Whether you’re a full-time blogger, a coach, an author, a graphic designer, own an online shop or are within any number of other industries where you run a business, marketing your brand is important. Hella important. Marketing can send your business skyrocketing or plummeting – depending on how you use it.
Photo by Hipster Mum on Unsplash
All elements of marketing your brand are important, from the tools and strategies you use, the research you do, measuring customer experience with brands like Qualtrics, the platforms you do it on and the advertising you use. If you look at brands such as Innocent and Burt’s Bees to name a few, you’ll see how they’re absolutely killing it with their marketing strategy. And it shows in their sales and revenue.
So although we might not be giants like those two brands, you can still adopt some of the same techniques into marketing your own brand for success:
Social media marketing for your brand
Love it or hate it, if you have a business, then you need some form of social media in your marketing strategy. Instagram, Twitter or Facebook seem to be the main platforms to market your business but Pinterest is also proving an extremely successful platform for a lot of people too.
Running a business is hard enough, without having to maintain your social accounts on top of it. But it’s an important skill that’s worth learning. ContentCal make marketing your brand via social media much easier with their social media management tool and social media calendar. An ideal option for if you’re not in a position to hire a social media manager.
ContentCal helps you save time on your social media marketing (everything busy business owners needs!) and allows you to draft and view posts, add pre-set posting time, store notes and to-do lists, post to multiple apps and much more. Also giving you access to Grammarly, post engagement analytics and collaborate with your team (if you have one) on easier and stress-free social media marketing.
Consistent branding
Branding. Something I didn’t know was important until somewhat recently. But having a consistent brand is so important for your business. It helps you get recognized and stand out so people know who you are, without you ever having to tell them. When it comes to branding, think about your social accounts, your website, colours, fonts etc.
Newsletter marketing
Newsletter marketing can be extremely beneficial for your brand in terms of not only sales but growing closer relationships with your readers or fans. A newsletter can be a much more personal way of marketing your brand and also allows you to provide your mailing list subscribers with exclusive discounts and sneak peeks! Another good way to reach your subscribers is through SMS marketing. Use a good platform like Message Media to get started.
Set goals, targets and monitor your brand marketing strategies
It’s all very well and good adopting loads of marketing strategies for your brand but if they’re not working, then you need to switch it up. Setting yourself goals and targets to work towards is really important in business too – so you’re not aimlessly working towards nothing. You want to succeed, right?
Brush up your marketing materials
You might have flyers, business cards, booklets or other types of marketing materials that you use for your business and it’s important to ensure these are in the best condition possible. So if you’re had a re-brand, ensure your marketing materials reflect that. If they’re a bit old and need a bit of a makeover, work on that too. Your marketing materials reflect your brand.
Have an elevator pitch at the ready
It’s super awkward in a business situation when people ask what you do and you’re scrambling to find the right words to do your business justice. So it’s handy having a solid elevator pitch at the ready for you to use at a moments notice – to avoid the awkward silences and the umm’s! An elevator pitch should be short – 2 sentences or so – and describe what you do and why you do it.
What other tools and strategies would you add to this post? Which of the above do you do to market your own brand and which do you need to work on?
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Great work! Thanks for sharing
Thanks for this article. Currently looking into a business development position and these are all useful tips/rules of thumb to consider. Your note on brand consistency particularly resonates with me. I agree, it’s important to communicate a clear message that does not confuse the customer. Another thought this brought to mind – that you should be very clear on who your avatar/template customer is; furthermore, that your message is crafted and tuned for their ears. Thanks!!
Great Work! Very Helpful Article. Thank you for sharing.
[…] Marketing can make or break a business – depending on how you use it. And there’s different marketing strategies and tools you can use to make it work for you and your […]
Thanks for the useful ideas, I agree to your point that Consistent branding is required.
This was such a great and informative read. I struggle on the social media front because I really dislike it most of the time.
https://littlemissmelanie.com/
It can be a tough balance. I find scheduling things helps if you don’t like it x
Literally I need to make my blog more brand focused!! i seem to be a little lost at the moment, so maybe setting some goals will be a good starting point!!
Goal setting is an excellent starting point 🙂 If you need any help, let me know!
Such an interesting read Jenny, so many great tips here! I would love to start a new letter one day, definitely a goal! 🙂
Kate | http://www.katelovesx.co.uk/
You’d make a great newsletter!
I really need to work on my ‘marketing’ – particularly branding. I’ve loved the way your blog has looked ever since you had that rebrand/refresh earlier this year, I would love to get my blog looking as professional as yours does!
Thank you so much! I’ve never been happier with it. I love your blog but it really does have a huge impact on your inspiration and productivity when you love it yourself too 😌
I’m going to check out ContentCal because it sounds like it could be really beneficial to me! 🙂 I would do a newsletter but I’d had zero to put in it lol 😀
Sarah 🌺 || Boxnip || Latest Post
It sounds really useful 😌 I think you’d have loads to put in it! Personal updates, beauty recommendations!
I SUCK at branding, so this is such a good idea! 🙂
Erin || MakeErinOver
Oh no! Hope you can implement that a bit next year! x
This is such a useful post! As a self-published author, social media is the main means of publicity for me, so it’s really important to think of ‘myself’ as a brand 🙂
It really is! It can be hard to think of yourself as a brand sometimes x
This is so helpful, I definitely need to implement some of these in marketing my freelance biz x
Thank you x
Consistent branding is always one of the first things I look for. If a company looks less polished in that sense it’s usually a turn off for me. I don’t know why really…it’s a bit like the whole judging a book by the cover thing. ContentCal sounds like a great service x
Sophie
I totally agree tbh!
This was really interesting and would be useful for a lot of people x
I hope so x
I love ContentCal! It is so handy to have!
Love, Amie ❤
The Curvaceous Vegan
Marketing your brand is so important! You want people to remember what your business is about without having to do the research each time. At the same time, you want to reach out to the different audiences through various mediums as well. I’ve been wanting to make a marketing package for my blog for a while. Thanks for sharing these tips!
Nancy ♥ exquisitely.me
You’re welcome glad they helped!
As always, a post full of brilliant tips! ContentCal sounds really interesting and heaven knows I need help sorting out my social media!
Daisy xoxo | TheDeeWhoLived
Thank you x
Thank you for the idea of having an elevator pitch! I’ll definitely be thinking of one!
Elevator pitches are great! They make things super easy when it comes to having to explain what you do 🙂 x
These are excellent strategies for strengthening one’s brand! The appearance aspect of a brand is so important, and I think it’s the “first impression” of the internet x
Oh I totally agree – if a brand has a messy social media / website then I’m instantly not drawn in! x
The only thing stopping me from doing a newsletter is I wouldn’t know whether to include blog post highlights or something else entirely…
http://Www.saharasplash.com
Do whatever you want in it! Although I wouldn’t recommend rehashing your blog posts in your newsletters as your blog followers would have already seen them x
Interesting post – I’d love to start a newsletter x
You definitely should have a newsletter, especially with the amount of followers etc you have x
Great post, I love the idea of having an elevator pitch at the ready! X
You totally should create one! x
Setting up a newsletter is something I am having difficult with. Mailchimp didn’t workout for me
How comes? x
Mailchimp was confusing for me to figure out. I don’t pay for a plan at the moment so I am not sure how I would be able to set one up. I don’t have access to the widgets that are required on here
Perfect timing! I’m going over my strategies for 2020 and this has really helped, thank you for sharing!
Bella x
So glad it was helpful! x
ContentCal sounds really useful! I think a goal for next year is to get some business cards printed and work on my brand theme.
Sounds like a good plan! x
These are some really useful tips for bloggers – I’ve been meaning to set up my newsletter for some time now, but I just can’t bring myself to do it!
Dominika | Into the Bloom
Just go for it! I spent ages before setting mine up but so glad I have now! x
Consistency is the absolute KEY in everything to do with marketing x
Totally! x
These are all such helpful tips! I agree with consistent branding, I’ve made sure I’ve got the same profile photo on my blog and social media and I try to go for similar colour schemes etc where I can. Little things like that really help which for a long time I didn’t consider! xx
Tiffany x http://www.foodandotherloves.co.uk
It really can! x
I guess I’d never really thought of a blog as a brand but of course it really is.
Really useful tips for all business owners x
It totally is 🙂 x