What is your brand?
What does it stand for? What is its name?
When people think of your brand, what do you want them to think of?
These are all questions that are important to ask yourself. If you don’t know what your brand is and what it stands for, then how do you expect others to know?
Why Branding Is So Important For Your Business
There are so many in Internet marketing who run their business very haphazardly. They just want to make some money and don’t really want to do all the “business stuff” they might have had to do in the days when Internet marketing didn’t exist.
It honestly makes a lot of sense that fewer Internet marketers think of branding. It really is easy to make money online these days in a way that makes it easy to skip tried and true “real” methods of establishing and growing a business.
As long as you have a high quality product or drive traffic to links that are in the right places, you can make sales and earn a great income.
The problems come when it’s time to scale your business up—this is especially important for those who are in product creation or are in the business of providing a service to others.
Sure, those who stay behind the scenes with affiliate marketing might not have to worry quite as much about branding. I urge you not to dismiss it altogether even so, though. If you’re building a list and communicating with potential customers in your niche, then you can absolutely benefit from branding in your business.
Your brand solidifies what your business is all about. When people think of you and your brand, they should think of all the reasons you’re different and better than the competition.
If people can consciously and subconsciously associate positive feelings with your brand, then they’ll be more likely to buy from you.
The Parts of your Brand
You might be wondering what exactly goes into branding. It’s everything to do with your business, really. Only, it’s something you’re conscious of rather than the accidental or non-existent creation it might be if you don’t strategically plan your branding.
Your brand might include having a catch phrase or a name people think of when they think of you and/or your business. In some cases, you and your business are one and the same, so that’s something you’ll have to think about and understand before you go much further.
I’ve released a large number of products over the years. I’ve become known for being prolific, for paying attention to mindset as much (or more) than I do with the how-to information. More importantly, I’ve become known for helping people find success when they maybe hadn’t before.
That’s something I’m proud of.
I’ve worked hard to build a brand that represents who I am and the legacy I want to leave.
I’m telling you the story of my own brand in the hopes of helping you jumpstart your own thinking about branding.
You have to know what you want people to know you as. You have to know what people should think of when they think of you and/or your business.
Everything, from your logos and graphics to your content, products, and promotions, should fall in line with your brand.
Setting Yourself Apart
I want to emphasize that, as part of your branding, you should know how your business stands apart from the competition.
There’s bound to be competition out there. If there isn’t, then you might be in the wrong line of business altogether. Expect and welcome the competition because the chances are good you can make some great money by making waves in an already profitable line of business.
But, it’s important to stand out. You can’t and shouldn’t just do the same old things everyone else is doing.
What sets your business apart? For me, it’s that I concentrate on small successes and projects that snowball into major successes over time. I’m famous for helping people go from $5 a day to a potential $1,000 a day, on the strength of their newfound mindset and follow through.
I could have thrown in the towel from the start, knowing that there are an incredible number of Internet marketing competitors out there. You know how true that is—there’s no shortage of IM’ers trying to sell you on this method and that method. There’s always a bright shiny object out there that’s calling your name.
My branding is set apart from that. I’m proud of that fact.
Figure out your unique selling proposition—your USP, before you move forward with your branding.
How to Get Your Brand Out There
You’re an Internet marketer, so you know a thing or two about promotion. Write down what your brand means to you and what it means to your audience. Focus on your USP.
Figure out your graphics and branding materials. Take a look at the content you release—both paid content and content you give away for free or use to drive traffic. Connect and unify everything you do in your business
You can spread the news of your brand and become more of an authority in your niche with your brand by networking on social media sites like Facebook and Twitter. You can create a Facebook group that’s representative of your brand and that helps people with things they need help with, for example.
Build an email list so you can build relationships with your audience.
Your goal should be for people to think of you and your brand first when it comes to the type of business you’re running. As time goes on, you want your brand to become synonymous with what people want and need in relation to your niche.
Build Your Brand
Building your brand is something that happens over time. I suggest you come up with a plan and a schedule for yourself for branding, starting today.
Ask yourself those tough questions I posed to you in the beginning. What is your company, what does it stand for, what do you want people to think of when they think of your company, how does your brand stand apart from others—you get the idea.
You might do some brainstorming to start with. You can then solidify the things you brainstorm into firmer plans and ideas.
Deciding that you’re going to build a true, honest brand is one of the smartest choices you can make in business. This can help you scale up and make a bigger impact on your audience.
Today is just the first step. You’ll continue to build your brand over time, with every move you make in business. Everything, from the way you communicate with your audience, to your logo and graphics, to the products you release will fall under this brand. Every move you make will grow your brand to bigger and bigger heights.
This is exciting—get started brand building, today.