It’s a question I get asked so often when branding a business and to be honest, it really is just the little things that make the biggest impact on your brand’s character.

But in all seriousness, why do we need to brand ourselves at all?

This has been on my mind for a while, and here’s what I have concluded:

First off, if we don’t define our brands, other people will do it for us, and that might not be a good thing.
If we’re going to stand out the way we truly want, branding is something we can’t afford to overlook.
Branding with purpose and intention will help us attract more of the right people to our blog.

So what are the things you can do to make sure your brand stands out above the rest? Let’s take a look!

ONE - Be Consistent

Pay attention to everything to produce involving your brand. Important details such as your website, social media, fonts, colors, vibe, voice, the people you hang with, the emails you send, the way you respond to blog comments; all of it frames the way people think about you and your brand.

Your goal should be to present a consistent and harmonious brand image everywhere, online and offline.

For example, if you saw your pin in your Pinterest feed, would you immediately recognize your brand? That’s the kind of consistency and detail we’re aiming for!

TWO - Take A Stand

You may not think this is an important step, and I get it. Trust me though, it’s truly important!

Not only for the reasons listed here but because taking a stand will help you guide your brand in the right direction. Think of this as if you’re drawing a line in the sand between your tribe and everyone else.

Being 100% confident in what you stand for is one of the things that will help you effortlessly attract more of your dream customers.

THREE - Check your online presence

Next up, take a look at your entire web presence and make sure it all fits your brand’s style and purpose.

Here’s a quick list of places to look:

Blog or website
Blog posts
Blog post images
Secondary post images
Opt-ins + forms
Buttons + links
Landing pages
Pinterest Pins
Social media image templates
Social media profiles

As you go through everything, ask yourself these questions:

Do I have the same colors, fonts, and graphics everywhere?
Will people be able to spot my pins right way?
When someone reads my blog, is it fun and relevant to them?
Are there any odd graphics/images that jump out in an icky, outdated way?

You know what to do here…update, tweak, edit, delete. This should be done every few months or annually if you think it’s a huge job. But you need to diarize a time to address these updates on a regular basis.

FOUR - Update bios and descriptions

Your business probably has experienced a lot of twists and turns as you’ve learned more about your audience and your business.

So my question for you is: Are your bios and descriptions right there with you every time you shift gears or are they a few steps behind? If you’re like me, you check your Twitter profile every now and then and think Huh? That’s not me. That was like 6 months ago.

Here are a few places to look, edit, update:

Author bio
Blog sidebar bio
Speaker bio
Media kit
Social media profiles
Blogger outreach
Short description
Long descriptions

FIVE - Master social media

What you want to do is to pick 1-2 platforms and really master those first. Don’t worry about trying to be everywhere at once. It’s not going to work (trust me, I’ve tried). Once you’re really making progress on those, move on to the others.

What you’re really going for is to create a social media system where you engage and share on autopilot. That means your goal is to spend as little time on social media as possible. Social media can be overwhelming and time-consuming, so you don’t want to fall into a rabbit hole with it.

Ok, don’t shoot me for saying this, but…

When you’re starting out, you will need to spend more time than you want. If you hang in there with me though, this is another one of those things that will save you incredible amounts of time later on, once you set up scheduling, automation, and maybe even outsourcing.

SIX - Blog consistently

The second half of visibility, and something we can’t forget, is to post consistently.

It doesn’t have to be every day, and it doesn’t have to be 2x a week like some other bloggers tell you. I’ve tried like crazy to post more than once a week and just can’t do it! Grrrr…so frustrating!

So, we get it. We know that we have to blog regularly.

You’re probably thinking How do I get ahead of blogging? I always feel like I’m falling behind schedule!

Honestly, I’d love to know the secret to this one myself! Seriously though, there are a few things we can do to maintain a consistent schedule:

First, block out time at the beginning of the month to write all of your blog posts
Keep a laundry list of blog post ideas, arranged by theme. Use Evernote or Google docs for this.
Gather ideas in Trello. I’m so pumped about Trello, guys. I’ve just taken a peak and can’t say a whole lot yet, but it looks like you can create boards/cards for just about anything. Editorial calendar, anyone?
Create a weekly schedule where you write, proof, SEO, create images, and promote, all on separate days.

That’s all I have so far, but I’ll be looking into more ways to get ahead of blogging, because we need it!

With Love | Nikki xo