Welcome back to my blog series everyone! This week on ‘So
You Wanna Start a Blog’ we’re going to be talking about defining your brand! If
you missed the first part, you can click here to go read up on the basics of
starting a blog like picking your name and theme! Now onto part two!
Defining Your Brand//
Once you’ve gotten the ‘basics’ out of the way it’s time for
the fun work part; branding your blog. Branding is one of those words that is
thrown around a lot in the blogging world but what the heck does it actually
mean?
Branding is the appearance, aesthetics, cohesiveness, impression,
reputation, association, story, design and content. While all of these elements
are important, the main thing to remember is your brand is a representation of
you. Your online presence is an extension of you as a person. Branding for your
blog is essentially an online personality. Like a person, you want to create a
unique and distinct personality for your blog and have a strong online
identity.
Still a little confused, maybe this will help. Think of your
favorite brands, what words instantly come to mind? Those words are a
representation of the brand and everything that they do reflects those words.
Branding. Think of Victoria ’s
Secret, what words come to mind? For me it was sexy, seductive, confident,
feminine and luxurious. While I’m not 100% sure these are their brand words I’m
pretty confident they are part of their branding and campaigns.
If you’re still a little lost on the whole thing keep
reading and it might start to click.
To help create your brand the first thing we’re going to do
is make a list of all the ‘things’ that make you (your brand) you. What do you
love? What things instantly remind people of you? It could anything, a color, a
piece of clothing, a song, a hobby, a certain food, a quote!
This is my list: Coffee, Fashion, Lipstick, Desk Du Jour,
Instagram, Parties + Planning, Positive Personality, White + Gold + Pink, Home
goods and Popcorn.
These are all things that I love and that represent my
interests. What things are on your list?
Once you’ve made your list it’s time to have some fun! We’re
going to throw it back and create a vision board. A vision board is a collage
of photos/words that relate to your brand and will help you visualize it
better.
Use your words that you listed and take to the Internet to
find photos that fit those words. My favorite places to look are Pinterest and
Tumblr. Other great spots are WeHeartIt and of course, Google Images.
While searching on Pinterest or Tumblr you might notice a
pattern of images that you pin or reblog. For me it was the colors pink, white
and gold, fashion, coffee and generally girly, pretty things. From there it was
pretty easy to find my brand and my aesthetic.
Here’s what my vision board looks like!
I used PicMonkey to assembly my photos together, as it was
the easiest way but feel free to use any collage software or Photoshop!
Color Time//
Now that you’ve gotten your vision board and are getting an
idea of what your brand looks like it’s time to pick your color scheme! Like
painting a house, decorating a room or picking an outfit a color scheme is
essential in creating a cohesive brand/look.
For me my color scheme was pink, white, gold and black. I
also added the patterns of stripes and polka dots in for fun! My color scheme
is fun, upbeat, girly and reflects my brand.
Helpful hint! When picking colors try to stick to 4-6. Have
at least two neutrals, a pop of color and a pattern.
A Font Affair//
Now it’s time for what fonts you’ll be using! Fonts are one
of my favorite things in graphic design. I’m what you’d call a font snob. I
blame my 2 ½ years of Yearbook for that. Just like picking out colors, having
specified fonts will “create a more streamlined and professional look to your
website and content” (La Petite Fashionista).
When picking out fonts pick out at least 4; a bold font for
headlines, a decorative/scripty/cursive font, a basic font for graphics and a
body copy font.
These are the fonts that I chose for my blog. Bedini, Bedini
Italic and Sweet Pea are my headline graphic fonts, Helvetica is my body copy
font and Source Sans Pro Extra Light is a text graphic font.
Helpful hint! When picking your fonts pick a serif, like
Times New Roman and a sans serif, like Helvetica.
Things to keep in mind:
-Pick easy to read fonts. Don’t pick some crazy, can’t read
font. Even if it looks really cool.
-Make sure you like your pairings since you’ll be using them
frequently.
Some great resources for free fonts are DaFont.com and
Pinterest! I have an entire board dedicated to fonts so you can check out and
find some great ones!
Word Up//
So is branding sorta starting to make sense? I hope so! As I
mentioned above every brand/company/blogger has words that describe them. These
words describe their online identity and presence. They’re kinda like
buzzwords.
My brand words are stylish, affordable, relateable and
inspiring.
Stylish: Because I think life should have style and be put
together whether it’s in fashion, home or anything else!
Affordable: I’m a college student and I don’t have loads of
money to spend on clothes, accessories, home décor, etc., so I try to keep
things affordable so everyone, whether on a big budget or a little one, can
have the opportunity to buy!
Relatable: I want my content to be something the high
school, college age or twenty something girl can relate to and find helpful and
useful!
Inspiring: I want to inspire girls to be GirlBosses and be
amazing and own their lives!
What are your words that describe your brand?
Helpful Hint! You can now assemble all your pieces of your
branding puzzle. Print off your branding cheat sheet and keep it handy for
inspiration and to keep your content on track!
Another key part of branding is having a mission statement.
A mission statement is a few sentences, or short paragraph that “defines your
brand focus, audience and tagline”, essentially it sums up everything that
you’re about (La Petite Fashionista).
My mission statement is: “Of life and style is a place for
the high school, college or twenty something girl to find inspiration, add
affordable style to her wardrobe, home and life.”
So why even have a mission statement? Having one can help
keep you focused and your content streamlined to what you promised to create.
The Peanut Gallery aka Your Audience//
While you may be writing for yourself it’s good to keep in
mind your audience that might be reading your content. Who’s your reader? Why
does she read your blog?
Helping define your audience will help further your brand
and help you write posts and content. For me since my audience is primarily
girls, 13-30 I try to keep my posts geared for them. Since I fit into that
audience I try and write posts that I would want to read if I were a reader. I
pretend that I am in their shoes.
Helpful Hint! If you’re built up a little audience already
create a quick survey for them to take so they can tell you what posts they
like/don’t like. This will help you create content that they like and find
useful instead of wasting time creating ones they don’t care too much for.
Does branding make a little bit more sense now? I hope it
does! Pretty much what you need to know about branding is that it’s your online
identity. When people hear your name they should have an image come to mind
about what is you do and who you are. For me my branding is a fun, bright,
bubbly, girly aesthetic that is geared to the young women to help her create a
stylish and positive life!
I hope I helped explain branding and how to find your brand
a little better. Branding is such a complex topic that can be explained in
novels so it’s a little bit daunting to try and get it all. Honestly, it can
take some time to find your brand and really hone it in and that’s totally,
100% okay! Don’t feel pressured to have it all together right away. Mine took
me awhile and I’m just now, slowly but surely starting to really incorporate it
in. Remember, don’t compare your beginning to someone else’s middle!
If you have any questions at all feel free to email or
contact me and I will be more than happy to help you the best way I can! I love
sharing and helping people with things so don’t be afraid to reach out! :)
Check back next Saturday, March 21st for part
three which is all about content, photography, design, layout and all that fun
stuff!
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