Publishing a blog isn’t just about sharing content to establish your expertise. It’s about writing posts that create a connection with your audience. However, you can only do this if you and your content stand out from the crowd. To accomplish that feat, you need to develop a strong brand identity, and your blog is one of the best vehicles for doing that.
Develop Your Brand Using Keywords
It doesn’t matter how eloquent your posts, if they don’t include keywords, your audience will never find your content. If you’re going to go to the effort of writing a continual stream of blog posts, you need to know which keywords you’re targeting.
The best approach is to focus on one or two keywords per blog post. You can do this by keeping the focus of each post as narrow as possible. Cover one key topic per post. If you find yourself going onto tangents, that’s a red flag that you’re trying to cover too much in one post.
You may have a rough idea of the most relevant keywords to the brand you want to develop, but consider how much competition there is for each one. There are lots of keyword suggestion tools out there to help you get this information. A free one that’s easy to use is Word Tracker. Simply type in your keyword and evaluate the volume of searches and the competition for the keyword, then fine-tune the keywords you want to write about.
Develop Your Brand by Defining Your Voice
When it comes to developing your voice, it’s all about creating consistency, so your audience knows what to expect. Are you going to be authoritative, friendly, comedic, or technical? Are you presenting information from a personal perspective or reinterpreting industry insights? If your goal is to stand out from the crowd (and it should be), then how are you going to achieve this? What unique aspects of yourself do you want to present to the world through your blog content?
When I first started blogging, I experimented with different writing styles. It took me a while to find a consistent voice. After writing for a year, I looked back on my articles and identified the common traits I felt most in tune with and the writing tone I didn’t connect with. I stopped writing authoritative articles and focused on creating a more informal and quirky content style.
There’s no right or wrong approach to establishing your brand voice. Still, it needs to be authentic and consistent if you want to build an audience of loyal followers. For instance, the brand voice you establish in your About Page should be the same voice you use in your posts.
If you’re planning on writing a book, the tone and style of writing should be consistent with your blog. This is especially relevant if you’re planning on blogging your book. After all, the last thing you want to do is rewrite your content or have readers disappointed when they discover your book sounds totally different from your blog.
Develop Your Brand Using Your Passions
Passion serves as one of the most valuable elements for fine-tuning your brand voice. When you care and are enthusiastic about your topic, that passion shows up in your writing, and your audience will recognize it immediately.
Using your passions to narrow down your niche also helps you create content you’re most invested in.
Develop Your Brand by Guest Blogging
Once you’ve defined your voice and identified the topics you’re most passionate about, it’s time to start reaching out to other bloggers within your niche. Offer to write guest blog posts for their blogs. This is a worthwhile activity if you’ve taken the time to establish a consistent blogging style and tone. Then, when readers follow a link from your guest article back to your blog, they know what to expect.
Extending Beyond Your Blog
Your blog is an integral part of your brand, but it won’t be the only place you have a presence online. Whether you have one or multiple social media accounts, the style and tone of your profiles and social content should align with your blog. That goes for your newsletters and any other content you create.
When all your content—no matter where it is published—share the same style, voice, tone, and topics, you’ve developed a consistent and solid brand for yourself.
Your brand is a mix of your passions, the skills you’ve acquired, and personal experience. It’s unique to you and is the way of differentiating yourself from your competitors. If you don’t take the time to develop a compelling brand, you—and your blog—will get lost in the crowd. Unfortunately, that means you’ll struggle to attract your target audience.
Many bloggers focus on their content and what they want to say, but you can get one step ahead by also considering how you’re going to say it.
What steps have you taken to use your blog as a way to develop your brand? Share your feedback in a comment below, and please share this article with your blogging network.
About the Author
Jay Artale abandoned her corporate career to become a digital nomad and full-time writer. She’s an avid blogger and a nonfiction author helping travel writers and travel bloggers achieve their self-publishing goals. Join her at Birds of a Feather Press where she shares tips, advice, and inspiration to writers with an independent spirit.
Leave a Reply