Your blog is the crock pot of your branding. There’s a combination of ingredients that when combined results in a scrumptious recipe for your unique brand identity recipe.
It’s this unique recipe that will build brand recognition and foster that signature visual calling card visitors need to instantly recognize your content when they’re not on your blog.
In addition to breaking down the recipe for branding a blog, I’ve also rounded up examples of mouth watering blog branding from bloggers that are already reaping the rewards of their signature brand identity recipe.
The unique recipe for branding a blog calls for the following 7 ingredients:
1. VOICE
Every great chef and foodie has a special ingredient or secret sauce they hold close to the cuff, which makes their dishes irreplicable. When it comes to branding a blog that is your voice.
No two people use the same verbiage, speak in the same tone, or come with the same approach. Your voice is the most unique factor in your brand identity recipe, so take great care to perfect this secret sauce.
Don’t underestimate the power of your voice. Without it your recipe will very likely end up looking and tasting like everything else out there. It’s this ingredient, your voice, that should ultimately dictate the subsequent ingredients in your recipe. It’s truly the secret to your success. Work to find your voice and THEN build your recipe around that.
2. HEADER
The next essential ingredient for branding a blog is your header. This is really the meat of your recipe.
A header is the first thing a visitor sees when landing on your blog, so just like a bad piece of meat can ruin a dish, a poorly constructed header can squander a first impression.
Your header should include:
➽A well designed logo that includes the name of your brand
➽A tagline that tells a visitor what your brand is about, who it helps and how it will help them
Be aware of what I call the ‘hotdog effect’ when designing your header. You do not want to put everything but the kitchen sink in there. Your header is a qualifier for visitors. It should tell them enough that they can make a quick determination if they want to learn more or leave.
Open or white space is needed to have a clear introduction. Limit the ingredients in your header to a logo and tagline that are legible and easily readable in milliseconds.
3. FONTS
Fonts are to a blog what vegetables are to your daily nutrition. You need to find the ones you like best and use them regularly to see results.
Without defining specific fonts for the different elements on your blog your brand identity recipe will be lacking the hearty structure it needs to grow.
There are 3 fonts you need to define when branding a blog:
➽A headline font
➽A secondary headline font or accent font
➽A body font
Using fonts consistently will make your content easy to scan and read. It will also build brand recognition through familiarity in your typography.
4. COLOR PALETTE
Spices dazzle our senses by bringing out the taste and aromas that make the flavor experience come alive. Colors do the same thing for a blog. The unique color combination you choose will help you visual delight visitors and make your brand identity recipe your own.
There are 5-6 colors you need to define when branding a blog:
➽ONE Dominant color (Primary color associated with your brand)
➽ONE Primary Action Color (for calls to action, links and buttons)
➽ONE Light Color (for fonts and backgrounds)
➽ONE Dark Color (for fonts and backgrounds)
➽ONE to TWO Accent Colors (to use in your images and on your website to interrupt your basic color scheme when you want to accentuate or highlight something special)
Once you define your branding color palette you want to consistently pepper your blog with each color in the elements the color was defined for. Consistency is the key to spicing up your brand identity with color, so keep your recipe potent by always using your brand color palette, no exceptions.
5. DECORATIVE ELEMENTS
When done right, herbs are an organic way to beautify the presentation of a dish, without disturbing the finished product. Defining decorative elements for your brand identity recipe can result in the same type of finishing touch for your blog.
Decorative elements that are commonly used when branding a blog are:
➽Background Patterns
➽Lines/Separators
➽Frames
➽Bulletpoints
➽Banners
➽Icons
Decorative elements are meant to seamlessly add to your overall brand identity recipe. If something detracts, from your existing recipe in any way, it should be left out. Like a garnish to a dish, use decorative elements in a way that if left out they would not affect how mouth watering your recipe is.
6. IMAGES
Used the right way and in the right ratio carbs give you energy. Images , done right, have the same result when branding a blog. It’s not images in their rawest form that creates energy. It’s only when your visual content is presented in a way that seamlessly complements the rest of your brand identity recipe that the magic really happens.
There are 4 elements you need to leverage when creating images for your blog:
➽A template for consistency
➽Branding stock photography to match your signature style
➽Making sure images are share worthy
➽Watermarking for brand recognition
If you make sure your images have been infused with these 4 guidelines you can count on them adding energy and visual delight to the unique brand identity recipe you’re whipping up on your blog.
7. SOCIAL BUTTONS
After you whip up your delectable blog branding recipe you’re going to need some flatware and utensils to serve it up. That’s where social buttons come in.
There are two type of social buttons you need to brand for your blog.
Social Profile Buttons
These are buttons that are linked to your specific social profiles, which helps visitors find you on their platforms of choice.
There are 2 ways you can brand your social profile buttons:
➽With your branding color palette
➽With a branded pattern
Social Sharing Buttons
These are the buttons visitors can use to share your content on social media.
The only way to create branded social sharing buttons without an ounce of coding is to use the Social Warfare WordPress plugin {affiliate link}. One of the coolest features {and there’s a lot of them} of this plugin is the ability to change the color of the buttons. Meaning, you can tweak the color of the buttons to the action color in your branding color palette.
Here are a couple examples from folks that have installed the plugin on their blog and use the defined action color in their color palette for the social sharing button color.
{Peg Fitzpatrick}
To help you brand your blog like a boss I’ve gathered examples of some of the tastiest branding ingredients from bloggers that have perfected their brand identity recipes. These are bloggers that have a line of patrons around the block. Patrons who come back again and again to devour their tasty recipe.
Take care to note how each ingredient in their brand identity seamlessly blends with the others. Notice how even if only 2 ingredients were used their recipes would still be identifiable. It’s this type of culinary feat that creates a winning brand identity recipe.
Note: I’ve made notations on the images to illustrate the different ways these bloggers have infused their branding ingredients into their blogs.
Here are some of the best blog branding recipes out there:
{Successful Blogging}
Final Thoughts:
When branding a blog you need to start with your voice and strategically add the other 6 ingredients one by one to make sure you maintain the right flavors.
Your unique brand identity should end up being an aroma that will permeate a visitors palette and help them recognize you anywhere they go on the web. If you don’t want that aroma to be a stink they want to bury with air freshener take your time in the kitchen. Like a bad restaurant, you will fail quickly if you don’t put care into creating a snackable experience visitors want to come back for again and again.
Here’s to creating a dish blog any critic would love to devour!
I have looked online and I have to say this is one of the best I have read on blog branding. I am a blogger myself and a lot of people who blog know nothing about what you have outlined here. Very valuable content, particularly finding that voice that is unique to you as a blogger. I believe that’s where branding starts from. Took me time to get it but when I did things started falling in place. Great content and learned a lot from you. ?
The voice part of my brand took me a looooong time to find too, so I know what you mean. There’s nothing like the freedom and ease of using your own voice in your business…it makes everything so much easier.
Thanks a TON for the content love, Andy! Holler anytime questions come up, I’m happy to help. {fist bump}
Voice is definitely one of those items that people sometimes forget because it’s not “visual”!
Great tips!!
Exactly! Thanks for the content love, sweetie! {fist bump}
I am still into discovering my voice and my secret recipe. Maybe you can give more stories or examples, just how to do this.
You bet I will, lady! I’m going to start a weekly FB Live series in September and tackling your brand voice is on the top of my list of topics to cover more in depth. I’ll make sure it oozes with examples and stories. ? Thanks for the comment love, Shirley! {fist bump}
This is a very helpful post Dre. I like how you divide up branding into mangeable chunks so that we can work on each thing one by one.
Stoked to hear you found the post helpful. Chunking shiz out is what I’m all about. ; )
Awesome post (I know everyone has already said that). But seriously, good stuff!
I have recently been working on a new blog and have been trying to put an emphasis on the branding. Have been getting a lot of compliments about my design and post images so I must be headed in the right direction!
Chris
High five for the love, Chris! I love, love, LOVE your logo and favicon. Your site looks fantastic, so you bet your badass you’re headed in the right direction. I think the images you have with icons are super signature style worthy for you – I’d ditch the stock photography and go all in on that…but that’s just my two cents. I hope you won’t be a stranger now that I’ve sent those jedi mind tricks vibes your way. Oops, I’ve said too much. ; ) ROCK ON, brotha…
Another rocking post! And thanks for including me in your list. You know that nothing warms my heart more than to read about visual strategies on your site. You’re my go to chick for all visual things that rock. ?
Aaah, thanks for the warm & fuzzies, lady! Of course I included you, I be loving your vintage visual look – it ROCKS! {high five}
Just when I think you can’t get any better you blow me away yet again! There’s such a sea of overwhelming sh*t to learn out there when it comes to branding and making something of yourself online and everything else is so watered down its hard to know where to start. Your blog posts sum up all the diluted versions of what I’ve been trying to learn FOR YEARS and it is sooooo appreciated. You really have a one stop shop here
Daaaaaayum girl, now that’s a testimonial that gives a girl a serious case of warm & fuzzies! I can’t stand that generalized crap and I have no time for fluff so I’m stoked to hear my straight shooting, getting down to biz ways are getting the job done for you. I’ll keep on delivering if you keep on devouring! Deal?? ; )
Really loved this post. So much so that I printed it out and took notes on how I can apply these tips to my own blog. I do have a question for you: if you wind up redesigning your blog and updating the look of your brand, should you go back and redo all of your graphics? Or is it okay to just go with the new branded look for images in new posts? Thanks for taking the time to write such a helpful post!
Hey Beth! I love a gal that’s all about implementation and taking action – big ass high five to you!
It would serve you to update your images IF the rebrand has a completely different look & style. A great way to do this is to line out time to create a batch of new images every couple weeks. Then as you update the images {one a week is a great pace} update any other outdated links or info in the post, add new links from existing articles that are appropriate and then promote the post on social media to drive more traffic to the new and improved post. Pick a day of the week and start at your first post and work you way through them with this process. OR, start with your popular posts and go from there.
Hope that helps!
It helps tremendously, Dre! Thank you so much!
I call that mission accomplished, Beth!
Great post, my first visit here! I love the food comparing! ha ha.
You have shown samples from some of my favorite bloggers.
Now if we could have All bloggers read this and clean out some of their clutter and wonky fonts! ?
Im a wine guzzling shoe hoarder… Do you think they have a group for us? he he
What can I say, I was really hungry when I wrote this post – NOM NOM NOM!
Ooooh, that’s a dream of mine too, Kelly. Here’s to hoping {fingers and toes crossed} that bloggers around the globe will find this article and USE IT. ; ) Our bleeding eyes would be ever so grateful, right? hahaha
Nah, us wine guzzling, shoe hoarding chicks are so badass the world couldn’t handle it if we all gathered together. I swear if one doesn’t cheer me up the other does…it’s a total toss up which one I’m more in love with. Anything that combines both is truly my happy place. Aaaah, crap, I got lost in that day dream for a second. Cheers, girl!!
Yay lady you rock! AWESOME write up (as usual) and what a treat to see me featured! Aww love ya girl!!
How could I NOT include you’re epic slice of the web? ‘Lovin Ya’ vibes coming right back at ya, girl!!
Good stuff, as always, Dre! I especially like your tip on having a header that is clear. Often times, headers are full of nonsense stuff that is far too distracting.
Oooh the headers that have made my eyes bleed! Thanks for the love, Carrie-Anne.
Just started a blog. Can’t wait to apply your techniques. very informative, well writen!!
That’s awesome, Dena! Send me a link when you get your blog dialed in, I’d love to see how you put this all to good use. Holler anytime if you have questions – I’m happy to help, lady!
Wow, I get to read this after spending a little bit more than 1 hour with you to help me brand my own blog site. You blow my mind. I invested thousands of $ on various courses and I learned more from you in that one hour about branding online than I ever did in any of those other courses. And now I get to read this list about branding too. Bonus…..Forever fan! lady…..:)
What are you trying to do to me, lady?! Kill me with a wicked case of warm & fuzzies?? ; ) You’re the best, Nicole – I had such a blast chatting with you. I can’t wait to see your final brand perfection when we get finished up awesomizing you!!
As always, right on time! This was everything that I needed broken down to actionable steps I could tale today. Thanks Dre! You’re a beast!!!!
Oops *take
Saweeeeeet, love hearing that, Daria! ROOOOOAAAARRRR <—– My beast sign off ; )
This is the good stuff. Thank you for all of this, yes ALL of it! This helps direct me, and reminds me how much work I have in front of me. Putting the best out is the only option, this kicks me out of my seat to get closer to that.
I’m stoked to be the kick in the arse you need, Gene. And I’ll try to always follow that kick with a light to guide you on your journey. Here’s to getting sh*t done, brotha!
What a nice surprise to be reading your blog and see my website!
I couldn’t have done it without your One-on-One Brand Mentoring, Dre. It made all the difference in the world for my visual content marketing.I HIGHLY recommend it to all website owners – it rocks!
Thanks for the great post and “snackable” information.
Sue
Aaah, I really appreciate that endorsement, Sue! You still reign on top as one of my best clients ever….only to now be a great friend I feel blessed as ever to have. Sending one of those big ass high fives your way, lady!
And right back at you, lady!
Sue
Great post! Got me out of being stuck!.
Doing a happy dance for your un-jammed status, Anjali! Yayyer!
We be getting there babs!
Hell yeah we be!