4 Ways Your Blog Strategy Fits With Your Brand

Hey y'all, it's Kaitlyn! You might be thinking, "What?! Two posts this week!?" and the answer is yes! Two posts this week because the lovely and intelligent Krista Rae of KristaRae.co is bringing you some valuable information. Krista is amazing at blog strategy - so please, read this post, download her workbook, and find her on social media (more info at the bottom of the post)! 

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We all understand that having a solid brand will work wonders in enhancing our businesses. On a similar note, having a blog strategy is also important in building a focused and profitable web presence for our small businesses.

In case you need a refresher, check out this post on 4 Ways To Improve Your Branding & Amplify Your Business and this post on 4 Benefits of Having A Blog Strategy.

While we understand that both of those aspects of our businesses are important, we often overlook how closely related the two are. So today we’re going to go over 4 ways that your blog strategy fits with your brand! (Hint: if you want to follow along with the branding side open up this post in another tab!)

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To take a closer look at your own blog strategy and brand cohesiveness while reading this post grab your free 9-page workbook.

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YOUR WHY & MEASURABLE GOALS

Your why fits in perfectly with your blog strategy. In fact, your strategy should be crafted around it.

The first step in creating a solid blog strategy is to define high-value goals. Goals that will focus you, speak to your audience, and bring your business where you want it to be. Then, everything on your blog including posts, sidebar and footer contents, calls to action, and more should relate right back to these goals.

Anything that strays is a distraction for both you and your audience.

For example, let’s say your why is to create beautiful websites that allow your clients to build their business on a platform that reflects their values, leading them to transition into a life they love. Your goals could be to gain clients for your web design services, offer valuable content through blog posts, grow your email list, and develop an engaged social media following. (Notice that the last 3 goals are important in supporting that first big one.)

If you focus your content, layout, and social media interactions around these goals you will stay true to your values while building up the following you need to create a profitable business.

Your sidebar and footer could contain email opt-ins with valuable incentives, social media links, and your most popular blog posts.  Your blog posts could be action-packed tutorials for those who need help stepping up their blog design, containing content upgrades to grow your list. Your Contact, About, and Services pages could contain copy that speaks directly to your ideal audience and lets them know that you are the designer for them.

It all goes back to your why and the goals you form from it.

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A DEFINED TARGET AUDIENCE

What should I write about this week? Well, what does your target audience want to learn about?

Should I include a picture of myself in my sidebar? Does your target audience need to get to know and trust you?

What kind of new services should I offer? What does your target audience need your help with?

If you’re making a decision for your blog and there’s a chance that it will turn away or distract your target audience, your decision is simple - don’t do it.

Instead, be sure to include things that will draw them in. Write that post they’ve been dying for. Create an opt-in incentive that will get them closer to their goals. Write a services page that speaks directly to them. Word your About page in a way that will build trust between you.

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YOUR VOICE

Knowing how you communicate with your audience will make every part of your blog strategy easier. You’ll know how to phrase posts, what exactly you want to say in your newsletters, how your call to action needs to be worded, how to interest them in your services, and how you want them to feel after they finish up your epic course.

Your voice will also make you stand out against the competition and draw your ideal people in even closer.

So next time you write a blog post, add a new button to your site, or are fighting through a newsletter let it sound like you. Don’t try to sound like the people you look up to because that’s not who your audience wants to hear from. They want to hear from you!

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COHESIVENESS

Cohesiveness is one of the most important parts of your brand. Just think, if you were scrolling through your favorite blogger’s site and suddenly an image popped up that didn’t fit at all with their colors, fonts, or voice, you’d be a bit thrown off, right?

The same goes with your blog strategy. As we talked about, everything in your strategy should relate back to your why and its related goals.  Then, your blog posts, newsletters, social media updates, products, and services all need to relate back to those goals. If you do that, you’ll automatically have cohesiveness.

To take it a step further, the different parts of your blog should give your audience a focused path to follow. Maybe they start by reading your web design blog posts. Then they sign up for your email list to get a tutorial on how to create the perfect color scheme for their brand. Then they get your weekly newsletters on what it means to have a good blog design and end up signing up for your course on getting started with improving their blog design. And after that, they want to even more and you’ve got yourself a new client!

All those steps were focused and fit together perfectly. What if suddenly you were offering a course on how to host a webinar? Your audience would end up a bit confused and you’d probably lose track of your goals too. That’s why cohesiveness is so important. Surprise them with the value of your content, but not the overall topic of it.

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DO YOUR BRAND & BLOG STRATEGY MATCH?

Take a look at your brand and blog strategy. How well are the two fitting together? What improvements can you make? Let us know in the comments!

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Don’t forget to grab your free workbook to dig deep and find areas where your blog strategy and brand can work together more effectively!

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Krista is a blog strategist and WordPress developer who helps female creatives elevate their business, increase conversions, and boost engagement through crafting strategic blogs. She uses personalized, goal-driven strategies to set her clients apart from the competition and highlight their unique offerings. Learn more over on her blog!

Twitter - Pinterest - Bloglovin'

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4 Big Myths About Branding & What The Truth Is

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I’m active on social media and as a general rule, I see that people “want branding.” Though, I hesitate to agree with them – because I think the idea of “wanting branding” might mean something different to them than it does to me. I say this because the sentence usually goes, “I want branding. Any logo designers out there?” Yikes.

Here are 4 misconceptions about branding that are so, so wrong. 

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“I HAVE A BRAND, HERE’S MY LOGO.”

No! No, no, no. I cover this here. I talk about this a lot because it’s the biggest myth and the biggest problem. Your brand isn’t just a logo! A logo is a small portion of your identity, which is a portion of your branding. Your branding helps to create how people perceive your brand. 

You do need an identity, and yes, that identity does need a logo. But you also need colors, typography, and collateral. You also need social media design, website design, and blog design. You also need a voice and a way of communicating your ideas and goals consistently. You also need an overall goal or mission for your company. Branding has a lot of very intangible things involved. Well, no, I should say successful branding has a lot of very intangible things involved. All of those things help to create what/how people perceive your brand.

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“I’M JUST A SMALL BUSINESS, I DON’T EVEN HAVE A BRAND.”

Mhm. Yes you do. You have a brand, and the fact that you aren’t trying to control how people perceive you is a problem. You, as a person, even with no business interest at all have a brand. Therefore, your business, putting out content and advertisements and interacting with people, on any level, certainly has a brand. 

Plus, you are a small business with intentions of growing larger, right? Right! Developing your branding involves developing goals for your company. You can’t grow larger without setting real goals. Your branding, your marketing strategy, and your growth all go hand in hand.

Being a small business, or just starting out, is no excuse to not have branding and not try to develop your  brand. You will stay a small business (or less than that!) forever if you don't put the time and energy into these things.

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“I’M NOT REALLY SELLING ANYTHING RIGHT NOW, I’LL DEAL WITH THIS LATER.”

Your brand has nothing to do with selling anything. It’s how people think and feel about your company overall. It’s about their experience working with, buying from, or seeing your company in action. Ever wonder why the big semi trucks have those “how am I driving?” numbers on the back? Sure, one is to follow through and discipline irresponsible drivers, but also, it turns a potentially bad customer experience into one where they can feel like they are being listened to and helped. If you just had a bad experience with a semi truck from Target, you might think “UGH! TARGET! THE WORST!” but if you could call and someone could apologize and say they will look into and handle it internally, and also here are some coupons for your troubles,” you might think “That driver was bad, but at least Target understands.”

I say all of that to say, I don’t care if you aren’t currently selling something. I don’t care if you are just a blogger, blogging because you love to blog. I don’t care if you are seasonal and do all your selling during the Holidays. I don’t care, because neither will anyone else. Your brand is being determined year-round, 24/7. You need to be developing branding that positively affects that perception all the time.

Plus, okay, if you aren’t selling RIGHT NOW, then you are probably building your customer base. You want those customers to ACTUALLY buy when the time comes, right? I should think so! Building up a relationship between you and your potential customer and your company should be top priority all the time.

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“YEAH, MY BRANDING AND MARKETING STRATEGY ARE THE SAME THING.”

Negative! Your brand is, as we’ve been talking about before, determined by how people think and feel about you. Your branding is your attempt to affect that. Your marketing strategy and your branding may go hand-in-hand, but they are very different.

Your branding is something you establish before marketing ever comes into play. Your branding is larger than a marketing campaign or your companies overall marketing plan. Your branding is the big umbrella. If you like metaphors – branding is the black trouser you will always need and wear. Marketing is the feather vest, or the knee-high socks, or the scoop neck sweaters that come in and out of fashion. You adjust your marketing depending on what’s hot, what’s trendy, what’s getting noticed. You adjust your marketing to fit the time of the year, the season, the current favorite singer or celebrity. Your brand is consistently the same throughout all of that. 

Your marketing finds potential customers; your branding creates loyal followers out of them. So, yes, definitely have both! But no, they are not the same thing.

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