How to: Cultivating a Unique Brand For Your Blog

Happy holiday weekend! Today I’m so excited to take a step back and have Kory take center stage. Not only is she a great blog friend, she’s an incredibly talented designer who helps bloggers and creative women bring their brands to life.

Today, she’s sharing her advice on how to create a brand identity both unique and true to self. Be sure to follow Kory’s blog for even more great advice, book reviews and showcases of her work. She’s also on twitter and has a stunning and inspiring Instagram feed.

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Once you’ve been blogging for a little while and things start to get serious one thing becomes glaringly obvious: branding is incredibly important in the blogosphere. The problem? Well, hiring a designer or branding expert can cost hundreds, even thousands of dollars.

There are tons of great blog posts about how to brand your blog using free resources like Canva or PicMonkey, but what about the inside stuff (you know – the why, the message, etc). How can you make sure that while you’re working on DIY’ing your brand that you’re creating a unique brand for your blog when there are literally thousands of blogs out there?

Well, here are some simple things to consider to help you cultivate that unique brand for your little home on the internet —

YOU HAVE TO GET TO THE ROOT OF YOUR BRAND’S IDENTITY.

If you really want to avoid having a cookie cutter brand for your blog, you have to invest time into getting to know your blog and the brand. This doesn’t mean just figuring out the basics like how many days a week you should post or what social media you’ll be present on. Nope, I mean the deep stuff.

Things to consider:

WHY DO YOU BLOG:

You may have started your blog as a hobby or creative outlet, but why are you still blogging? Is it because you want to turn it into a source of income? Is it the first step in starting a business? Really get to the root of why you’re blogging. Don’t worry if this changes – it’s natural that as your blog grows and you develop goals for it, it’s likely that your why will change.

WHO IS YOUR CURRENT AUDIENCE:

People put a lot of stock into who your ideal audience is, but what about your current audience? Who are the people that you’ve already attracted and that keep coming back for more? Take a look at the people who are regularly commenting on or sharing your posts, the people who are interacting with you regularly on social media.

WHAT PROBLEM ARE YOU HELPING THEM SOLVE:

Regardless of what you’re blogging about, your readers have a problem that they’re coming to you to get help with. Yes, even if you’re a style blog – in that case they’re coming to you for outfit inspiration. If you’re blogging about business – well then people are coming to you for help in their own businesses.

WHAT DESIGN STYLE WILL REPRESENT YOUR BRAND:

Design is a hard thing to figure out for yourself. Why do you think designers have such a difficult time creating work for themselves? However, when you’re working on your brand, it’s important to take time to think about why style will represent your brand. If you’re not sure where to start, go back to who your audience is, what your main goals are with your blog, and what styles speak to you the most.

When it boils right down to it, cultivating a truly unique brand for your blog takes time and a lot of reflection. It’s not going to happen overnight, and even worse – it’s bound to change as you grow and evolve (because your blog will be growing and evolving with you). If you need help cultivating that unique brand for yourself without spending hundreds or thousands of dollars on a branding expert, you can pre-order my new ebook, Craft Your Brand, now for $29!