Branding | Dot Com Mogul

You are judged by your appearance … and that includes your blog, websites, business communications and even the words that you publish. Establishing an identity or brand when doing business is vital and it’s important to think about what kind of image you want to convey before deciding on your brand identity. Branding for a blog can be as simple as the domain name and title of your blog and the topic of your blog. Your blog should have a certain focus and voice … a consistent message.

In addition to the message you want to get out, your visual brand should also convey the same message that your words do. People are often stereotyped by how they look. For instance, a couple of stereotypes that come to mind are:

Hippies do drugs and don’t shower
People who wear glasses are smart or geeks
Women are bad drivers
White men can’t dance
Black men are good at basketball
Blondes are dumb

The same is true for your visual branding on all of your communications, including your blogs or websites. Choosing the right template, colors, header and even advertising is important if you want to keep your message consistent.

Your brand should follow you throughout all of your communication channels, including your profiles on social networks. Eventually, people only need to see your brand to instantly recognize you and recognition is a good thing. Are you a recognized entity? Do people see your name and know who you are and what you do? They can!

Building Brand Recognition

You know the sites that people instantly recognize and talk about … ProBlogger, TechCrunch, Dosh Dosh, Facebook to name a few. These sites have what is called brand recognition. Brand recognition is more than just looking good (although that’s a big part of it). You build this kind of presence, or brand recognition on the Internet by using the same principles as in the traditional business world: marketing and advertising.

So how do you build your brand? Here are a few things that most major Internet sites have in common:

Great design: Professional looking design, great layout, well-designed graphics, and a consistent look across the site.
Memorable logos: Developing a great logo that conveys your brand throughout all of your communications is important. You don’t need to spend a fortune on visual branding. There are a lot of freelance sites where you can get inexpensive bids on logos from professional graphic designers.
Navigation: Visitors should have easy access to the various portions of the site and should be able to get to what they want in four clicks or less. Use menus, site maps, and shortcuts to help achieve this goal.
Recognition: The site is advertised on other sites in the form of banner ads that reflect the brand. Even when surfing elsewhere, Web users recognize the logo, tag line, and familiar colors that represent your site and your business.
Incentives for visitors to stick around: The main page of the site showcases special promotions of featured products and services and changes those promotions frequently. For B2B (business-to-business sites, highlight your newest products and services.
Current information: Publish news that means something to your visitors, such as how your products and services make their lives easier. Case studies and examples of how to use products give existing customers cause to return and potential customers reasons to be interested in your site.
Up-to-date appearance: The site often has special graphics for holiday seasons, keeping the site’s appearance fresh and up-to-date.