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Have you thought of branding your blog or business?
Branding is giving your blog or business a unique identity. It’s about doing something that makes your blog or business different from the others in the same field, and makes yours stand out.
You may come up with many creative branding ideas for your blog or business to become special, popular, and desired.
The business directory defines branding as “The process involved in creating a unique name and image for a product in the consumers’ mind, mainly through advertising campaigns with a consistent theme. Branding aims to establish a significant and differentiated presence in the market that attracts and retains loyal customers.”
So, what creative ideas do you have for branding your blog or business?
Branding Ideas for Your Blog and Business
The two things that come to mind as soon as you hear the term branding is a unique name and image, as stated in the branding definition above.
You knew it beforehand, but did you create a unique name and image for your blog or business? If not, then don’t wait for Christmas, do it now!
Here are the two most important branding ideas for your blog and business.
Brand Name
Nike and Adidas are brand names. You do not even need to think about what they mean or represent – it’s sort of eternally embedded in your mind.
These names are so popular and desirous globally that they have become objects of pride.
Do you know of any blog that has a unique identity by virtue of its name? Problogger, Copyblogger, Huffington Post, Entrepreneur, and so on.
You must have observed that branding happens over time. No name becomes famous on its own – it needs to be marketed.
The popular blogs I mentioned were able to niche out a special place by virtue of their content. They also kept marketing their blogs to reach the iconic status that they have presently.
Of course, only marketing does not work because you need to complement the branding with compelling content in case of blogs, and qualitative product or service in case of a business.
The name of our blog Aha!NOW was not created as a brand, but it became one with time because of its worth.
“Define what your brand stands for, its core values and tone of voice, and then communicate consistently in those terms.” ~ Simon Mainwaring
Brand Image
Your logo is the brand image. Coca-Cola is a brand name with a unique brand image, which doesn’t have to speak any words because it is so hard-wired in our brain.
Does Pepsi trigger thirst or your thirst gets associated with Pepsi? That’s the power of branding.
Creative branding ideas create permanent neural networks in your brain resulting in automatic and instant associations.
Your brand image needs to be marketed at every possible event and place that is directly connected with your target clients or customers.
You can even improve your brand image or logo over time as Coca-Cola and Pepsi have done.
At Aha!NOW, we also developed our blog logo and have come up with a simplified version. Take a look!
Could you think of more branding ideas for your blog or business? Let me help you by suggesting some.
Brand Marketing
Once you have your brand name and logo ready, you don’t just sit over it. You’ve to let the whole world know about it.
Even if not the whole world (that’s just a figure of speech 🙂 ), at least, you need to spread the word and the image to the ones who are important to your blog or business.
You need to develop a branding strategy and creatively think of ways to market your brand. How you market your branding ideas is the key to your brand success.
Branding companies help you in branding and marketing in more ways you can think of. It’s just a matter of how creative you can get.
Have you thought of getting your brand name and logo on your pen, letter pad, visiting cards, t-shirts, bags, calendars, key chains, stickers, and what else?
I’m sure you can think of more ways to market your brand like backpacks, mugs, clocks, coasters, mouse pads, plastic bags and what not.
Promotional merchandise helps greatly in enhancing and marketing your brand.
Can you think of more creative branding ideas? I’d like you to share in the comments.
Branding Your Blog
If you have a blog, you may find that not all these branding ideas work for you because your clientele or audience is mostly online.
You may think of branding your blog with a tagline, design, color scheme, and header, besides the blog logo.
That’s not all, even your writing style, your comments, and your personal profile image can be creative ideas to brand your blog.
Don’t believe it, then look at Harleena Singh (I’m sorry if it sounds like I’m promoting her but what I’m stating are facts that can help you as a blogger) – her comments and commenting style is well-known.
She got a tag of “Commenting Queen”, and as a result she got tens of mentions on other blogs and questions on this particular branding in many interviews that she gave.
This is personal branding, which is a part of your blog branding. Learn more from Donna’s post, on how to brand yourself.
Online brand marketing ideas
There are more creative ideas to brand your blog or business and market the hell out of it!
This post gives you almost all the creative branding ideas you can get under the sun.
Do you have a home-based business blog? Read this post to get more branding ideas.
Here’s a cheat list of branding ideas for you –
– Use hashtags on social media
– Pin your own images on Pinterest (Join Harleena’s Pinterest group boards and experience the promotional power of Pinterest)
– Sponsor contests and giveaways
– Use brand logo on blog post images
– Create infographics
– Promote videos
– Host webinars
– Write ebooks and 101 guides
– Do guest posts and podcasts
You can go on and on. These ideas and tips not only help create your brand but also bring traffic to your blog or website.
The secret to successful branding, whether for a blog or business, is to discover your story, study your audience or customers, make a promise and fulfill it, be consistent, have a strategy, and use all kinds of media to present your brand to people as often and in as many ways as possible.
Branding your blog or business will take much thought and time, and marketing it is more tedious and time-consuming. However, this exercise is worth your time.
“You now have to decide what ‘image’ you want for your brand. Image means personality. Products, like people, have personalities, and they can make or break them in the market place.” ~ David Ogilvy
Over To You –
Do you believe branding your blog or business makes a difference? What is your tip for creative branding ideas and your most favorite brand marketing method? Share in the comments below.
Photo Credit: FreeDigitalPhotos