Brand You: The Top Five Ways To Build Your Brand Online
by Angela Booth
Your brand is you. It's
everything that your business is, encapsulated in a name, and sometimes in a
slogan. But naming your business and creating a slogan isn't enough. You've got
to build your brand, by showing what your brand stands for.
Here are the top five ways to build your brand online:
1. Create a Web site
Your Web site can be anything from a tiny billboard site to a huge ten-thousand
page extravaganza. Either way, your Web site builds your brand. Of course, the
more pages your site has, the more you can showcase your products and your
expertise.
Tip: you're never done building your brand, and you're never done building your
Web site either. Aim to add something to your Web site every day, even if it's
only one blog post (see below). Building your Web site is the easiest, the
cheapest, and the fastest way to build your brand, online or offline.
2. Develop a blog
A blog lets you broadcast your branding messages far and wide via the magic of
Really Simple Syndication (RSS). Within minutes after you've written a blog post
and published it, your post is visible on sites like Technorati, which is both a
blog search engine and a blog promotion tool.
The general business community is now wide awake to the power of blogs. Your
blog can help you to build your brand as nothing else can. Spend a few minutes
today checking out the Web sites of others in your industry. You may be
surprised, and even shocked, to discover how many of your competitors are
blogging.
3. Write articles to showcase your expertise
What do you know? What do you do? How do you do it? Why do you do it? When do
you do it?
Your customers have many questions that they want answered before and after they
do business with you. One of the easiest ways you can answer their questions is
to write articles, white papers, and reports. If you do enough of this, your Web
site will become a trusted portal for news about your industry. This has huge
benefits for your Search Engine Optimization (SEO) activities. Can you imagine
what this could do to build your brand?
Once you've written the articles, post them to your Web site, and to article
directories, of which there are hundreds online. When you post these documents
to article directories, people are made aware of your brand, and your brand's
message spreads virally, as other people promote your material on their Web
sites.
4. Write news releases
Up to 80 per cent of the all news in newspapers and on news sites is taken
directly from press releases sent out by companies and organizations.
Whenever a story appears about you in the press, whether online or offline, the
resulting free publicity is branding that you can't buy, no matter how much
money you spend on advertising. You can leverage your brand with just one story
in a daily paper. Tip: your local media, newspapers, radio and TV, are always
desperate for stories -- send your releases to your local media, as well as
posting them online.
5. Teach your expertise to others
When you teach others, you learn too. In fact, you may only become fully aware
of what your brand actually is when you start to sell franchises, or when you
teach others your processes.
Branding is a function of marketing, and whether your business is brand new or
well-established, branding your business makes your business memorable, so it's
essential. These top five activities will create a strong brand for you, much
sooner than you think possible.
About the Author:
Angela Booth is a veteran
copywriter and marketer. She develops marketing strategies for businesses large
and small. Visit her creative copywriting site at
http://angelabooth.com/
and her Creativity Factory marketing copywriting blog at
http://www.angelabooth.com/wp/
NEW: subscribe to Top Words, Angela's exclusive free marketing tips ezine:
http://angelabooth.com/Top_Words/subscribe.html Source of this article:
www.goarticles.com
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