Branding Your Blog

Branding and Your Blog
Tips for Brainstorming and Brand-Building

By Patsi Krakoff

With all the chatter about how important social networking is in today’s business, for many it’s still an unknown new world to explore. However, one of the absolute easiest ways to begin social networking is to start a blog and begin sharing your thoughts, experiences, insights and expertise—and a like-minded community is sure to find you!

As an experienced writer and someone who began blogging back in 2004(!), I wanted to share what I’ve learned through both some of my mistakes and my successes.

First, having a great brand for your blog will help make your marketing efforts pay off. But finding a great brand isn’t easy. Sometimes it appears out of the blue in a flash of brilliance, but most of the time it takes careful thought and excavation to find what works for you. Your goal is to find a branding name and identity so readers can remember your blog, immediately know what problems you solve and feel confident you have something to offer them.

A good brand expresses what it is you do in a way that is beneficial and attractive to prospects. Not only does
it help that it’s memorable, concise and explanatory, it must immediately convey an emotional impact for what you can do for your readers.

An Early Success … “The Blog Squad” is one of my successes. The name clearly identifies what I do: help people solve blogging problems. There is an additional “flavor” of what a squadron is known to do: fly in and attack or fix a burning issue. It’s short and to the point and has that extra “layer” of intensive, focused action. That brand name was developed after many long sessions of brainstorming with other people.

And a Long-Lived Mistake: When I first began to use blogging as a business opportunity, I was writing web copy for business coaches, so I named my blog CoachEzines.com. And I, conscientious web-citizen that I am, domain-mapped my site so that all the pages and links would have that name. But as my business grew and evolved over time, I found that my true niche was in providing web content and blogging advice to a range of small businesses, not just coaches, but I was stuck. If I changed the name of my blog, I’d have several years of broken links to rebuild! So learn from my mistake: Think about the future of your blog and what it might grow into before you commit to a name.

Here are some of my top tips to inspire your creative branding process:

Define the purpose of your blog by thinking in terms of the values and benefits to clients.
Define your core message and make a list of keywords without selfediting or self-criticism. Review this list later and then eliminate those the least essential or focused.
Make a list of the key benefits derived from working with you or buying your products and services. What problems do you solve? What pain do you relieve? Again, make the list free-flowing without censure; you can refine it later.
Look at your own name. Are there any similarities to common words you can use?
Make a list of keywords in two columns that describe the work you do or the benefits to your clients. Then create a new word using one syllable from each of two words. Examples: The Strategenius, The Innercreator, The Speechinator, etc.
Go to imdb.com and search for movie titles and famous phrases using your keywords. Then rework a movie title to form a slogan or tagline that is relevant to your work. Example: “Go ahead, make my eBay.”
Use a cliché dictionary to find common phrases or slogans and rework them using your keywords or your name. Example: “Think outside the bun” is a cliché rework used by Taco Bell. Interesting sites to search for clichés, rhymes, anagrams and quotes are www.clichesite.com and www.dictionary.langenberg.com.
Use a music title search database for song titles and phrases and rework them for your name or business branding. Try www.songsearch.com or www.allbutforgottenoldies.net.
Use a quotations dictionary to find famous quotes you can use and rephrase. Check out www.bartleby.com, www.famous-quotations.com and www.brainyquote.com.
Use a keyword search tool to discover words that are most frequently used by your target audience to find solutions to their problems. Put yourself in the shoes of your ideal clients and try to imagine what words they would use to search for a business such as yours. Compare the popularity of variations of keyword phrases. This will help you find out which words are most relevant to your business. Go to www.freekeywords.wordtracker.com.
Check your client testimonials and find common words or themes; this will reveal how your clients “see” you. Focus on benefit statements. What words keep coming up?
Identify the words your clients often use when thanking you, or for helping to solve their problem. Then check out each word at visualthesaurus.com for another way of saying the same thing. Use these client buzzwords and sentiments when writing sales copy, presentations, websites and blogs to reinforce your brand.
Identify all the activities you enjoy doing outside your business. How can these other parts of your life help you shape a more unique identity for your business?
Identify three brands you admire and write down all the reasons that draw you to that brand. Then look more closely at your personal brand to see how you can incorporate those “admirable” elements into your business.
Think back to the last small purchase you made and then think back to the last large purchase you made. What were the “driving benefits” for you that motivated you in each case to spend your hardearned money? Identify the aspects of these purchases that got you to spend money and use them to focus on the values of your brand.
Do a Google search for your keywords to find out how others are branding themselves around your “themes.“ Then strive to make your brand unique and distinctive within this group.
Set up Google Alerts for keywords in your field. This will help you monitor your competitors’ sites and keep you informed of what’s going on in your field.
Keep Your Focus: Once you determine your brand name, tagline, messaging, etc., there are two additional simple tips to help you begin to build and reinforce the identity you worked so hard to create.
Be consistent. Always identify yourself the same way on your business card, your email signature, any blog comments you post elsewhere, “about” pages on your blog, etc.
Review all your visual materials. Are they consistent with the brand you are establishing? What does your photo say about you? What do the colors and other graphic images on your website, blog or business card say about you and your business? Ask trusted clients or colleagues to give you an honest assessment of their reaction to the “look” of your brand.

Too much? Mostly, it’s a question of starting and getting into action. Think things through, but get started. You’ll learn a lot as you go. Better to be building your brand while you learn than not to get started at all. I may have made mistakes along the way, but I’ve also learned so much. Get going and get branded!

Patsi Krakoff, Psy.D., is a co-founder of The Blog Squad, a Doctor of Psychology and specializes in web based content marketing for small businesses, including articles, newsletters, blogs, ebooks, white papers and ezines.

CLOSER LOOK

Patsi Krakoff
Writing on the Web
www.CoachEzines.com