Do you want to know what branding really is and how can you create a powerful brand identity?
If you are interested to learn the art, then you have reached the right place to get going.
Branding of your blog can get it ready for the roller-coaster ride. But how to do it the right way? You first need to know what branding stands for.
Branding – Mental Image/Perception
Often, the term is misinterpreted and presented with unnecessary complications. Branding, put simply, is the image your blog creates in the audience’s mind.
For instance, a mere thought about Caco-Cola lets your brain easily visualize the popular logo. There is a reason, our brain visualizes concepts in the form of images. It doesn’t concentrate on letters and words.
Now, simply go back and see if I correctly spelled Coca-Cola. Did you notice the mistake? How did you overlook the mistake? It isn’t your fault. Your brain, like anyone else’s brain, perceived the logo rather than focusing on the spellings.
Why Is Branding Important For Your Blog?
It makes it easier for your audience to reach your blog. It keeps striking back one way or the other.
This is why branding makes the existence of your businesses much powerful and effective.
The same applies to the branding of your blog.
Brand Occupies Space in the Minds
When your blog manages to occupy a memory unit in your readers’ minds, it works as a long-term asset.
They can easily recall your blog.
They can easily talk about your blog.
They can use your blog as a reference when discussing the related topics.
How good does it feel?
Well, like any other exceptional achievement, it requires really sharp skills and strategies for the personal branding of your blog.
Minimalist Symbolism
Why do companies spend so much when creating impressive logos? Just because symbolism works better than anything else.
Today, minimalist logos are in trend because they are easier to remember and recall.
With thousands of logos already stored in our minds, it is important for newcomers to avoid complexity.
This is why Bluetooth is merely a minimal symbol. You can revisit most of the modern-day logos, most of them are either merely symbols or minimal art.
Essential Components of Branding for Your Blog
Branding for your blog is similar to branding for any business. If you are interested in building a successful blog, you need to think like a business person and implement the working strategies to create a brand identity.
There are top 4 essential components to consider…
- Name
- Logo
- Color Scheme
- Brand Promise
1. Brand Name for Your Blog
For a blog, you can either use your own name – more suitable for personal blogs – or you can think of a relevant term related to the subject, topic, niche, etc.
- Made-Up Brand Name – One thing I like the most of the made-up wording for the brand name, which is usually the combination of a couple of words. Just as we have a popular term, Malware which is the combination of Malicious Software. A made-up brand name becomes unique because you are the first one to use it. Adidas is also a made-up from Adolf (nicknamed Adi) and Dassler.
- Consider Other Factors – Never try to finalize the brand name in isolation. Keep it adjacent to other essential factors. Avoid conflicting paradoxes.
- Tagline – The tagline is highly significant. If the name is too short, the tagline helps you to give the message you want to deliver. For instance, if you’re offering some services through your blog, you may add a tagline “At Your Service”. It makes things look professional. Most of the popular brands use taglines that go viral and people repeat them intentionally or unintentionally in their conversations.
There are a number of bloggers who don’t even bother to think of a tagline.
Remember, your blog’s name isn’t going to tell others what it is all about. If you try to do it, you’ll end up selecting a phrase as your blog’s name. It will become harder for readers to memorize such a long name.
2. Logo
As discussed earlier, a brand is something that occupies the space in people’s minds.
The logo of your blog is that specific thing that has to enter the minds, stay there and keep striking back.
- Minimal Logo – I’ll suggest you follow the minimalist approach. It works well these days. People have a lot of things to keep their minds busy. A complex logo illustration will not work that well. A minimalist logo is easy to perceive, visualize, and memorize.
- Don’t Hesitate to Invest – You can’t act like a miser at this stage. If you don’t focus on the importance of an impressive logo, your whole branding scheme will fall flat. I’ll strongly recommend you hire an expert logo designer.
Don’t just select someone randomly. There are designers who are good with Photoshop and Adobe Illustrators, but that’s not enough.
A professional is the one who has studied digital art and knows the impact of the color scheme and how digital symbols work. Even if you have to spend a couple of extra bucks, don’t hesitate!
3. Color Scheme
The color scheme is suggestive of the mood. It tells the reader about the mood of your blog and makes it easier to anticipate what to expect next.
Once again, mental imaging is also associated with the color scheme.
It is all about presenting imagery. You need to consider what type of imagery is suitable for your audience. What type of feeling your audience is going to experience upon seeing this image?
The image and the color scheme will send a message to your audience. It is important to analyze what type of message you want to send. Does your suggested color scheme send the message you want to convey?
What type of moods do the colors convey?
To make things simpler, let me list down the colors and the moods they represent…
| Color | Mood |
| Red | Energy, Danger, Food, Intensity, Strength |
| Blue | Trust, Security, Peace, Faith, Wisdom, Corporate |
| Orange | Hot, Aggression, Youth, Success |
| Purple | Luxury, Royalty, Mystery, Calmness |
| Yellow | Optimism, Cheerfulness, Energetic, Active, Linked with food |
| Black | Formal, Sophisticated, Powerful |
| Green | Wealth, Nature, Freshness, Ease, Soothing |
| White | Clean, Positive, Pure, Truthful, Health & Medicine |
This simple chart will help you identify the best color scheme when branding for your blog.
4. Brand Promise
What does your blog promise? The brand promise needs to tell your visitors what you offer. It tells them what exactly to expect from your blog.
For instance, 5-minute hacks to make everyday life easier
It’ll clearly communicate that you’re going to teach something simple yet effective. Try to let your visitors know what benefits does your blog offer.
- Keep it short
- Balance the phrase as much as possible
Once done, you need to revisit your blog’s Brand Promise frequently. Make sure that your blog doesn’t lose its track.
As long as your blog keeps its promise, your audience will stay engaged. The moment it diverts from its promise, you’ll start losing the game.
Consistency is the key!
While branding for your blog, you need to keep all 4 essential elements consistent and integrated.
Brand identity does not just occur accidentally. You need to work professionally to sort things out.
Once you reach a perfect result, stick with it and don’t ever try to experiment with things along the way.
In my personal opinion, it is a daring task to change your logo or color scheme.
The reason is, people develop a psychological association with the existing imagery. Introducing something new is risky because you never know what the new scheme holds for your blog.
There are professional marketers who don’t show even a slightest of hesitation while changing the imagery.
But, for a blogger, it isn’t a wise move. You have to be a highly popular blogger with millions of loyal subscribers before thinking about trying new imagery.
Conclusion
Today, blogging is essentially another name for generating passive income.
If your blog doesn’t generate profit, you better spend your time doing something else that earns you money.
Profitable blogging requires serious considerations.
Apart from self-hosting and SEO, branding is also vital.
The problem is, we all want to earn money from our blogs, but in the meanwhile, we fail to accept blogging as a business.
People often start blogging with a half-hearted effort. It is never going to do any good. In the end, you just quit. If you don’t quit, you keep wasting time and energy.
Professionalism will surely generate the results by turning your blog into a money-making machine. But you have to prove your skills first!
