Many people would have you believe that building a brand is simply the process of building a snazzy logo and a unique personality.
However, that’s just the tip of the iceberg.
Brand building is complicated. It’s an ongoing and arduous process that requires research and time.
So what are some of the ways you can keep up with this process of brand building? Well, one way is through your owned media content. More specifically, your blog.
You control the message, the personality, tone, and subject matter. This makes it ideal for brand building.
With that in mind, I’m going to break down 5 of the ways you can build your brand through your blog:
Create an online persona
In the words of Samuel L. Jackson in Pulp Fiction, “personality goes a long way”. This isn’t only true in social interactions, but also in business.
Having a personality or an online persona helps people easily identify and relate to your business.
It’s more difficult than ever before to win and retain new customers. Therefore, an essential part of brand building is creating an online persona. This can be done through your blog.
Blogs enable you to ‘tell the story’ of your brand over and over again. This allows your customers or website visitors to become more familiar with who you are and what you’re all about.
Use your owned media content to create conversations on social media
The best blogs promote engagement. With that in mind, please feel free to engage with this blog on social media… I digress
As I’m sure you know, social media marketing is a great way for startups to reach their target audience.
And what’s the cornerstone of social media marketing?
Great content.
By producing and sharing blog content covering issues that are relevant to your brand, you’re starting the kind of conversations you want to have with your target audience.
Blogs are often referred to as ‘conversational’ media marketing. Using your blog as a conversation starter allows your brand to take control of your messaging and personality.
Combine your blog with the best SEO practices
As we just touched on, sharing your blog posts on social media is a great way for you to build your brand identity and exposure.
However, besides sharing on your own channels, you want to ensure that your owned media content can reach as large an audience online as possible. This is where SEO comes into play.
93% of all online experiences begin with a search engine. Therefore, if you’re looking to build your brand’s exposure, you need to take SEO seriously!
One way you can do this is through using programs such as Moz and SEMRush to analyze the results your competitors are getting. Take a look at the keywords they and yourself and currently ranking for and use that to inform your owned media content.
PRO TIP: Google’s algorithm no longer solely focuses on keywords, it also focuses on the quality of your content. With this in mind, ensure that your blog balances between the two, while remaining true to your brand’s industry and voice.
Use your blog to show your standpoint on social issues and causes
Consumers want brands they invest in to engage in ethical capitalism. It’s no longer enough to offer a good product. Customers now want brands to share their values. This image from The Harris Poll underlines this:
Your startup can use your owned media to broadcast your own stance on social issues or the NGOs that you support. For example, we launched a scheme called ‘Publicize causes’ where we offer free PR to worthwhile causes. We used this blog to highlight our partnership with a local NGO.
This is a win-win. Firstly, it shows your brand to be caring and making an effort to make the world a better place. And it helps make the world a better place!
Decide on your budget
So now we’ve covered some of the main ways you can build your brand through blogging (a persona, social media sharing, SEO, and social issues). It’s now time to decide your budget.
When I mention a budget, I’m not referring to how much money you invest in your owned media and website. I’m looking at how much time you’re going to dedicate to your owned media content.
The internet is overloaded with content and it’s now harder than ever to grab the reader’s attention.
If you’ve made it this far into the blog, I salute you!
Therefore, businesses are spending longer writing blog posts than ever before.
Putting in the time and effort your blog deserves is greatly beneficial for your brand-building efforts. Therefore, it’s good to set a ‘time budget’ pertaining to the best time you and the other contributors to your startup’s blog can spend on your owned media content.
Wrapping up…
Brand building is not an easy task. However, your owned media content and your own website are a great place for you to continue to grow your brand identity. It’s a space for you to control your messaging and where your target audience can familiarize yourself with your brand.
