5 FREE Ways to Make Your Brand Appear More Professional
How much does it cost to start branding yourself or your business? Of course if you want a logo, marketing materials, website, and such, you’re gonna need to hire a Graphic Designer or Brand Strategist: but here I’m gonna give you 5 free things you can do to brand your company before you send that deposit to the designer. Of course I want to be the designer that you call, but I thrive off the success of my customers so I want to see your success even before you call me. So here you go, here’s the starting point, a few steps before you pay me a deposit.
Email Address. Once you purchase a domain name, for less than $20 from a hosting company like siteground.com: then you can register a true professional email like [email protected]. But even before you spend the money on the domain you can get a free gmail address that matches your business name. [email protected] may not be the total professional sounding email and it’s not the end point but it definitely sounds better than telling your target audience to email you at [email protected]. Plus it’s simple to put it on your phone so that you can respond quickly and even set up an email signature to also match your company mission and voice.
Social Media. Just as with an email address, most social media sites will allow you to set up pages with your business name while still maintaining your personal accounts as well. And just as with email, you can set it up on your phone to easily toggle between the pages and post content. There are even apps, such as Buffer and Everypost, that will allow you to post to multiple accounts on different social media sites at once or schedule the posts to appear on your timeline later. So you can actually post on your business page while you’re at work performing the duties of your full time position. Simply set it up the night before and schedule it to post during regular business hours the next day.
Blogging. WordPress is free and allows you to position yourself as an expert. You can name your blog after your business, then write about your expertise as often and as consistently as you would like. The point is to make your target audience believe that you’re the one they should come to when they need whatever you’re selling, or to position yourself as the expert. And I’m sure you had no idea I was gonna say this, but you can blog from your phone! Surprise!
YouTube. Are you a better speaker than you are a writer? Use your phone to make videos rather than or in addition to blogging. You can easily record a video of yourself discussing your business and it’s details. Or you can record yourself actually completing the work that you want them to hire you to complete. Then place the videos on YouTube for your target audience to view and once again, position yourself as an expert and gain subscribers.
Consolidation. Now it’s time to bring it all together. Share your blog and your YouTube channel on your social media pages, share each time you add content. Share your social media accounts to your blog and YouTube channels and invite people to follow, like, and link with your pages. When you want responses from your audience, use the new email address you just created for them to respond. Use all four of the above samples to promote the others and grow your audience and get them to trust that you’re the expert.
There you have it. I have given you 5 FREE ways to brand yourself and position yourself as an expert in your field. Have fun with it, keep it exciting and consistent, and grow your brand. Happy Branding.