Written by: Jeraldine Peters, Executive Contributor
Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise.
If you want to make the maximum impact on the web, it’s not enough to have a social account and a blog. Instead, you need to make sure that there is a brand behind that social account and behind that blog — something that ties all of your posts and all of your comments together under a single banner and something that people will feel is more than the sum of its parts.
But a brand doesn’t just mean a logo. In order to have an authentic brand that has fans, you need to know what it is that makes something like this work and how to go about building yourself an image and then gaining exposure for that image.
What is a Brand?
Well, one obvious thing that a brand also needs is a name. Your company needs a name, and in all likelihood, this name will also be your website name. Having a brand like this for your website is one of the best things you can do right away to start getting attention for your business.
Google, for instance, has said that brands are far more successful at search engine optimization these days. In contrast, from a user’s perspective, brands are also a lot more memorable and professional sounding. In other words, calling your website ‘FitLand’ will work better than ‘FitnessAndHealthArticles.’
What’s more, is that you need to create a mission statement for your brand. This is what should come first, and in many ways, it is the most important step. Essentially, a mission statement is a short paragraph or line that says what your business is about, what you do, and why you do it. This is your goal, your vision, and your commitment. From here, you then have a more inspiring vision that you can use to inform your other choices – such as your choice of logo and name.
When producing content and interacting with your audience, sometimes it can be easy to get side-tracked. The best way to ensure that you remain on brand is to narrow your branding strategy to ensure that your brand is consistent and trustworthy.
Here are a few things to consider when building a brand:
1. You need to define your message.
You need to understand your brand clearly, before trying to gain an audience. You need to determine the purpose of your brand and how you will convey it.
2. You need to define your target audience.
You need to define your audience specifically. By not defining your audience specifically, you are likely alienating your real audience. You need to understand them demographically — their age, gender, education, location — all the base details about a person. You then need to understand them psychologically — their wants, needs, beliefs, and struggles. You will also have to understand their media usage.
3. You need to determine exactly what your brand can do for your audience.
In essence, you need to outline (for yourself) the reasons why your audience should care about your brand. Your audience should connect with your brand; they need to know what you can do for them and why they should engage with your content. What is your brand trying to achieve? Is it relevant to your audience?
Once you have understood these three elements, you should narrow them down as specifically as possible. By defining these elements, you are providing a solid foundation for your branding. Every now and again, you should check that your brand, actions, and content align with these statements — this increases your brand’s credibility and helps your audience understand your content and believe in your vision.
The most essential part of personal branding is ensuring that it reaches your target audience. You could have created the best and most exciting new brand in the world, but if it does not reach your audience, what was the point?
The main way to make sure that your audience finds your brand is to put it in places where they will see it. This means analyzing which media platforms your audience frequents and seeing how they use them. You should position your brand on the platforms that your audience most uses and enjoys. By doing this, your brand’s presence will integrate seamlessly into your audience’s feeds.
Creating content that your audience is likely to want to share, or pass on, is a great way for them to expose you to their like-minded followers, too. People love to share things that they think others will enjoy, and this is a digitally oriented word-of-mouth type of marketing.
Your brand also needs to provide appropriate content and media for your target audience. As well as being put on the right platforms, you should be creating quality content that your audience will enjoy. You should investigate popular media types for your audience and create content that aligns with this.
Additionally, you should also keep note of the trends within your industry and your audience. This will increase your reliability, and your audience will feel a stronger connection with your brand—remaining up to date is essential.
It is not just about your brand reaching your audience in the literal sense. You also need your brand to reach your audience on a more emotional level. The values, beliefs, and benefits of your brand should align with your audiences. Your brand needs to truly resonate with your audience for it to have the maximum impression on them.
Therefore, to make sure that your audience connects with your brand is to make sure they can find it. Having a loyal and engaged audience is essential to the success of your brand; curating your media, content, and message with your audience in mind is the best way to achieve this.
Follow me on Facebook, Instagram and visit my website for more info and tips on building a stand-out brand!
Read more from Jeraldine!
Jeraldine Peters, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine
Miss Jer Peters is a certified business coach and digital marketer who helps ambitious entrepreneurs to start, grow and scale successful businesses to create their desired life through entrepreneurship by learning how to stand out online and attract more sales. After spending years working corporate jobs, she opted to take on entrepreneurship, and through her rewarding journey, she found a way also to help others unlock the key to the future they desire. She now devotes her time to working with entrepreneurs who are either just starting or have been in business for a while but have been struggling to figure out how to make it work to have the results they need. By addressing the foundations of their businesses, she helps them set their business up for growth and scale via paid or organic methods. She believes that there is always more to life than what initially seems possible.
