Blog: Marketing and Social Media

Easy Steps to Get Started

Branding yourself or your online business will help set you apart from your competitors. When you establish your brand – a memorable visual appeal, as well as a meaningful and compelling message – your audience will react positively and help you by passing your information on to others in their network.

Volumes of books are written on branding, so this is simply an introduction to get you started:

1. Write down your mission statement (include keywords if you can, and how you help others) – Example: “Google’s mission is to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.”

2. Create a memorable logo that’s in keeping with your business niche.

3. List ‘must-have’ benefits to your customers (such as solutions to their problems and answers to their questions).

4. Choose a page design that you can use on all pieces and sites you create. Pay special attention to layout, graphics, colors, fonts and style.

5. Have a professional photo of yourself taken.

6. Write a bio that highlights your expertise and brings out the personal you. Add information about yourself outside of your work life. For example, “She loves to grow roses and read mystery novels.”

7. Use all of the above consistently on each of your sites and social network profiles.

Brainstorm ideal domain names

As part of your branding strategy, one of the most important factors is the domain name (URL) that you choose. Domain names that include keywords are more likely to be ‘ranked’ higher by search engines. Search engines assume that the name of your site is relevant to the topic of your site, so in the search algorithms, they give more weight to the domain name, and thus your ranking – how high up you rank in the results pages. Makes sense, doesn’t it?

The domain name is only one of many factors used in search algorithms (and note that algorithms also vary among different search engines.) It’s a very important factor.

So now, let’s brainstorm domain names. Keep these things in mind – your domain name should be:

• As short as possible – try for fewer than five syllables.
• Memorable.
• Keyword-oriented.

What other Branding tips will help others get started?

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For more resources, see our Library topics Marketing and Social Networking.

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ABOUT Lisa M. Chapman:

Ms. Chapman’s new book has a name change! The Net-Powered Entrepreneur –  A Step-by-Step Guide will be available very soon. With offices in Nashville Tennessee, but working virtually with international clients, Lisa M. Chapman serves her clients as a business and marketing coach, business planning consultant and social media consultant. As a Founder of iBrand Masters, a social media consulting firm, Lisa Chapman helps clients to establish and enhance their online brand, attract their target market, engage them in meaningful social media conversations, and convert online traffic into revenues. Email: Lisa @ LisaChapman.com