If athletes want to build a successful career in the long run, they need to create charisma around their personality. Through powerful athlete branding, they can appeal to the target audience and bring new opportunities on and off the field.
It’s an influential personal branding that has made Michael Jordan’s net worth $3.2B today. A cultural icon, Michael Jordan has had phenomenal success on and off the court. His legacy helped him build a successful Air Jordan brand that became a symbol of excellence.
Another basketball champ, LeBron James, successfully set his brand for life, helping him generate revenue even off the court. Ronda Rousey created an impactful brand that gives her massive opportunities even outside of UFC. Ultimately, an athlete’s playing career ends, but the athlete brand keeps bringing opportunities.
You can help new athletes to build an influential brand. All you need to do is implement effective branding strategies to make an impactful brand for an athlete to last their legacy. In this guide, we will walk you through the best strategies to apply for effective athlete branding.
What is athlete branding?
Athlete branding is the process of building and maintaining a positive public image while highlighting your personality and abilities. It’s all about establishing a unique identity that connects with fans and, of course, potential sponsors. This makes an athlete a valuable asset and boosts its success over time.
Importance of personal branding for athletes
- Differentiate you: Every athlete is unique and has its own story and style to tell the target audience, and branding takes the athlete from the typical “athlete” image and makes them a memorable brand. Personal branding differentiates athletes from peers, boosts their online visibility, and takes profitable prospects to their way beyond sports excellence.
- Extend career opportunities: It expands athlete influence and helps them make a lasting impact on the target group even after their retirement. They can transition to entrepreneurs, commentators, coaches, or ambassadors for social causes to keep winning.
- Build meaningful relationships with fans: Through athlete branding, athlete supporters can better understand and connect deeper with their values. This eventually creates an athlete’s positive perception and builds loyal fans. Meanwhile, the fans admire athlete sports journey and love their personalities and lifestyles.
How to build your athlete brand
By developing an athlete brand while maintaining an image, athletes can manage controversies and public relations. Athletes who have built successful brands set themselves apart by defining their unique value and using social media to create engaging content that earns them collaboration and endorsements.
Here are the best strategies that branding professionals can follow to build an influential athlete brand.
1. Specify your values and set your goals.
Athlete brands should reflect who they are and where they want to be. So, to begin personal branding, first, find out their vision, values, passion, and goals. Knowing what they stand for genuinely helps construct strong connections with their fans, as everyone loves authenticity.
Figure out why they want to create an athlete brand. Need to establish their athletic persona? Crave media coverage? Or appeal to potential sponsors? In this way, you can focus on their primary goal to build a brand, though they can get all through athlete branding.
But be honest and authentic when shaping the athlete’s brand. This way, you create a unique value proposition that differentiates athletes from other sportsmen.
2. Create a Brand Strategy.
Brands aren’t built randomly but strategically with the right approach to target the ideal supporters. Create a complete strategy that maps out the athlete’s target audience, goals, visuals, unique messages they want to convey, and marketing platforms. This brand strategy guide will help you consistently market athletes to potential partners.
3. Define your brand identity.
Design athlete profile picture, website logo, brand colors, and unique tone and voice. Then, use these brand identity elements consistently on all social media platforms. So, whenever an athlete’s ideal supporter browses their media, they instantly recognize them in the blink of an eye.
4. Share relevant and captivating content.
Regarding content, create a bundle of stories ready to post on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. And don’t worry—you don’t have to create different content for different social media apps. You can freely repurpose the content on each platform to reach a wider audience. And don’t be afraid to share rich media—photos, videos, audio, and links—to diversify athlete social profiles.
In addition, starting a YouTube channel, podcast, or sports blog would help athletes build credibility and foster engagement with supporters. In the meantime, give their audience time to consume content before posting another story or post after post. Also, posting less can make athletes easily forgettable, so you need to find the right balance and be coherent.
5. Track your social metrics.
You can track athletes’ social media analytics to determine the target audience’s engagement time. And review which platform they use more often, whether they reach athletes through websites or social media apps. Further, analyzing the other metrics to check which type of content is performing best can help you tweak and improve an athlete’s brand.
6. Collaborate with brands.
Once you achieve enough followers, seek partnerships with brands that resonate with their values and brand image. The sports community will also notice athlete and brands want to endorse their products. These collaborations and endorsements boost athlete credibility and bring an extra revenue stream.
3 successful athletes with strong personal brands
Take these influential athlete branding examples to get inspiration to build an athlete brand.
1. Cristiano Ronaldo
Cristiano Ronaldo, the greatest soccer player of all time, successfully built his brand on social media. Besides his exceptional performance in the field, Ronaldo’s branding team leverages the power of social media. His branding makes him the most followed individual on social media to date.
He recently hit 1 billion followers on all social media platforms, including Instagram, with 640 million followers alone. Ronaldo shares his life on and off the field and meets the curiosity of his fans with posts about his private life to connect with his audience on a deeper level. Apart from endorsing top-line sports brands like Nike Tag Heuer and Herbalife, he sells his CR7 brand products, including watches, fragrances, and eyewear.
2. LeBron James
LeBron James’ branding team laid a foundation for athletes on how to build a brand when the big-name Michael Jordan is already thriving in the sports industry. While LeBron learned early that if he doesn’t tell his own story, the media will. They shape his positive perception and position him as a hometown hero.
His messaging across social media resonates with basketball fans all over the globe. Through his brand, LeBron James shows his values and advocates social justice. King James’ brand built around inclusivity, empowerment, and social activism, which makes him a great leader. Meanwhile, he wins endorsements from big brands, including Nike and Coca-Cola.
3. Serena Williams
Serena Williams is an incredible example of an athlete becoming an entrepreneur. She sets out her Wyn Beuty brand using her influential personal brand. Serena’s brand has a personal touch and shares her motherhood, which connects her audience emotionally.
She uses her platform to speak on critical issues like racial justice, gender equality, and body positivity that align her brand with empowerment.
Bottom Line
You can create the next influential athlete brand on social media and attract endorsements. Never doubt yourself. Just put in the work to build your athlete brand strategically.
Every athlete has a different story; find out their story to position them uniquely. Make them stand out in the sports industry and secure vast opportunities now and after signing off from the playing field.
Discussion about this post