Branding your blog

Branding, you cannot escape it in this information age. There's business branding, personal branding and, if you are a blogger, now you've got to brand your blog too. Then again, if you do have a blog, it already has a brand. Of a sort at least.

A brand is, in most part, the image people have about a product. It is also a promise, which tells what to expect from a product. In this case the product would be your blog and the blog posts. Even if you haven't done any intentional branding your blog and posts still project an image (or several) and your readers still have an image (or several) of it. This doesn't mean you can just slack off branding your blog. The image your blog and posts project may not be quite the one you'd like. Nor is the image your readers have of your blog.

Why do I think branding your blog is so important? First of all it defines your image and the image of what sort of blog posts people can expect from you. That then helps to make your readers more engaged. The readers who are more engaged will visit your blog more often, comment more and share your blog posts more. Branding your blog also helps to get a quick idea of what your blog is about. People have a very short attention span, some say it has been getting shorter due to all the tech. Shorter than the attention span of a goldfish. So quick first impression can be the one that either makes a reader (a new one or an old one) to actually read your blog post and then engage with it or makes her run away immediately.

A good blog brand can increase your authority on the subjects you blog about. The right kind of branding will make you appear more informed and experienced, which then makes the impression that your blog posts are worth the engagement. It also adds consistency, which helps people online to recognise your blog posts from the crowd. Because there are tons of blog posts written every day and even more Tweeted, liked and pinned, you will want to make sure your blog posts are distinct. That way they will stand out and get noticed.

When beginning to brand your blog it is very important to answer to the following questions:

• What is the blog about? What are the main topics and what other topics do you tackle?
• Who writes the blog (who are you)?
• What is your personal brand?
• If there are other writers on your blog what are their personal brands?
• What is the tone of your blog and which tone are you aiming for?
• Who are your readers now and who is your ideal reader?
• What kind of an image do you want your blog to project?
• What kind of an image does your blog project now (please be honest)?
• Why are you blogging? Why does your blog exist? What is your blog's purpose?

For more about online marketing and branding, profiling your ideal audience member and defining your business or blog, get the free workbook crafted for indie business owners, bloggers and freelancers. See also 10 questions to help you with personal branding and Surprising ways to distinguish yourself on social media.

The easiest-to-understand part of branding your blog are visuals. The choice of fonts, colours, layout, and photos and other images are the visual parts of branding. This includes logo too, if your blog has one. However your blog doesn't have to have a logo per se to be branded. Logo is only one possible, yet not mandatory part of branding. The visuals need to fit the tone, ideal audience and topics of your blog. Do note that the visuals don't have to be underlining and stereotypical. So a blog aimed for women doesn't have to be pink and filled with images of make-up, unicorns and flowers. Or something like that.

You don't always have to follow your visual branding, but more consistency tends to help. Although there's a point in doing something different now and then. Pinterest has became so popular and such an important tool for creating traffic and recognition that lots of bloggers have became to overbrand their blog images. They use exactly the same format, same colouring and same or similar graphics/photo elements every time. Eventually their images all start to look the same and it becomes hard to tell if you have already read or pinned or shared this post. "Didn't I just pin this the other day? Oh, no. It's a new post. The image looks the same."

The visuals are not the only part of your blog branding. Your blog's name, domain, blog post titles, blog post content and other content on your blog are also part of the branding. By the other content I mean the about page, sidebar content, content above and below your blog posts and whatnot. The wording you use, the information you choose to share (about yourself too) and even the advertisement on your site are included in the blog branding. Additionally the comments can add to your brand. If you don't remove spam or offensive comments, that tells something about you and your blog. Not a good something. Are you in a habit of responding to the comments or do you appear to ignore them completely? What kind of responses are you giving? Also not allowing comments is a branding choice.

The blog branding goes beyond your blog too. If you have presences on other social media services, such as Twitter, Pinterest, YouTube, Facebook, Periscope and Instagram to mention some, they also are part of your blog branding. Using blogging services, like Bloglovin', is part of it. Commenting on other blogs is part of your blog brand (if you comment in a way that it can be easily traced back to your blog). Even choosing not to use blogging services and other social media, or not making comments can become a part of your blog branding. Also you can do blog branding offline, for example when attending events, parties (if it's that kind of a party) or giving speeches or presentations. If you are holding a presentation with slides and are representing your own brand/business, add your related blog url to the footer of your slides. Your personality is a big part of your blog branding, or at least it should be. It is the best way to distinguish your blog from the mass of blogs.

In case you have an email list tied to your blog it also adds to your blog branding. That is why your email newsletter wording, content and the visual parts (unless you use plain, non-HTML emails) should echo your blog. They don't have to be exactly the same, but they need to be similar enough to create a feeling of familiarity. When a person who has been reading your blog posts joins your list they will expect similarities in the emails. On the other way, when a someone clicks a link to your blog from your email, they will expect to see something similar. This way your email can help to create that feeling of familiarity, emphasis the image you want to give from and with your blog.

In blog branding there's one very important distinct feature, the blog posts. Blog posts can have their own life outside your blog, for example through feed readers and read-it-later-services. When your blog post is read with a feed reader or read-it-later-service the other branding parts are stripped away. That means other parts than images added in the blog post and the text. All the other stuff, such as your logo, the colours, fonts and layout will vanish. Thus the content of the post takes the lead. If you don't know how your blog posts look in read-it-later-services or feed readers, sign up for Pocket and feedly and test it yourself. This is why you cannot rely on only branding the "surroundings" of the blog post and hoping the branding will work.

Your blog posts are the most important part of your blog branding, not only to accommodate feed readers and read-it-later-services. They are why your blog exist and they are why anyone would visit and read your blog. Imagine if your blog had nothing else but the posts. No sidebars, no logo, no navigation, no comments, no nothing. What sort of an image would your blog posts, separately and together, generate of your blog (and you) in general? Additionally check out these five simple ways to improve your blog posts.

Branding, as an activity, is storytelling. Telling a story about your product, in this case blog, through all the different parts of branding. While there's no real control over how people will see and experience your brand, you have a control over telling that story. The story is told with intentional choice of visuals, content and other details, and the stuff that you share in other social media. Good news is that blog posts are an easy way to tell the brand story. What else are blog posts really but stories? The emphasis is in the word intentional. In branding your blog, such as any other product or yourself, being intentional about the story is important. You make the choice of how you present your blog and what you promise. No matter how you cannot control the image other people have, you still have the intentional choice to make.

Blog branding is more than just installing a blogging platform, slapping a theme on it and writing away. It is more intentional than that. You have to choose how you present your blog, not only visually but also in writing, such as the blog posts. Blog branding also goes beyond your blog, including social media where your blog posts are shared, your email list and other services which can be used to read your blog posts.

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