brand, you can roll out new offers or tweak existing ones without starting from scratch every time, or being held up by the need to create a new identity for each product or service.
Of course, the Umbrella Brand is a guide and not a rule, so it doesn’t mean you can’t ever bring in something new. But I believe that a successful brand identity not only helps make connections on the front end with your audience, but also should make things easier for you to manage day-to-day. And in my experience, keeping things tightly consolidated under one overarching design and identity is the most effective at doing both.
But the best part is that you don’t have to be running a personal brand to also implement an Umbrella Brand. Check out the podcast episode for this post from 22:38 for an example of how we implement this approach with a non-personal brand for one of my current clients.
So… how do you decide which branding approach is right for your online business?
Even if we take the Umbrella approach, we inevitably still have to choose between a personal brand or a non-personal brand… so how do we do that?
When deciding which direction to go in, whether you’re doing this for the first time or looking to restructure your business, there are a few questions you need to ask yourself:
How integral are YOU to your business? Is your entire business model and marketing setup based on your own personal knowledge or skills? Is your major selling point or point of difference derived from something that’s unique to you or your process?
Do you ever see that changing? Do you ever see yourself stepping back either in part or entirely? Do you even want to be the face of your business or would you rather be more of a background figure?
Who’s your target market? If you’re working with solopreneurs, other small businesses, or B2C individuals, personal branding can help to build stronger connections. But if you’re aiming for larger companies or government organizations, a non-personal brand might offer more credibility.
How often do you change things up? You don’t want to box yourself in with a name or structure that will force you to re-brand your entire business or create multiple Separate businesses when you could just come up with a new product name.
Not sure if personal branding is the right fit your business and need more guidance? Grab my personal branding checklist! This quiz style checklist featuring questions on your business, future plans, and target market to help you figure it out the best fit for you.
Final Thoughts…
At the end of the day, there’s no one-size-fits-all answer. For most of you — course creators, coaches, and online service providers — a personal brand under an umbrella strategy is likely the way to go. It gives you flexibility, keeps things cohesive, and allows your audience to connect with you no matter what you’re offering.
But don’t let this decision hold you back from moving forward! Trust your intuition, and remember—you can always evolve and refine your brand as you grow.
And don’t forget to grab your free Personal Branding Checklist!
See you in the next one!
Emily Banks
