This article is aimed at entrepreneurs trying to build their personal brands.
This is vital today because we live in the era of Internet and when a person wants to know more about you, they will browse to get info. WordPress platform can help you highlight the best points to help you build trust, following, and an irreproachable reputation online.
In this article, we will give you 25 working tips telling how to build your personal brand using your WordPress blog.
[lwptoc]Why Do You Need Personal Branding?
Before asking ‘why’, let’s say ‘what’. What is personal branding? It is the practice of marketing yourself and your career as a brand.
Who needs a personal brand? We guess the answer is ‘everyone’ – entrepreneurs, small business owners, cooks, doctors, professors, real-estate brokers, students, the list goes on.
Current technologies allow Google your name and learn even more than you can imagine. By building a personal brand you can effectively market yourself on the Internet.
Personal branding helps you earn trust, build a following, become a field influencer, make friends, and find a ton of new opportunities.
Even if the idea of marketing yourself like a product doesn’t make you happy, you are still assessed by the things you put online.
Personal Brand with WordPress Blog:
Well, let’s finally take a look at the tips that will help you brand your WordPress blog and make a go of it.
1. Build a web presence
Yes, it sounds obvious, but we need to utter the tip. Building a personal website is the first point on your to-do list.
No doubt that having social media profiles is necessary, but social networks are unstable, they come on and go. You must have a solid platform where you can publish the content you want.
Don’t worry, building a website with WordPress is really easy. You will need a WordPress hosting service and a domain name for that.
Decent hosting providers offer one-click WordPress installation, so your WordPress blog will be up and running in no time.
You can also use their Blog WordPress themes with integrated setup service.
2. Get a personal branding WordPress theme
The way your website looks is very important for the first impression and further success. WordPress is ready to provide you with a free theme, but we would recommend opting for the premium WordPress themes.
Of course, if you are a developer you can try to save some money and turn a free theme into something unique… but think about your time. Does it cost money? Of course, it does. A premium WP theme costs $50 – 70 on average but comes with all the bells and whistles including free images, plugins, updates, and expert 24/7 support. So think well whether the free themes really save your money.
3. Place your logo
If your business has a logo and it probably does, include it on your blog. This is essential as logo informs the user that your blog is a part of something bigger, your business brand. Place it on the left side of your blog page because multiple studies show that namely this placement is ideal.
4. Stick to corporate color palette
Use the same colors for your blog as you do for your business design. For example, if your site uses mainly blue and grey, so should your blog. If your packaging uses white and orange prominently, your blog should feature the colors too.
5. Mind your tone
We are sure that your brand has its own tone which you use in your advertising and communication materials. Your blog must narrate using the same tone. So, what you need to do is align the way you communicate in your site copy, promotional materials, social media accounts, and printed materials with your blog posts. It doesn’t matter whether your brand’s tone is serious, irreverent or humorous, it must be consistent.
6. Choose only quality images
Visuals are one of the most important elements contributing to your blog success. People are visual creatures and you shouldn’t neglect this fact.
Furthermore, the types of pictures you publish on your blog that accompany the copy along with their quality (the photos must be sharp, not blurry) and size (small pics are hard to see, so it’s better to use large ones) will tell your site visitors a lot about the credibility of your brand.
7. Create quality content and publish it regularly
We are sure you want to grow your blog audience and take leading positions in the industry. You will never achieve this if you don’t publish on regular terms.
If you publish a few times a week, your readers will associate your brand with fresh high-quality content.
8. Use a terrific Blavatar
Do you know what a Blavatar is? It’s the word for favicon in WordPress. A favicon is a “favorite icon” and your site icon displayed in the browser tabs.
This is a simple but effective way to display your brand’s logo in your readers’ browsers.
9. Use outstanding typography
Typography and branding are closely connected. Choosing the right typeface affects the way how your readers absorb the information and content available on your blog. You may select different fonts for headlines, sub-headlines, and body paragraphs, but all of them must be readable and legible.
10. Be consisting with your branding
All the properties associated with your brand like your site, packaging, social media accounts, etc. should be aligned with one another.
How can you achieve this? Make sure that you have a clear understanding of your brand values, its mission statement, and the way you want your visitors to perceive this info.
11. Establish your own domain
The address like ‘yourbrand.wordpress.com’ doesn’t appear professional to your readers. Don’t make them type this ugly URL. Establish your own domain, may the visitors see something like ‘yourbrand.com’ in the URL.
12. Accept guest posts
What is guest blogging? This is when writers, influencers, or industry leaders write a post for your blog. You get quality content in exchange for a backlink to the author’s site. Why accepting guest posts is beneficial for your brand? This way you define your brand as the one that is accessible to others and values professional relationships.
BTW, top blogs like Kissmetrics and HubSpot, for example, do this all the time.
13. Think more when naming your blog
The name of your blog should be smart but still related to your brand so that your readers understood this connection. Your blog’s name should be tied to your business in some way or form.
For instance, template’s developer (TemplateMonster) blog is called Monster Post. It communicates the connection of its content to the brand and readers can understand this.
14. Use a Tagline
What is a tagline? It is a quick and pushy catching phrase or a slogan that immediately communicates what your blog is about. Pick a slogan that’s meaty and easy to understand.
15. Long posts
The length of your content affects the efficiency of your blog. Every blogger dreams to turn their resource into a lead-generation machine bringing new prospects to your business. A long-form content is the one including at least 1500 to 2000 words.
The longer and the more in-depth posts you publish, the higher SERP position you get.
16. Embed videos
Embedding videos in your blog posts is one of the excellent strategies to convey a notion that your blog is a cutting-edge resource. This contributes to your modern brand look.
The study carried out by Cisco shows that about 80% of the web will be dominated by video content by 2021 so you’d better get ready for the challenge.
17. Establish your brand by considering the topics you cover
What topics do you want to cover on your blog? If you offer digital assets, your blog content may cover design and business topics.
Note that if you choose the right topics for your articles, you can establish your brand in no time. For instance, if you’re running a healthy lifestyle blog, it might be smart to focus on its specific aspect. It may be healthy nutrition, diets, and recipes.
18. Formatting of your blog matters
People don’t read word by word on the Internet. They scan the information. That’s why walls of text perform poorly. Keep your paragraphs short and chunk your content. This way it will become easy to absorb.
Format your content into smaller sections providing better readability and attracting a bigger audience.
19. Don’t overdo with ads
Remember that when you place too many ads on your blog this aggravates user experience. Its design becomes cluttered and hard to read. It also makes your blog look amateur and outdated, so minimize your ad content.
No ads on your blog ensure sleek and streamlined presentation that is easy on the users’ eyes.
20. More white space
Using enough white or negative space on your blog is one of the most effective branding tools. It helps to separate content blocks and make them more readable.
Using plenty of white space makes your brand look like you’re at the hub of legibility and readability.
21. Place Navigation Properly
What is the most common place for navigation? Most often it is placed horizontally on top of a webpage.
When readers see a familiar layout like this, it makes your site usable and tells them that your brand understands the best practices of web design.
22. Hero image will help you to grab attention
A hero image is a huge, impressive photo placed right in the header of your blog.
Using such kind of image immediately catches the reader’s eyes and can convey what are your blog’s values. Look at the example below to understand the technic better.
23. Make your search field prominent
When your blog is a success, you add more and more content. Your readers will want to find specific posts quickly without browsing. Give them a noticeable search field they can use.
The fact that you included this basic design element will tell your readers that you have a good idea of basic UX principles.
24. Make your contact info visible
Your blog is a marketing tool. You run it to direct people to your products or services. Of course, readers want to know more about you to make sure of the legitimate nature of your business. This is a good reason to give them your contact info.
It would be ideal to include an email address or phone number in the footer or header. If you can’t do this, include at least social media buttons so that people could get in touch with you.
25. Responsive design is a must
Make your blog mobile friendly as more folks are using mobile gadgets for browsing Internet these days. And their number is going to increase. The great news is that WordPress has an array of responsive themes that are mobile-optimized.
Conclusion
What was the main idea of this blog post? We wanted to persuade you that considering each and every aspect of branding for your WordPress blog is requisite. Why is it uber important?
Because otherwise, your blog falls under the risk of becoming just one of the millions of blogs existing in cyberspace.
Implement the above tips and your blog will have a professional, authoritative, and readable look making a positive lasting impression on the visitor. Moreover, publishing high-quality content regularly will take your blog from a startup to the name known and remembered by many.
Have any questions on the material above? Want to share some insights on the topic? Your comments are welcome in the section below.