To brand your Blog, Website or Social Media can be super important for gaining awareness and increasing your recognition on the web. A consistent brand can bring huge advantages such as increasing your traffic and growing a consistent following. Furthermore, it helps to establish yourself as a Leader in your Niche!
This post is all about the tools you can use to brand your blog. There are some amazing tools you can use and I am really excited to share them with you. So let’s just jump right into it!
If you need help on How to create a blog in the first place – check out my easy step by step guide you can DOWNLOAD FOR FREE below:
1. Clarify Brand Vision
Before you start your Bog or your Business think about what is my Vision for this Website. You can use this illustration to help you think about this in more detail. Basically, where do you want to go with your business or Website (Vision/Dream)? How can you help or satisfy a need for your audience (Mission)? As well as, what are my core Values – how do want to achieve your goal? I find it really useful to look at the triangle illustration below.
(Mission) We aim to…! To be a … (Vision)! Our values are…! (Values)
Write down one sentence which answers each three of these sentences and et Violà you have created your MISSION STATEMENT. Whenever you feel lost in your Blog or need guidance, go back to this and think about whether writing about this or selling this product really makes sense for your business and brand. Try to be consistent and keep your Mission statement in mind. If you do that, you will have made the first step in creating consistency to brand your blog!
All the steps on how to start a Blog you can find here:
2. Define your Niche
After you have defined what your Vision, Mission, and Values are it will make sense especially when you are a Blogger to define your Niche. This will make it easier for you to become an expert and leader on that topic. Basically, people are going to your Blog, Website to find information, guidance, help or product concerning that problem or need.
Read in more detail on how you can create your Niche idea in one of these articles:
3. Colors
Now we are getting to the fun stuff. Personally, I find that nothing is more helpful to brand your blog than a consistent Design of your overall internet appearance. We will get into that in more detail down below. However, the first step to brand your blog is deciding on a color scheme for your blog, website, and brand. Here you can get creative and let out your inner designer.
Ideally, set out 1-3 mail colors you want to consistently use on your website, logos, images, fonts, as well as Social Media. You can use colors from the same family such as a dark blue and a lighter blue or you can use contrasting colors such as blue and red. I use HTML Color Picker to start this process and experiment. It’s super easy to find unique colors and combinations. Also, write down the color code in. eg. (#ffffff) which is coding for white. Every color has its unique identifier code. This is super helpful as every design program will identify your exact color and not a single shade away. This is handy when you are designing your own logo or graphic.
I also find color Palettes super helpful and I have created a dedicated Pinterest Board containing some amazing ideas on how you can choose colors to brand your blog. You can access it HERE to get some inspiration.
When you have chosen your 1-3 colors I tend to additionally choose 3-5 more colors which are from the same color family but slightly different or different shades. This just gives you more options later on but won’t affect your branding.
My Favorite Design Tools
Just a quick intermezzo from the step by step guide. I just want to mention two of my favorite design tools, why they are amazing and how I use them!
Canva:
Canva is the free design website to create any type of designs used in blogging such as Blog HEADERS, Pinterest GRAPHICS; YouTube THUMBNAILS, Blog TITLES, LOGOS etc. Its super easy to use and it comes with a great free version which is literally ALL you need.
FlatIcon
FlatIcon is a new discovery and I literally could have started crying with joy! It is a database of Icons from various designer where you can download icons for Free (some of them cost but the free database is huge). But now comes the AMAZING trick – you can CHANGE THE COLORS OF THE ICONS and adapt it to your chosen color scheme (brand colors). Here is a quick video on how I use it. Even writing this I gets me excited:
4. Fonts
In order to brand your Blog, you will also need to be consistent with your Fonts! I would suggest using not more than 3 fonts max. Then decide which ones you are using for Titles, Headers, Subtitles, and Text. Keep in mind that also when designing graphic, pins or other forms you should be consistent with your fonts as well. Here are some amazing Free and Pro versions to download amazing Fonts:
5. Logo
There are different opinions out there whether it is necessary to have a logo for your Blog. Personally, I believe this is up to you. However, if you have a business which you are running through your blog or website and you are selling a product, having a logo defiantly makes sense.
When you are creating your logo again go back to your mission statement. What is your blog or business about? Find a form or image that suits your business. Be consistent with your color scheme so that even in your logo you are reinforcing these colors. All these things will increase to brand your blog and raise people awareness of your expert status.
6. Consistent Social Media
Follow the same color and font scheme all over your Social Media. In this way, you are able to streamline all of the people you reach and raise awareness for your brand. People have different preferences when it comes to social media. Some of them might prefer YouTube other Pinterest. I would suggest being present in at least the following Social Media with a consisted branding of your blog: Pinterest, Instagram, and Facebook. Choose the same Profile Picture, Fonts and Header to again reinforce your branding. Here is an example of some f my Social Media:
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7. Consistent & clear Website
Last but not least it all comes to together on your Blog or Website. Try to use all the above-mentioned branding techniques (color, fonts, mission statement) to really show off your amazing designs, products, and posts.
Themes are an amazing way to have a beautiful design without being a design professional. When chosen a theme you can then go ahead and adapt it whit your fonts and colors. Choosing a suitable theme is really up to you. However, think about what your website or blog is all about. Are you providing recourses, selling a product or creating community it all will affect which theme is perfect and ideal for your audience? Provide a clear path to new visitor meaning they should be able to see within a few seconds what you want from them … buy a product, subscribe, make contact etc.. Additionally, it can make sense to set up Landing Page to generates more leads and sales for your business. Check out LeadPages.
I really hope this was helpful to brand your blog. Please let me know if you enjoyed this and let me know if you have any questions
Xx Katie
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