I always recommend doing yearly, quarterly, and even monthly check-ins when building your author brand. These check-ins keep you focused and motivated to continue growing your platform and they keep you on track.
I’ve written about yearly check-ins and quarterly check-ins before, and I update those posts from time to time. But I wanted to write an entirely new post to refocus on these important check-ins. Below, I’ll explain why these check-ins are important and what you can check in on and when. This can be your guide for moving into a new season and beyond.
Build Your Author Brand Right from the Beginning and Circle Back Yearly
This year I wrote a whole series of posts on creating the foundation of your author brand and I’ll link those below. These first steps are crucial to building your author brand in an authentic and sustainable way. If you don’t feel like you have a solid foundation, start from the beginning again. Then check in on your foundation every year.
Your brand is all about who you are at the core, what motivates and inspires you, and why you do what you do. Because without a clear vision, it’s easy to get lost along the way.
But checking in on these essential aspects while building your brand can motivate you to get back to your roots. This can be done yearly to make sure you’re still heading in the direction you planned on in the beginning. It can even allow you to refocus if needed.
I highly recommend reading the posts linked below and taking part in the exercises included. Don’t worry, this foundational part of the process is usually fun and it will bring a lot of insight. These posts cover:
- Core values
- Author mission statements
- Brand messaging strategy
You can read about uncovering your core values here.
Find out how to create an author mission statement here.
Learn how to create an authentic and powerful messaging strategy for your author brand here.
Other Yearly Brand Check-In Items to Know
Building your author brand leads to growth and expanding your platform. So, it’s a good idea to check in yearly on your big picture goals. These are the goals that you consider big wins. For instance, is there something on your list that you keep putting off? Does it seem out of reach now? If that’s the case, refocus and create a roadmap for getting there.
You can begin taking the steps towards these goals now. This is why monthly and quarterly check-ins are important too. These check-ins keep you motivated and on track. They allow you to figure out the missing pieces that may be keeping you from achieving your bigger goals.
You can check in on these things yearly:
- Are there any courses coming up you’d like to take?
- Speakers you want to see?
- Conferences you want to attend?
- Do you want to land your first speaking gig at a specific conference?
- Will you submit your newly published book for an award?
- Is there a timely course you’d like to put together and teach?
- Are there goals you missed this year you can carry into next year?
- Maybe you just want to be more organized?
- Or set multiple, smaller and short term goals?
All these types of goals are short term and time specific, yet they bring long term results and benefits, so prioritize them while building your author brand.
You can also find my full evergreen list of yearly check-ins here.
Quarterly Check-Ins Ensure You’re Building Your Author Brand at a Steady Pace
Your yearly checkins are a time to reflect and to congratulate yourself on all you HAVE achieved. They can also be a time to analyse what is working and what isn’t. But it’s the quarterly check-ins that keep things from going off the rails before you even realize it.
You can think of this as something you do every three months on whatever schedule works for you of course. But doing it seasonally (like right now) is a great time!
Do these things quarterly:
- Audit your website content and update where necessary—don’t let your content grow stale!
- Check in on your resources and the newsletters you subscribe to to make sure you’re still getting something from them and they’re still relevant.
- Google yourself! Is everything looking good? Is there incorrect information out there?
- Update your online profiles if necessary—this includes polishing your bios and updating information.
- Make sure you still love your headshot! Start planning to get a new one if needed.
- See if there are any upcoming deadlines for awards, contests, or submissions and make a list or spreadsheet of those you want to apply to. These things are happening all the time, so each time you see a new one, add it to your list!
You can find my evergreen list of book awards here.
Staying Motivated is Key to Maintaining a Successful Brand
Staying motivated is a big factor in building a successful author brand. One way to do that is to keep track of your influencers. This can inspire you and remind you where you want to be. So can doing these quarterly check-ins as you’re building your author brand! Otherwise it can feel like you’re flailing and you can lose your focus.
These check-in items will keep you motivated:
- Check the websites of your top three influencers. Create an actionable list of things you can do to compete at their level.
- Note any conferences they will speak at, or have spoken at. Do you want to speak there too?
- Who is endorsing them? Do these people align with your values and mission?
- Have they published a book recently? How is it doing? How are they marketing it?
- Where have they contributed content to recently? Is this somewhere you could contribute?
- What podcasts have they appeared on? Listen to these podcasts and see if they are a fit for you.
- Have they done any rebranding or website overhauls recently? Do you need to consider these updates yourself?
Whether you do these check-ins seasonally or every ninety days, they will be easier and you’ll get more out of them if you also follow a monthly check-in schedule. I’ll cover that below.
While Building Your Author Brand Monthly Check-Ins Keep You on Task
If you have goals(of course you do) it’s essential to stay motivated and it helps tremendously to stay organized. Checking in on where you’re at with your goals and holding yourself to task on a monthly basis can help you achieve them.
Remember, these monthly check-ins are what really keep you on top of your goals. And, of course, staying on top of a daily routine and being focused and organized will help keep you on top of these monthly goals. Likewise, your monthly check-ins make your quarterly check-ins go more smoothly.
Does this sound like a lot? Well, the good news is, making goals and checking in on them as you’re building your author brand becomes routine eventually. It all becomes part of your schedule. And I’m not saying these check-ins need to be an all day event. Simply set aside 20-40 minutes and have this list handy.
These are the Things You Can Do Monthly to Keep Your Eyes on the Prize
Below are all the things you can do monthly as part of building your author brand. Then, of course, do your check-in every thirty days to ensure you’re staying on track. You can do this check-in at the beginning or end of the month, or on a thirty day cycle if you prefer.
- Create content when you have time and schedule it for the coming week/s (videos, podcasts, blogs, articles to contribute).
- Analyze your social engagement. Do you see any oddities or patterns? How can you improve your engagement?
- Browse through rights-free images and develop a bank of cool images for future use.
- Write reviews for other books in your genre (on Amazon and GoodReads) and reach out to authors to network with.
- Read at least one influencer blog or article. Is there something you can offer this person that they might find valuable? Is there potential to collaborate and join forces? Take notes and catalog for future use. Turn these ideas into actionable items by giving yourself a deadline and setting calendar alerts.
- Write one new article or piece of content to contribute. Even if you don’t publish it somewhere, you will have it in your content bank for future opportunities. You can update it as needed when an opportunity arises.
- Take a quick peek at your website analytics and site health and update and/or remove old plug-ins. If you find this sort of thing terrifying, you hire help for this part, but most website platforms make it pretty easy.
Building Your Author Brand is All About the Baby Steps (and staying organized)
I made these lists because I suggest these regular check-ins to my clients, and having this handy makes the process that much easier. It shouldn’t feel like an endless slog. But building your author brand is all about the baby steps and staying consistent. You don’t have to do it all at once, but checking in allows you to hold yourself accountable and keeps you on track for reaching your bigger goals. When you’re organized, it’s all that much easier.
Now, I’m a spreadsheet person but I realize not everyone is. But I like being able to keep things organized and on track and they help me do that. You can use whatever tools help keep you organized. Make lists if you want to. It’s just important to stay organized in some way because chaos can be derailing.
I wrote some posts on getting and staying organized and I’ve also created some lists of helpful tools to assist you in that endeavor. I encourage you to check out those posts and I’ve linked them below.
Here are some tips for staying on top of content creation.
Read my list of tools for authors that help you stay focused and organized.
This post is about building your brand and the opportunities offered in the digital landscape.
Overall, if you have a solid foundation (core values, a missions statement, etc.) and you put in consistent time and effort as you’re building your brand, your platform will grow. Real success will come by holding yourself to task, and that requires regular check-ins. Think of these check-ins as you would any other maintenance routine and work them into your schedule at your convenience. Then, before you know it, it will become a habit.
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