Starlight Cards & Gifts: 10 Simple Ways to Build Your Brand by Blogging!

Building Brand Awareness

by Hector Cuevas.
Branding is a tricky thing; mainly because everyone seems to have their own idea as to what it means to “build your brand”. In this post, I’m going to share with you my take on building your brand and 10 simple ways your blog can help you do it better.
Your brand, whether personal or business, is nothing more than the perception of others; in our case, this is our target market. It’s our job to first find out who we want to be and how we want to be viewed in the marketplace and then take steps to make that a reality.
Remember, people do business with people they Know, Like and Trust. The following 10 steps are designed to help your brand fulfill those 3 things.
Brand awareness is when people identify your brand to be yours under different conditions; whether they’re on Facebook, Twitter, or YouTube. The first step is making your brand memorable and your blog is the perfect vehicle for doing that.
Step #1. Have a Unique Blog Design
The key to becoming memorable is making a good first impression and having a unique blog design can do just that. I love WooThemes because of their great design, and their ability to make your blog stand out from the rest. Although having a uniquely designed blog is not more important than your brand’s message, it still plays a big visual role.
Step #2. Get a Business Logo
This doesn’t have to be fancy like Chris’ logo – but having something that symbolizes your brand’s image will help in building brand awareness and recognition. A perfect example of this would be Matthew Needham (The Tomato Guy!). His company is called the Big Red Tomato Company and his logo is a big juicy tomato – talk about being memorable!
Now, I know some of us want to build a personal brand. If this is what you plan to do, having a picture of yourself on your blog will help put a face to the business. This will also help with personal brand recognition.
Step #3. Create a Tag Line
A tag line is a phrase that lets your visitors know exactly what you’re about the minute they visit your blog. This works best when the tag line states a benefit. For example, my tag line reads: “I’ll Help You Blog Your Way To More Traffic, More Leads & A Bigger Business”. Please share your tag line in the comments section below.

Building Brand Likability

After making it easy for people to recognize your brand, you need to make them Like you. But, how do you do that? Well, I think the best way is by connecting with your audience on a personal level. I don’t know about you, but I much rather speak to a real person when calling a company than talking to a pre-recorded message. As virtual entrepreneurs, if we want to be liked, we need to be personable.
The great thing is that you audience WANTS to be able to connect with you on a more personal level, and when they can do that, they’ll be more likely to do business with you. Here’s how you can build brand likability using your blog:
Step #4. Create an About Me Page
This page is the perfect place to speak a little about yourself, so that they can get to know you better. Due to something called “Laziness”, I still don’t have one of these bad boys up, but after writing this post for Chris, I think I’m going to get to it.
Step #5. Add a Facebook Like Box
Step #6. Add Social Media Icons
Step #7. Upload & Publish Live Video
Steps 5, 6 and 7 are all about being human. Here’s a scenario I think you’ll enjoy.
Pretend there are 2 Business Experts. They both have blogs and they both put out really good content. But Expert A also has a Facebook page, talks to you on Twitter and publishes live video of him/herself regularly – while Expert B does not.
Which Business Expert would you feel more comfortable calling up and hiring for consulting? If you said Expert A.. then you “get” what I’m saying. Let’s move on..

Building Your Brand’s Trust & Credibility

Now, you could be the coolest person on earth but that still doesn’t mean they’ll start throwing money at you. Your audience needs to trust you before they buy anything from you. This is where most people get stuck because this is the part that takes the most work.
Building trust with your blog is all about adding value to your community in the form of articles, guest posts, audio podcasts or videos. This part also includes adding social proof into the mix. Here’s how you use your blog to build trust:
Step #8. Create Unique Compelling Content
Step #9. Have a Unique Free Offer
While everything I’ve mentioned will help you boost your brand awareness and likability, the content should always be your main focus. Without great content, nothing else matters. Your audience will begin to trust you (and you’re brand) when they see that you’re out to HELP them.
I also suggest having a valuable piece of content to give away as an incentive to sign up for your email list. There are still people using crappy PLR material to get email sign-ups. That’s not only damaging to your brand, that also destroy the relationship with your potential customer before it starts.
Step #10. Use Social Proof
Social proof is and will always be a hot topic. I could probably write an entire blog post on it. People want to know how they can create social proof because they know that if other people say they’re cool, their customers will think they’re cool, too.
Well, look no further than this blog itself. Chris has an entire page dedicated to displaying why you should trust him. He calls it, VBL Around the Web, where he displays links to various interviews and a ton of guest posts. Not only is it a great resource full of valuable content, it also positions him (and his brand) very well.
On To You…
Which one of these are you NOT using yet – that you’re going to implement right away? Please share your feedback in the comments section below & please share this post on Twitter & Facebook, we’d really appreciate it.
To read more of Hector’s awesome tips on better blogging and brand building, check him at at his blog, and be sure to grab a copy of his Smart Blogging Guide here. You can also follow him on Twitter, too!