Why You Need a Brand as a Blogger (Plus How to Create One!)
Hi friends! I’m excited to invite Polina from The Loom Creative to the blog today to share more about building a brand as a blogger and tips on how you can do so!
If you’ve been blogging for a while, you’re probably familiar with the idea of branding your blog. Yes, branding is no longer reserved for big corporations like Coca Cola and Nike. In fact, every single business needs branding, no matter how small it is.
Blogs also fall in this category. Even if you haven’t thought about turning your blog into a business yet, a brand will help grow its audience and community.
Without further ado, here are three reasons why you need branding as a blogger.
1. To stand out
There’s literally millions of blogs on the internet. I personally have read hundreds (if not thousands) of blogs. But if you ask me right now, I can only recall about 20 of those. I’ve quickly forgotten the rest because they look and sound…well…just too similar to each other.
I see many people jump into blogging by setting up a simple WordPress or Blogger account, using a basic template, and just writing posts. Unfortunately, this is the easiest way to blend in with the crowd and make sure your blog goes unnoticed.
The harsh truth is—it’s hard to make your blog stand out JUST by writing great content. You can put the most awesome content in the world in a blank blog with a basic theme, and most people will skip right over it, just because it looks like every other blog on the Internet.
If you want your blog to grow, attract readers, and maybe even turn into a business someday, it needs to stand out. It needs to have elements that make it different from the rest: a unique color palette, font combinations, logo, patterns… In short, a unique vibe.
That’s exactly what branding is. It’s about infusing the little details of your blog (or business) with personality to make them unique. It makes people feel a certain way when they visit your website, a feeling that no other website can give them.
Related Post: What is a Brand Board and How to Create One
2. To build trust
Building trust is one of the most powerful aspects of branding. Brand trust is especially important for bloggers. To our audience, we are only words and images on a website. We need them to trust that we are a real person, and that coming back to our blog is worth their time.
What happens when your audience trusts you?
– They listen to (read) what you say and don’t question it
– They look forward to your posts
– They want to purchase your products and/or services
– They feel GOOD consuming your content.
Sounds good, no? I think we can agree that we all want these things as bloggers.
So, how does one build trust?
- Consistent branding. Trust is all about being consistent. For example, if people see one logo on your website, but a totally different logo on your Instagram, they might wonder if it’s the same person doing it, and that can lower their trust in your brand. On the other hand, if you have the same logo throughout your website and all your social media, BAM – bonus brand trust points for you! Same goes for colors, fonts, and any designs that you use.
- Punctual posting. If someone sees you posting every Tuesday, she trust that she’ll come back the next Tuesday and there will be a post. If there isn’t, she’ll feel disappointed… and her trust will go down.
- Keep your promises. That includes the response time you specified on your contact page, client deadlines (if you do services), etc. The more serious you are about those, the more your brand trust will grow!
- Transparency. Have you noticed the recent trend of bloggers posting their income online? That’s a powerful way to build brand trust. The more transparent you are about what you do and how you do it, the more people will trust you. Share behind-the-scenes info, your blog post writing process, how you do work on client projects, etc.
- Backstory. Sharing your story makes you vulnerable, and also proves that you are human. Include unique experiences and struggles in your story, so that people can relate to you. For example, Melyssa Griffin often mentions that she used to be an expat in Japan – that makes me relate to her, since I’m expat too!
3. To streamline
Having a brand makes a lot of things easier:
– You don’t need to design a new image every time you write a new blog post: you have pre-made templates where you only need to change the text and/or photo.
– You don’t need to fool around with fonts and colors anymore: you have a color palette and a selection of fonts to refer to.
– Writing blog posts is faster: you already know your tone of voice and the structure of your posts.
– You have all your marketing materials ready and at hand.
– When working with a designer or a virtual assistant, you can easily send them your brand guide and templates.
[bctt tweet=”Branding your blog comes with many benefits! Especially having a streamlined vision + online presence!” username=”GinaAlyse”]
Alright, I’m convinced! How do I create a brand?
High five! Branding is actually SUPER fun. To start off, you need to create something called… A brand guide. This is a very useful little file that keeps all the information about your brand, so that you can always refer to it.
Here’s what you’ll include in your brand guide:
- Brand values
- Brand personality
- Mission statement
- Ideal reader description
- Tone of voice
- Moodboard / Inspiration
- Colors
- Fonts
- Logo + logo variations
- Patterns
- Icons
- Photo guidelines
- Image templates (blog post, social media….)
To help you out, I’ve made a workbook that you can use to create your own brand! It includes additional info on all items described above.
Why do you think it’s important to build a brand as a blogger?