Branding seems to be one of the most important parts of any business these days. You want to ensure that your clients and readers know who you are and branding plays a HUGE part in that.

I never worried about branding when I first started. I just wrote my blog posts and crossed my fingers that someone, anyone, would read it. That was the objective back then. Well, that is still the objective but now I have a better plan in place.

Branding is about more than just what your company looks like. It is about how it makes your clients and readers feel. It is about what you talk about and who you are as a person. Branding encompasses the whole person not just the business.

On Wednesday, I published a blog post to help you understand your blogging audience. This will also come in handy to brand your blog. You want your brand to match your blogging audience and your ideal readers.

I have already gone into detail about how to create your blogging brand on a different blog post. Today, I really want to share with you a checklist to use to keep you on track as you go through the process of creating your blogging brand.

YOUR CHECKLIST TO BRANDING YOUR BLOG

One: Describe your ideal reader. Every coach that you will talk with will tell you that this is the first step. Get specific. I actually found through the use of insights on my Facebook business page, who my ideal client really was. It helped me narrow it down.

Two: What are your blog goals? Knowing and being clear on your blogging goals will help you to communicate, connect, and empower your readers in a way that only you can.

Three: Your blog name. Are you going to have a specific blog name? What will that be? You want it to showcase what it is that you do while still being creative.

Four: Colors and Hex codes. What colours do you want on your website and logo? What colours represent your ideal client? Look into the psychology of colour as well. Make sure that you choose between 3-6 colours. This will give you colours that you use often as well as complimentary colours that you can use every once in a while.

Five: Your expertise. Have you narrowed down what you are teaching your readers? This will make a difference in how you brand yourself.

Six: What products/services are you going to have available? This is a big part of your branding. What are you offering your readers?

Seven: Your story. What are you willing to share with your audience to help you connect with them? Remember that your branding is about more than just your business. It is about what you bring to your business and who you are as a person.

Eight: Your unique perspective. There are no new niches out there. There are just different perspectives on the ones that already exist. How are you unique from those that are in the same niche as you? Think of ways that you can teach your readers outside of what your competitors are doing. (I really hate the word competitors.)

Nine: What is your mission statement? Have fun with this. Mission statements don’t have to be all serious. This is a perfect place to connect to your readers and let them know why you have your blog.

Ten: How do you want your reader to feel when they are on your site? This is important. Do you want them to feel calm and relaxed? Do you want them to feel pumped up and inspired? Get clear on how you want them to feel.

Eleven: How can you best communicate these feelings? What are the ways that you can get your clients to feel on your site? What words can you use to ignite these emotions?

Twelve: Your content calendar. How often are you going to be sharing blog posts with your ideal reader? Create your content calendar around your schedule. You can always add more blog posts once you get the hang of it.

Thirteen: Pages on your website. Besides your blog, what are the pages you want to have on your website? I created a blog post that talks about the 4 most important pages to have on your blogging website.

Fourteen: Blogging toolkit. What tools do you need to ensure that you can help your clients in the way that you want?

Fifteen: Set up your social media. You want to try and get your blog name as your social media handles if you can. This will ensure that you have a consistent brand. Your readers will know who to look up on any of your social media platforms.

Sixteen: Implement your plan. Now it is time to get started. You have prepared yourself so in order to get your readers to your website, you need to start showing it.

As you can see, branding your blog is about more than just the colours on your website. It encompasses all aspects of yourself as well as your business. Did this checklist help you? If you are looking for more help, I still have a few spaces left in Blogology. This is my 7-week group blog coaching program. I’d love to help take you from idea to blog.