Branding - NetCastles

Branding is a mystical concept for many people, or even a dirty word. I prefer to think of branding as another tool, a way to focus yourself so you can stay on track. If you pin down and put into words what you are trying to achieve, that goal can always be in sight.

This is why I think branding is important, even if some people think marketing is a dirty word. As long as you let your branding remain flexible as you evolve, all it does is give you a strong footing to start from. Branding enables you to be intentional when a new opportunity arises, to judge if this is something you want to develop or just another drain on your time and energy. Some think they are stifling their creativity with planning, but I don’t think there’s any problem with being creative intentionally.

A lot of bloggers make the mistake of paying to make their site pretty and think that is taking the next step, but are disappointed when they don’t see any improvement in traffic. This is because the bones of their site haven’t seen any changes. You have to focus your content to be consistent and attract people you can provide value to. Those people you can truly reach are the ones you should be speaking to, in your business and your brand.

I’m linking some worksheets here. These worksheets are all available online free, although often you have to sign up for a mailing list

These are somewhat in order from wide to narrow. I suggest you read over the titles and pick one that excites you, then do that worksheet and think of 3 action points that you could do to implement what you learned. Then repeat next week, or next month, or whenever you have time to do another.

Happy hunting!

Melissa French, Virtual Assistant & Designer at NetCastles

Know Your Why

Your Why is your motivation, your purpose, the thing that drives your inner compass.

TED Talk: How Great Leaders Inspire Action http://www.ted.com/talks/simon_sinek_how_great_leaders_inspire_action

Discover Your Why Workbook http://liveyourlegend.net/email-updates/

Discovering Why Purpose Pack http://sourcesofinsight.com/discover-your-why/

Brand Personality/Archetype

Brandality Quiz from Kaye Putnam gives you percentages, good info in the results she sends http://kayeputnam.com/brandality-quiz/

Primary Archetype Quiz from Cerries Mooney Creative more personal, free with email opt-in, good info in the results she sends https://www.cerriesmooney.com/archetype-test

Brand Psychology Workbook http://kayeputnam.com/youre-in/

Share Your Brand Story http://hopkinsprinting.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/Brand-Worksheet_Brand-Story.pdf

Brand Story Worksheet http://www.yourwriterplatform.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/Brand-Story-Worksheet-PDF.pdf

Use Your Voice http://byregina.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/Use-Your-Voice-Worksheet.pdf

Essence/Purpose/Vision/Mission

Get Brand Clarity https://tizzit.co/get-brand-clarity-workbook/

Defining Your Brand Purpose https://www.dropbox.com/s/l1jum850f77uomh/worksheet-intentional-brand-purpose.pdf

Identify Your Value Proposition http://www.marketingexperiments.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/MarketingExperiments-Value-Prop-Worksheet.pdf

Elevator Pitch/Statement

Brand Positioning Statement http://contagious-ideas.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/BCSI-Brand-Positioning-Worksheet_FNL.pdf

Upgrade Your Elevator Pitch http://s3.amazonaws.com/media.skillcrush.com/skillcrush/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/Elevator-Pitch-Worksheet.pdf

The Elevator Pitch https://ehadvising.com/marketing/formula-for-a-killer-elevator-pitch/

Tagline/Slogan

Blog Header Tagline http://designyourownblog.com/wp-content/uploads/Blog-header-tagline-worksheet.pdf

Nailing Your Tagline https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/building-authentic-brands/BAB-Tagline+Worksheet.pdf

Platform/Social/Site

In How to Blog for Profit Without Selling Your Soul, Ruth Soukup talks about developing 5 main categories of content. These can be categories/types/values offered. This way a visitor/reader can go straight to the thing of most value to them.

Next you develop pillar content (also called cornerstone content) for each of these categories. This would be the pieces that offer the most value and are best representative of your work. If something were to go viral/become a bestseller you would want it to be one of these pieces. There’s nothing worse than something going viral that has nothing to do with anything else you’re doing, you get all those visitors that you have nothing else for.

Blogging

Blog posts have shifted, it is no longer ideal to post every day. Less frequent, higher quality posts get better search engine positioning. You can post as infrequently as once a month. However, Google heavily penalizes inconsistent posting, so you need to commit to whatever schedule you settle on.

How to Create an Editorial Calendar http://aeolidia.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/aeolidia-editorial-calendar.pdf

Planning Your Content Strategy http://aeolidia.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/website-content-strategy-aeolidia.pdf

Targeted Traffic to Your Website http://aeolidia.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/aeolidia-targeted-traffic.pdf

Writing

Writer’s Statement http://www.eadeverell.com/wp-content/uploads/statement.pdf

Creating Intentionally downloads directly https://drive.google.com/uc?export=download&id=0B-6N-EIfT9nLbUF5RkxORTlyVk0

Marketing/Audience/Customer

Target Audience: Identify http://www.yourwriterplatform.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/Target-Audience-Part-1-Worksheet-PDF.pdf

Target Audience: Understand http://www.yourwriterplatform.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/Target-Audience-Part-2-Worksheet-PDF.pdf

Find Your Readers as a Fiction Writer http://cooksplusbooks.com/wp-content/uploads/How-To-Find-Your-Readers-as-a-Fiction-Writer.pdf

Dream Customer Exercise http://aeolidia.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/dream-customer-exercise_Aeolidia.pdf

Ideal Customer Profile Tizzit https://tizzit.co/ideal-customer-profile-workbook-for-handmade-shop-owners/