WordPress was launched more than a decade ago, but it remains the top website builder, content management system, and blogging platform. Its popularity shows that it is very flexible in its usability. Its versatility is another reason many designers and bloggers prefer it for their various projects.
Blogging is very important today as it helps in improving marketing endeavors of freelance designers, small businesses, and entrepreneurs. Using a WordPress blog can only be successful when if it branded well and aligned with business objectives. Here are eleven tips on how to how to brand a WordPress blog.
1. Include Your Logo And Favicon
Your logo is that symbol that promotes public recognition and identification of your brand. As part of branding your WordPress blog, you need to have a simple but attractive logo on your website so visitors can get to recognize your company easily.
The logo goes hand in hand with a favicon (favorite icon), which is a shortcut icon that is displayed on the tab of a browser when someone visits your website. A favicon can get associated easily with your brand, so it is more than just an icon on your website. While designing either used to be quite difficult, nowadays we have plenty of tools that can let anyone create a beautiful and representative logo or favicon for free. For example, you can use Zyro to create an attractive logo and favicon within minutes, completely free of charge.
2. Use Outreach Techniques
An essential part of building your brand is making sure it is better known. Collaborate with other content creators, blogs, or businesses. This collaboration can be based on cross-promotion, guest posts, or heading to Medium to write a couple articles that highlight your brand and help people better know you.
3. Have Consistent Typography And Colors
Many companies have a unique color scheme that they associate with their brand. Before you design your logo or website, I would advise that you choose your company color. This scheme should be prominent in both your logo and website. To find colors that work well together you can use a tool like Coolors.
Apart from the color, you also need to have consistent typography on your website and in your advertising and communication. This will make it easy for clients to associate the color with your product or service.
4. Utilize SEM
SEM stands for search engine marketing – a practice of placing ads on search engine result pages. Select key phrases that are deeply connected to your brand, product or mission, and big to get your ads on those search queries at the top of the result page for that query.
This is a great way to be noticed by people who are not yet familiar with your brand or only know of your competitors.
5. Use Relevant And Attractive Graphics
A picture speaks more than a thousand words. Any graphics on your website will make your brand message easier to understand. When planning for a WordPress blog, ensure your graphics are aligned to those you use for your marketing campaigns.
Likewise, ensure all your graphics are in sync with what you use in social media or email marketing. Always strive to achieve consistency whenever you want to present your brand to the public.
6. Host Q&A Sessions
To build your brand, you need to establish yourself as an authority in your field. You can do this by hosting a Reddit AMA. Simply go to said subreddit, introduce yourself on behalf of your brand, and interact with people that may be curious about what you do.
7. Pick a WordPress Theme That Matches Your Business
WordPress has several themes that suit different businesses. Not only that, within a business category, you will also have a variety of choices to experiment with.
Whenever I am working on a WordPress website, I usually choose a theme that not only matches the business type but is also consistent with the brand. For a startup, you can use the free WordPress themes, but I strongly recommend the premium themes as they give you more room for manipulation using plugins.
8. Build Many Pages For Credibility
Both the logo and the name of your company are important. However, you need to go beyond that. Your website should tell a story to make your business look more credible. Having a website with just one page may show some level of lack of seriousness. Your customers, both current and potential, would want to relate with the company or with you. Telling them the history behind your business is the best way to bring them closer.
If you started from a humble beginning, let them know about this so they can get inspiration. Apart from your story, your potential clients may want to get detailed information about your products or services. They will also want to know the different ways they can reach you.
There is a lot that should be on your website, and all of them cannot be accommodated on a single page. So, you need to have several pages, each dedicated to a particular section. For example, you can have the About Us Page, Services Page, and a Contact Us page.
Add any other pages you feel are important for your business. Don’t overload one page with too much information. Each page should align with your brand, and you need to stick to your color scheme. Make sure each page has a title to describe what’s covered on the page. This way your blog will be much more approachable, and hold all the required context about who is writing the posts, and how they can be reached.
9. Always Have Great Content On Your Website
A website isn’t just about logos and other graphics. Content is what brings in traffic that leads to conversions and loyal followings. Investing in content is what I have found to be the secret behind successful WordPress blog branding. That’s why the blog page is very important on any website. Many WordPress themes have pre-built blog pages that you can just customize to suit your needs.
Once you have the blog page, the next step is to come up with high-quality content that aligns with your brand and marketing strategy. The content should be informative to show that you are an expert in your area of business. You could create a comprehensive style guide that helps keep all your content in the same voice and tone. You can take inspiration from Mailchimp’s style guide.
Additionally, the content should be SEO friendly to ensure your website gets good rankings by search engines such as Google. Google Keyword Planner can help you find keywords relevant to your brand and are competitive. Make regular posts so your visitors can get something fresh every time they visit. To enhance the quality of your content, add some videos. Videos are engaging and are the best tools to push your brand’s message. They also ensure your visitors stay longer on your website.
10. Offer Email Subscriptions
An email is a very important marketing tool. This is because email messages go directly to the reader’s inbox. By providing email sign-up on your website, you’ll be able to communicate directly to those clients who have subscribed.
You can tell them about new arrivals, promotions, discounts, and other offers. You can also use the email to alert them whenever you make a new post.
If your company produces newsletters, you can send them for free to your subscribed clients through their emails. I would also advise that you integrate your website with your social media sites.
11. Interact With Followers
Nothing beats a good, human connection. Go out of your way to reply to Tweets or Instagram comments, make them personal. Get to know your audience, and create positive experiences and a good impression. That’s the straightest way to improving your brand’s recognition through word-of-mouth advertising.
Conclusion
Branding a WordPress blog is a matter of creativity and knowing the best practices that can help you get ahead. Anyone visiting your website should find it attractive and easy to use. Websites built on WordPress are easy to design, even to those who lack coding knowledge.
About the Author
Simon Dwight Keller is a digital marketing entrepreneur. He co-founded a digital marketing company PRable and runs his own company – SDK Marketing. Besides his burning passion for SEO, he is interested in ice hockey and traveling.
