How to Create a Branded Blog: Tips, Benefits, Techniques and More

What is a Branded Blog?

We’ve said it already, whether you’re a small business or a big, enterprise-level organization, you need a branded blog. It’s a great way to talk up your products and services and helps get visitors to your site and engage with them. Which is, you know, key to turning them into customers. 

And with so many brands crowding the market, a blog is a great place to put original content about what you do that’ll make you and your site stand out. 

But is your blog branded? 

I know, stupid question. It’s got your name on it and everything! But it’s less daft than you think, because you may be creating content without thinking about the image you want to portray. Or maybe you’re simply extending your corporate branding to your blog. If you are,  you could be overlooking important ways to enhance your brand and reach new audiences. 

Whether your blog is focused on your company, trending topics, or anything else, need to think through your brand and how it impacts your future content.

In this post, we’ll offer you some insights into creating a strong branded blog. From identifying the right domain to making your content and visuals shine, this guide will set you in the right direction so you can attract new audiences and drive leads and sales.

If you already know what you’re looking for, you can skip ahead:

What Makes a Memorable Brand

6 Advantages of a Branded Blog

5 Key Tips on Starting Your Blog

8 Clear-Cut Techniques on How to Brand Your Blog

Start Your Branded Blog With OnlyDomains

What Makes a Memorable Brand?

Branding isn’t an exact science, but there are still some things to look at if you want to stand out. Get your branded bog on track with a few simple steps..

A Name That Sticks

Names matter, so choose yours carefully, because your choice could give you very different results. 

A blog’s brand name will set the tone for your content and will impact search engine results. Consider whether your blog’s name should relate to your company or what you do and whether you should use your own name if you’re a solo entrepreneur. It’s also a good idea to use search-friendly keywords in the name.

A Custom Domain Name to Match

One of the first things you’ll need when you start your blog is a domain name: Your blog’s web address. All the usual guidelines apply, but you could consider choosing a .BLOG domain to let readers know you’re a blogger from the start. 

If your company works in an innovative industry, such as artificial intelligence, then you can select a domain that illustrates your industry. The domain extension .AI could work to show your blog’s cutting edge potential. 

If you pair this extension with related keywords in the domain name this could help you get a good start SEO-wise. 

Entering your ideas into a domain finder will help to give you some ideas.

A Distinct Colour Palette 

Colour is an important part of the branding process, so don’t skip this just because you don’t feel you’re an expert graphic artist. Ask yourself what kind of statement you want to make about your blog. Which colours reflect this? 

Think about the user experience and consider how people might react to your colour scheme, especially if you’re going extreme measures with colours like pink, lime green, or bloody red. Bold is eye-catching. But too bold could scare readers away. What’s too bold? Sorry to say: it depends on your audience. 

Whichever colours you opt for, keep your palette to two or three. If you’re using them in headlines and for type, make sure can read, otherwise what’s the point? 

A Specific Writing Voice

Consider how you want your blog to be read and perceived by your target audience. Your blog needs to stand out in a sea of online information, so you need personality. 

Are you serious or funny, formal or informal? Are you there to sell people on your ideas or to start a discussion? ? How do you want your audience to feel? Use language that represents who you are as a brand and how you want to be seen. Blogging should be like talking directly to your readers, but make sure your grammar is spot on. 

Be consistent and always use the same voice every time you write. If you use multiple writers, use a copyeditor to make sure your content is presented in a uniform way. 

6 Advantages of a Branded Blog

A branded blog is the perfect way to inform customers about the benefits of your products and services. If you’re open and transparent in your posts, customers and prospects will start to trust you and feel you’re there to answer their questions. 

A branded blog is a great way to inform customers about the benefits of your products and services. Then, if you’re straightforward and honest in your posts, your readers will start to think you’re actually there to help them, and not just see them as potential sales. Even if they are. 

Here are some key ways a branded blog can help your business.

1. Supports SEO

One chief advantage of having a branded blog is that it helps your search engine optimization (SEO) efforts. SEO is critical to optimizing your online presence so that you show up when people search for your business (also known as SERPs or search engine results pages). 

The better your organic SEO, the more likely it is that people will find you when they’re searching online. Blogging helps SEO by:

• Letting search engines to understand and rank your content via keywords
• Giving search engines fresh new content
• Providing your site with extra content, making it more likely to rank higher in search
• Attracting more backlinks which also go towards getting you higher rankings

Using a plugin like Yoast to optimize your SEO can help you keep your blog up to date with the latest SEO best practices.

2. Manages Media and Brand Messaging

Just like having a podcast or newsletter, a blog enables you to publish content on your own terms, kinda turn you into a mini media company. 

Because you’re your own publisher, you have complete control of your messaging and you don’t have to rely on other platforms to share information. Some ways to promote your business in your blog include:

• Sharing stories about your company
• Promoting new product releases
• Highlighting events and promotions, such as webinars or contests
• Featuring user-generated content
• Telling your brand story and vision using content, video, and pictures
  
  

3. Gains More Traffic and Website Traction

With your branded blog you can create content that relates to every touchpoint in the customer journey. This way, you can create different ways for new customers to find you. The traditional stages of the journey are:

• The awareness stage: When prospects are seeking solutions to their problems
• The consideration stage: When people know what they’re looking for but want to compare different options
• The purchase phase: When prospects are ready to buy but they need to know from whom
  
  

4. Generates Leads

As your blog’s content guides customers and prospects through the buyer journey, you can collect leads and drive audiences down the sales funnel. Use your blog content to encourage users to give you their email addresses or other contact information. Create reasons to opt-in that readers will find valuable and promote them via your blog. 

5. Produce Content for Social Sharing

If your brand has a social media strategy, you’re no doubt constantly looking for content to share with others. Once you have a branded blog, you can share your posts through all your social media platforms. Remember that you don’t get just one social share from a post. If your content is evergreen—i.e., not time-sensitive—it will still have value over time. 

You can boost social media marketing efforts by continuing to share content weeks or even months after you first publish it, by simply changing the social post but linking it to the same branded blog post to extend your reach. 

6. Produce Content for Email Marketing Campaigns

Branded blog posts are also useful when it comes to supporting your brand voice in your email marketing campaigns. 

If, for example, you have a newsletter, you’ll need to fill it with content, and blog posts can provide that content. Create an email that introduces your blog post along with a call-to-action to read it, and you’ll have created the email content you required for a newsletter.

5 Key Tips for Starting Your Blog

If you’re new to branded blogging check out what your competitors are doing. This can both help you brainstorm some ideas, and help you work out what you don’t want to do. Here are some other recommendations on creating your branded blog:

1. Consistently Post Articles

Don’t expect immediate success. You’ll need to have patience and keep writing if you’re to see an uptick in traffic. Set yourself goals and move towards each one step-by-step. 

Make sure you post consistently. Don’t publish three articles one week then nothing the week after. People will read your blog in their free time, so don’t overwhelm them with tons of information in one go. 

Determine what your posting schedule is and stick to it, uploading posts at set intervals. If you are going to post three articles per week, add them to your blog on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays, for example. 

Give your audience a chance to read your content gradually. By delivering your content in small portions, readers will get into the habit of reading them and look out for updates. If you’re strapped for time, buy-in quality content from a professional writer. 

2. Use Powerful Keywords

Even if your posts are packed with useful content and are formatted well, no one will find them if they aren’t high up in search engine rankings. Use powerful keywords to encourage Google bots to find and feature your content to boost your website traffic. 

These keywords are what people type when they’re searching for specific information, and you can research the right ones for your purposes in various ways:

• Google Keyword Planner
• Google Search Console
• Ahrefs Keywords Explorer
• SEMRush
• Moz Keyword Explorer

These tools are easy to use and will give you an accurate picture of the most popular queries in your niche. 

When you’ve assembled a list of keywords, use the strongest in your headings. A fashion retailer specializing in formal wear, you would want to use headings like “What’s the best prom dress for 2022?”

Use less popular keywords in meta tags, descriptions, and in the body of your posts. And make sure to distribute them evenly throughout the articles so it doesn’t read like a set of search queries. 

3. Optimize Post Lengths

Don’t make posts too long or too short. The magic “just right” is when you can cover your topic while getting all your search keywords into the content organically. 

When you’re starting out writing a new piece, put yourself in your readers’ shoes and ask “is everything clear?” “What questions do I need to ask to clarify things further?” You don’t want your posts to be superficial or vague, they need to add real value, so make sure to include user data.

Some statistics indicate that posts of longer lengths tend to rank higher, but that doesn’t mean you should fill a post with fluff to meet that word count. Don’t add in repetitive or irrelevant information simply to increase the length of your posts. Don’t add in repetitive or irrelevant information simply to… you get the point. Readers may find your articles due to the SEO benefit, but if the articles aren’t good, then they’ll quickly leave and won’t come back.

When it comes to titles, six to thirteen words is a good length. Right to attract the attention of both readers and search engines. Try taking a one to three keyword phrase and expanding on it to create an original heading. 

4. Dilute Text With Visuals

This point is especially important if you’re producing long-form pieces of content because readers can find long reams of text hard work or, worse, dull. 

You don’t want that, so use images and videos to make your content engaging. 

Adding in visual elements will help to engage readers so they can absorb, digest, and remember information. Infographics provide a great way to attract readers’ attention, and you can go on to provide them with detailed information in the body of your posts. Tables and charts are also useful in breaking up the text and showcasing information.  

5. Invite Experts to Contribute to Your Blog

Getting experts in your field to talk on your blog will give everything else you post a hint of their credibility and authority… Guest bloggers can also help to ease the burden of writing and provide you with a fresh perspective and style. This brand strategy can help to differentiate you from your competitors. 

Ask guest authors to share links to their posts on all mediums from social media networks, blogs, and websites to boost search engine rankings and increase volumes of traffic to your site. You can also be the expert by partnering with authoritative sites in your niche and creating blogs for them or for relevant marketplaces to further boost your reach.

8 Clear-Cut Techniques on How to Brand Your Blog

1. Think of a Great Name

Your blog name is representative of your brand online. It acts as a digital extension of your identity, so it must be a name you’ll be proud to stand by for years to come. 

There’s a lot of blogs that have similar names. So put some effort in to stand out from the crowd. Aim for a name that’s unique and easy to remember. Here are some things to factor in when you’re choosing a name: 

• Short and simple
• Catchy and easy to recall
• Easy to type without any need to spell it out
• Easy to pronounce
• Visually pleasing and that it flows well
• Relevant to your topics
• Descriptive
• Free of dashes, numbers, or hyphens 

Don’t be afraid to brainstorm and take the time to come up with your name. Write down a list of words, phrases, or character names you like. Play word association games. Check out a thesaurus, or PowerThesaurus, to give you ideas. Don’t dismiss using made-up words or titles that don’t make sense or mix words (think Tumblr and Pinterest). 

2. Match it With a Custom Domain

To set up a branded blog, you need a domain name. You can get lots of different extensions from .BLOG  to .BUZZ or .IO to represent your tech credentials, and so on. 

Whatever you put on the other side of the dot, informs readers what your blog is about. When picking a domain, the same rules as choosing a name apply: make it memorable and easy to type in and avoid numbers and hyphens. Connecting your domain to your blog should be fast and easy, so long as you choose the right domain provider (We obviously think that’s us, but if you’ve got your own favourite, that’s fine).

3. Choose a Unique Design for Your Blog

When you’re thinking about design, make it simple and elegant to encourage users to click where you want them to. 

Your blog post readers should have a seamless experience while they’re on your blog and after they’ve left it. For an easy way to set up a branded blog, a platform like WordPress can be invaluable. It offers a host of attractive templates for you to choose from as well as useful plugins that’ll help you get our message across right. 

Before you design your blog, use a mood board to guide you and ensure it’s going to create the right sentiment for your readers.

4. Use a Memorable Logo

To boost brand awareness, you’ll also need a unique logo. Take your cue from the likes of Mcdonalds’, and you’ll see how powerful a logo can be.  Make sure your blog is a true representation of your brand’s values. 

5. Give Your Blog a Tagline

Even if your blog has a catchy headline, you can do more to set your reader’s expectations. That’s why a clearly written tagline is very important to your blog’s success. 

A tagline is like a slogan that helps people remember your brand or an elevator pitch that defines what your blog is about and why people should stick around to read it. It needs to be punchy and to the point, and to sum up in one line how you can help your audience. The tagline needs to be prominent in your header and appear directly below or next to your logo. 

Your tagline should explain the mission of your blog and whether it’s to inform, inspire, or help readers. It should offer to give them something different and illustrate your brand identity—setting the tone for the rest of your writing.

If that sounds like a heck of a lot to fit into one line, don’t worry, it is. Focus on what’s most important.

6. Secure and Stick to Your Writing Style

Your writing style plays a big role because it’s essentially the voice of your brand and will impact how long readers spend on your blog. Get it right and it can also inspire customer loyalty and help you stand out. To build a strong branded blog, take some time to identify your writing style. Ask whether you will:

• Write long or shorter posts
• Write controversial content or stay within the norm
• Stir up emotions by being brash and to the point, or remain neutral

Once you’ve answered the above questions this should help you find the correct writing style for your blog to reflect your principles and ideas.

7. Set a Publishing Schedule

Once you’ve identified your writing style, you’ll need to think about your posting style. For example, do you plan to post daily, twice a week, or weekly? Once you’ve figured this out, you need to stick to the plan. Readers need to know when they can expect the next post from you. Branding is about consistency and predictability. 

Your publishing schedule has a big influence on your overall brand construction, so it’s worth taking some time to work out the best ratio—not too much and not too little to make your audience forget about your blog.

8. Communicate With Your Audience

The best way to maintain your branded blog is to ensure good communication. Word of mouth is still one of the best ways to influence an audience, and your readers are the ones who will help you build a successful brand. If they aren’t sure you’re the right solution, you still have some work to do. 

Start Your Branded Blog With OnlyDomains

Right, now here’s the bit where we can help you: OnlyDomains has everything you need to set up a successful branded blog from unique domain names to WordPress hosting, along with a website builder.  

When it comes to finding the most important thing, the right name, and domain for your blog, OnlyDomains has the solution with over 900 extensions to choose from. 

You can also easily transfer your existing domain to us. 

With an OnlyDomains domain, you can quickly set up a blog or point it to your existing one. You can also point it to your social media pages and set up a branded email address.

Our ready-to-use WordPress solution offers you an incredibly quick way to get started with your branded blog. There’s a reason WordPress is the most popular website builder in the world and it’s ideal for building a blog. It’s suitable for complete beginners to blogging, featuring simple drag and drop designs and no coding required. The WordPress Beginner package is ideal if you’re just starting out on your branded blog. 

At OnlyDomains, our WordPress hosting includes a free SSL certificate, so know your blog will be safe and secure. And as part of the package, you also benefit from email hosting and automatic WordPress installations and updates, with the option to choose from over 1000 themes and plugins, including those for SEO optimisation and form builders. 

The importance of having a branded blog cannot be underestimated. We hope this guide has given you some inspiration, along with tips and resources, to help you create a blog that’s sure to drive awareness of your personal branding going forward.