5 Reasons To Focus on Branding In Your Business

Branding for your business, whether it be online, a huge corporation, a small mom and pop shop, an Etsy shop, or just a vague distant idea is extremely, immeasurably, and without a doubt one of the most important part of “getting started.”

Now I know what you are saying: “Uh, hello, designer, can you say biased?” Well, yes. I might be biased, but I also know that it’s true! Branding helps your business in so many ways – it's more than just looking pretty, too.

I’ve started TheShop because branding shouldn’t be intimidating, off-putting, or an idea killer. Now, TheShop isn’t the end all, be all of branding – but it’s a place to start if you aren’t bringing in a ton of cash yet and want something that says, “I’m professional. I’m legit. I’m valuable.” 

If you’re still like, wait, what’s branding? Check out this post but if you’re ready to know why you need to focus on branding in your business, read on!

---

GIVES YOU CLARITY

Going through a proper branding process gives you clarity on your overall business. By a proper branding process I mean one that asks the hard questions so that you can create a strong base for your business.

Going through a proper branding process will give you clarity on your business (and help you grow)! [Tweet That!]

A mistake I see business owner’s make is that they jump into business, super excited about an idea, but not taking time to think about their “why”, “who”, or “how”. Which – trust me – I get. I did the same thing, even though I actually knew (and was taught) better. It’s just an exciting time and you’re ready to GO! It’s not bad to GO but eventually you’ll need to come back to branding to give you real clarity on your overall business goals, your brand vision, your target audience, etc.

If you’re stuck on those sorts of questions, I highly recommend checking out Building Your Base, my eBook that goes in depth with those questions, your brand’s vision and mission, and more.

---

BUILDS TRUST

Branding, once you’ve gone through the foundations and moved into visuals and eventually a website and social media strategy, works to create a great brand experience. Trust is built through that brand experience, so you want it to be flawless, wonderful, and memorable.

Trust is built through a fantastic brand experience. [Tweet That!]

I talk a lot about building trust in your business because trust = sales and sales are necessary for your business to be an actual business. To build trust, especially in an online business, takes time and energy – but your branding can definitely help. How? Branding creates consistent experiences, so your audience learns and understands you no matter where they see you: on your blog, in a guest blog somewhere else, on Pinterest, in a Periscope, etc. You are always the same person, offering the same sort of advice/expertise, and consistently teaching or giving awesome information out. Think about the people you trust the most in your life – is it not because they’ve consistently been there when they said they would, were a steadfast and solid person who didn’t flake or waver on their values? Your business can embody those sorts of ideals too.

For more information on building trust, check out this post.

---

LOOKS DO MATTER

I know I said earlier that branding is more than just looking pretty – and that is true – but there is something valuable in realizing that in business looks do matter. By that I mean: looking professional does matter.

Say you go into a store and everything is disheveled and thrown about and messy and gross. Do you want to buy things? Or do you want to turn right back around and head to the next store, where maybe things are more expensive, but at least you aren’t scared of what you might step on or breathe in. I know that’s extreme, but the same idea exists with your business. You can’t have a messy and unorganized mess of a business and expect people to think you are professional or valuable or worth spending time and money on.

Beyond just looking professional, going through a branding process will help you create a branding identity (or “looks”) that do work and appeal to your target customer for you. The right color combination, paired with the right strategies behind your social media and content, paired with great copy, and so on, will pull in your target audience for you, show them your value, and prep them for purchase.

---

SHOWS YOUR COMMITMENT

Investing in your business shows that YOU take it seriously. I know that in the beginning investing in branding can seem like the last thing you want to do, which inspired me to start TheShop to cover some of the visuals for you. But, best case scenario, you are investing in a great branding package that includes strategy, visual identity, and a website that are all cohesive and professional.

To your customers or audience this will showcase that you are a “real player” in whatever your industry is. You are a niched, focused, and capable business that can provide real results and want to display your best self.

If I can’t find a website for a business, they’re off my list of potential people to buy from. If I can find a mediocre website and no social media presence, they’re off the list too. I want to work with businesses that are excited, passionate, and I can understand from their branding.

---

BUILDS RECOGNITION

A quick way to start being seen as an expert in your field is to be recognizable. By that I mean, someone sees you on Pinterest, but then stumbles across your Instagram and knows it’s you. Or sees your name on a guest blog and remembers how great your blog is. Having cohesive branding can give you that recognition.

Recognition is valuable as a factor in building trust, which we talked about earlier. It’s also valuable because it shows that you are an established business with a great presence that is putting out content that people like. That sort of social proof is so fantastic for your business.

You can build recognition by having the same profile pictures across social media, and somewhere on your website. Also, creating a brand mission statement and featuring that across social media and online is fantastic. Finally having cohesive graphics to represent your business is hugely valuable (I’ll be having some blog graphics in TheShop).

---

If you’re still on the fence about branding, I have a lot of other posts that talk about the value, how to get started, etc. that I’d love for you to check out. I get that branding can be a scary step in your business, but I’m happy to offer you many outlets to make sure you can get started on the right foot. Whether it be working together one-on-one or getting templates from TheShop, I know we can get your business looking professional, capable, and appealing to your target client.

---

---

Create Optimized + Shareable Pins For Pinterest

Pinterest is the favorite tool for many bloggers and online business owners. It’s a powerful social media platform that works as a search engine and drives people to your website – if you create the appropriate graphics and pins.

In The Shop (launching September 1) you can get high quality but affordable templates for blog graphics that will work amazingly on Pinterest. Follow this guide with your new templates to create Pins that will boost your blog views and make Pinterest your number 1 referral site in no time! 

In the meantime, here’s the anatomy of a perfect Pinterest pin in five easy steps.

---

VERTICAL

First and foremost, make pins vertical. Think about how you actually use and view Pinterest: it’s a grid that you scroll down through. Vertical images take up more real estate in that regard and will be seen for much longer of a ‘scroll’ than horizontal ones. The same applies with using Pinterest on your phone or tablet. Vertical = better.

The width of a pin is best at 735 pixels, though the height can be whatever you choose (most people’s come in somewhere around 1100px, though I know there are some pins that are much longer). In The Shop I’ve created templates to get you started creating your own Pins that have varying lengths so you can test out what works best for you. ** Updated in 2018: the new recommended size is 600x900 pixels!

Action Item: if you have old pins circulating on Pinterest that are more horizontal than vertical, take time to create new images for them and start getting those out there too. It’s definitely okay to have multiple pins (and images) per blog post, so unless your old pins are drastically underperforming, I’d leave them up. Chances are your newer, more optimized pins will start getting more re-pins, likes, and click-throughs a lot quicker and the older pins will start to fade away.

---

LARGE READABLE TEXT

In the actual Pinterest image you create the text should be large and readable, to quickly gain attention of someone scrolling through their feed. What I mean by this is:

leave the curly, swirly, elaborate fonts alone and pick something that's easy to read for Pinterest [Tweet That!]

In my own graphics I like to emphasize parts of the title of blog posts by bolding a portion of the title that is most important (like the words ‘business’ or ‘branding’). I also include a small detail that shows if there is some sort of free download, like a worksheet or checklist, to gain attention and build the probability of a click-through. 

From a branding standpoint, I need to make sure I take a moment and tell you to use consistent fonts, colors, and styles on your graphics so that you begin to make a cohesive presence on Pinterest and become quickly recognizable by someone seeing multiple pins from you.

Action Item: Look through your old pins and evaluate if the text is large and readable or if you need to create newer, more legible graphics.

Are your current pins all unified enough that they’re obviously from the same blog or business? [Tweet That!]

---

USE RICH PINS

Rich Pins are an awesome and easy way to direct more people to your website and give a more polished, professional vibe on Pinterest. What are rich pins? They’re the small details you see beneath pins (you’ll see them beneath my pins) that include your website name and favicon, as well as the blog post title and description.

Rich pins are awesome from a visual standpoint, but they also make it easier to get noticed during a scroll, which in turn can lead to more click-throughs and traffic to your blog. You’ll end up taking up more vertical space and having more of an opportunity for key-word rich descriptions.

Action Item: Get rich pins set up on your blog ASAP. Squarespace makes this SO easy. After you’ve connected your Pinterest account under settings>connected accounts you can head over to this validator and put in one of your blog posts to enable it. No code necessary!

---

SEO-FRIENDLY DESCRIPTION WITH CTA

Besides the actual pin itself you want to spend time crafting a great description that is SEO-friendly (Pinterest is a search tool first and foremost) and includes some sort of “Call To Action” to help people want to click through.

I usually say something like “Click through to read the five ways to best optimize your Pinterest graphics (and get the free download)” at the end of the description because that’s straightforward and has some more key words in it. I’ll include my website name and small mention of what I do (like “Branding Design + Strategy”) just to set people up for what they will see when they travel to my site.

As far as the rest of the description, it’s usually some portion of the beginning of my blog post, because I’ve already worked to get some key words in there. I don’t try to make it more work on myself – work smarter, not harder right?

Action Item: Go through old blog posts and update the description that will show up when someone pins your blog post (In Squarespace it’s either the caption you use, or the “filename” field if you don’t use captions). That way, from here on out anytime someone pins your blog post they are adding your new, updated, awesome description. If you are feeling really productive then go and update some of your pins on Pinterest (I’d start with the ones from your website’s content board, since that’s probably where a lot of re-pins come from).

---

MAKE SURE YOUR LINK WORKS

Lastly, the best-optimized pin is a pin that actually leads to the blog post you say it will. Nothing makes me sadder than thinking I am about to read some awesome post I found on Pinterest to find it only leads to www.whateverwebsitetheysaid.com/blog and shows their latest blog post instead. What a buzzkill!

Branding is all about creating an experience and that’s a bad first impression that someone could have with your business. Make a habit of double checking yourself when you pin from your website!

Action Item: On your website’s content board, at least, go through and check your pins and make sure all the links are correct. If they aren’t, take time to edit and correct the link!

---

---