There are some great posts lined up for this week, so I really hope that you read and love on each and every one of them. For my post, however, I’m touching on three elements of your brand and checking off ways to improve them. This way you can better work on answering the following question:
How is your brand going to engage and inspire?
Now, I’m far from being the best example of perfected branding, but in reality, it’s because sometimes it takes the time that I haven’t had between nursing school and starting my job. But I’m learning a few things about how to perfect and market your brand with just a few minutes a day. Once you have a few of these elements set up, it can be quite quick to continue to promote your brand.
There are so many great tools and even more great resources, including all the posts that will be scheduled this week during #WeDo. You already know why branding is important, though.
Branding is the representation of you and your product/business.
Branding is what connects your readers to you, not necessarily the other way around. Being an identifiable brand whether it’s your main page, your Twitter account, your blog, or your email communication, is all customer service and marketing.
With that being said, here is a little checklist of things to consider when it comes to you and your brand.
So let’s talk about your design.
I list that it needs to be clean, consistent, have a logo, include well-lit pictures, be attractive, be responsive, and have a few key easy-to-find information. I’m going to use a blogger friend of mine as an example throughout this post. Her name is Rekita and she is the blogger behind Her & Nicole and the business owner of Rekita Nicole Designs. Let’s take a look:
Your voice is the most definable feature of your brand.
The voice is most characteristic of your writing style, language, and content. At the same time, it can also be expressed through your design, layout, and the colors that you choose. It’s letting your personality through and this is incredibly important because it is key that your audience, clients (and future!), and readers have a sense of who you are as both a brand and a person. Some shops can get away without having a personality behind the shop because their products sell just as is, but the brands and shops that really excel also know how to market themselves and that means having a voice.
Most of you reading this establish a voice through their blog.
In the checklist, I list the following: making sure your voice is really you because readers can tell, continuing on with the consistency that will identify you and your brand, being clear in your communication and your message, building emotional connects whether it be via your blog post and the comments or social media, and continue to keep in mind why you are unique.
Lastly, social media presence is required in today’s world.
Looking back at Rekita (or any major brand or blogger), her social media is just an extension of her blog and business and therefore her branding continues to flow. Whether it be Twitter, Pinterest, or email communication, she has an identity that branches and matches the focal point of her brand (her business and it’s the main web page).
The most important thing with social media is it’s a quick way to communicate with others, so there is almost no excuse to not engage with your followers. Especially, since there are services such as Buffer that can help you schedule Tweets and Facebook posts on days when you know you might be a little too busy.
You may or may not know this about me but I love the world inspire. It is beautiful and I think as bloggers and brands we have the talking stick in our hands and we need to decide how we are going to use it. With that, I like to think about inspiring others to want to make positive changes in their life. As a brand or business, you’re inspiring to do just that… but with your products. So how will you inspire them? I recommend a mixture of self-promotion and others-promotion. When a brand recognizes a great story, person, product and wants to share it with the world regardless of if it is theirs or not is wonderful. And a must-follow brand if I do say so myself.
So now what?
I’ve quickly gone over key elements of your brand. Setting up a good design, in the beginning, means your work is mostly finished. Defining your voice and your brand is about quality over quantity whether it be your blogs posts, the images you post on Instagram, or simply ensuring you have great products. But, then, the unique 21st-century factor is using your social media for good. And using it to reach out to others by just saying hello, promoting your brand, posting something inspiring, or starting a conversation.
Remember, stay tuned to all the #WeDo posts this week and send some love to the talented ladies lending their knowledge.
Annie from The Ranting Latina – Building Traffic & What Will Sell
Alisha from The Alisha Nicole – Getting Started with Online Business/Shop
Amanda from Effervescence Media – Maximizing with Pinterest
Amberly from Life with Amberly and Joe – Building a Brand
