Building a Successful Brand
When it comes to building a successful brand into entrepreneurship, I can speak from experience. In 2016, I started my blog as a creative outlet to express my love for fashion, beauty and travel. Fast forward 5 years later, I walked away from my toxic corporate America job to pursue my passion as a full-time blogger and content creator. It was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made. Not only am I happier, but I’m doing something that I absolutely enjoy while generating passive income.
Building a successful brand is not something that happens overnight, it takes time and patience to build it up. There are many resources out there in your reach like YouTube, social media articles on LinkedIn, books and so much more. Take advantage of educating yourself to learn what tools are needed to build up your brand.
I want to share a few helpful tips that helped me along the way in building my brand Shakia Style Diary from the ground up.
Research your target audience
Knowing your audience early on is such an important factor because before you can build your brand, you need to know who directly you are speaking to. Who are you creating content for? Are you directing the conversation to women who love affordable fashion? Are you targeting makeup lovers? When I first started my brand, I struggled with this because I was all over the place. I had to narrow down who my direct audience is. With my brand Shakia Style Diary, the goal is primarily inspiring anyone to embrace their own sense of style and have fun with it. Whether it’s through fashion, beauty or travel, it’s what you make of it. Take time out to think about this and develop what specific group of people you want to communicate your brand.
Make Your Website a Priority, not social media
This is a mistake I see so many business owners and entrepreneurs make. The energy is solely placed in social media, and not the very thing that is yours, your website. I know we can get easily caught up in promoting our brand on social media like Instagram reels, stories and TikTok, but never make these social media channels your priority when building up your brand. The truth is we don’t own any of these platforms and at any time they can shut down. Your website is what you own, and no one can take that from you. It’s where most can learn about your brand and what you offer. Instead, utilize social media as a tool to market your brand and not a primary source for promotion.
Invest in your brand and treat it like a prize possession
Investing in your brand is so important because it helps to build the foundation. Invest in the tools you’ll need to make your business a successful one. I had to hire a certified Google marketer to help with my technical SEO for my website because I had so many technical issues on the backend, I had no idea about. In addition, I had invested in an SEO course that taught me how to find keywords to add to my blog post and rank high in Google. Investing in your brand is definitely something you should do. Never view it as a waste, but a smart investment that will pay off in the long run. Have you ever loved something so much that you’ll do anything to protect it? This is how you should treat your brand because this is something that you created building it from the ground up and it’s your prize possession. Always take the time to show it love.
Network! Network! Network!
I can’t stress how important networking is. The biggest mistake I started out with my brand is not networking and no one knew who I was or knew the face behind the brand. I started out networking at New York Fashion Week, from there I networked locally in my city when brands would have events. Sometimes, I often get invites through email to attend events. It’s important to get out there and let others know who you are. Never be afraid to introduce yourself and your brand to the world because you never know who you might meet. Remember, there’s room for everyone in the world of entrepreneurship. Depending on your niche, see what networking events are in your town by checking out social media, Eventbrite, Meetup or you can even search Google networking events in a particular city of interest.
Research Affiliate Marketing programs to join
Affiliate Marketing is one of the best ways to earn passive revenue. It is earning a commission by promoting a product or services created by a retailer or an advertiser. You promote that link and when someone clicks on that link and makes a purchase, you receive a small commission. This is one of my favorite ways to monetize my website, as well as working with my favorite brands I love while establishing a partnership. Those commissions really do add up when you have a good amount of traffic. Check out affiliate programs like Rakuten Advertising, Commision Junction, RewardStyle and many more.
And that concludes some tips on how to build a successful brand. I hope these tips will be very helpful to you when it comes to your own brand. Always take the time to research what strategies work for you. Believe it or not, you’ve already have taken the first step towards success by creating your brand. Stay patient and humble while trusting the process.