Learn to brand your blog the right way for instant brand recognition. Here’s how to achieve brand consistency with your blog to build confidence with your readers!
When we think back to our first attempts at blogging, we can’t help but laugh.
We did a lot of things WRONG, including falling victim to the notion that only certain businesses need a brand.
We, along with MANY other bloggers, thought we didn’t have to brand ourselves! That’s only for mega-sized companies like Nike or Target.
We’re not going to have a physical storefront. We won’t run TV commercials or mail out coupons. Why would our teensy tiny baby blog need a BRAND?
To our surprise, we couldn’t have been farther from the truth.
Get our FREE Blog Brand Guidebook + Canva Brand Board template and learn how to create a powerful brand that sets you apart from the sea of sameness!
EVERY business needs a brand. Big, small, and everything in between.
A brand is a style. It’s a theme for your business (yes, your blog is a business). It’s your business’ attitude.
Most importantly, it’s YOU. If you were converted into colors and fonts, anyway.
But what branding can do FOR you is where most bloggers fall flat. Branding your blog can:
- Save you a ton of design time
- Help with brand recognition
- Increase your traffic and email sign-ups
- Make you more money
Yes! Branding your blog can actually help with ALL of that (and way more).
And to think there was a time when we thought we weren’t big enough to have a brand! Pretty crazy, huh?
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Let’s explain it a little differently.
Your brand is not only what your readers see on the outside using things like fonts and colors; it’s also how you them FEEL.
Your brand is your blog’s PERSONALITY. It’s how you talk to your readers and express your unique style.
It’s what sets you apart from the rest! What do you have that others don’t? What makes you different? What are you saying that others aren’t?
That’s your brand!
Table of Contents
BRANDING BASICS
Before you can create a brand for your blog, you need to figure out your message and lean into your ‘lane’ of blogging.
Finding your purpose in this online space FIRST will save you so much sanity (along with time and money! This will get you +1M times further in the first part of your blogging journey than ‘nailing your branding.’
The best way to figure this out is to start writing (even if it’s imperfect!)
How can you create a brand for your blog if you don’t know what you want to write about and who you’re writing to?
Identify those things FIRST. Then you’re ready to brand your blog!
BRAND LOGO
To most, creating a logo is (way) easier said than done.
While it may be the hardest part of branding your blog, it’ll set the stage for every visitor who lands on your site.
Plus, it makes completing the rest of your brand board that much easier.
Related Post: How to Create a Stand-Out Logo for Your Blog
There’s a LOT that goes into designing a logo. So much so that we wrote an entire article to walk you through the steps we take as designers.
To summarize, we recommend a simple or text-only logo to start. Do not get hung up on creating the perfect logo!
Our first logo design was very simple yet conveyed our personality perfectly. We used color and two forms of text to create a stand-out logo.
Our second (and current) logo is even simpler, using only three colors and one font: Poppins.
Canva has a ton of (more modern) logo templates to choose from or grab yourself a professionally designed logo from our Five-Minute Brand.
Our Five-Minute Brand comes with 40 (completely editable!) Canva brand kits +PLUS blog graphics so you can literally create a brand in five minutes!
Now, back to Canva for a minute.
You CAN use Canva to create logos. The thing to remember is that you can’t use certain elements if you want to trademark the logo.
We’re going to say that one more time.
You can use Canva and even their logo templates for your blog if you do NOT want that logo trademarked. If it’s available to use by others, it can not be trademarked.
Related Post: Read This Before You Make a Logo in Canva
If you’re firm on trademarking your logo, you can create your OWN logo using ONLY lines, simple shapes (e.g., circle), and/or fonts. You can also hire a designer to create a custom logo for you.
Download your logo as a ‘Transparent background’ and add it to your brand board.
Use our Canva Brand Board template in our FREE Blog Brand Guidebook!
ALTERNATE LOGO & WATERMARKS
Once you have your main logo designed, it’s time to create a few alternatives.
Alternative logos are usually a circle or smaller version, making them great for corner placements on graphics!
We like to take it one step further and create a solid black as well as an all-white version so that it’s easier to use as a watermark on our designs.
It’s just another way to brand your designs and add a bit of professionalism without the price tag of custom graphics.
These are incredibly easy to make in Canva, or use our pre-done alternative logo designs in our Five-Minute Brand.
Each brand kit comes with 3 logos (1 main and 2 alternatives), color palette, font combination, design assets, and inspiration graphics.
We then tuck them away in a [BRAND] folder for safekeeping as well as adding them to our Canva Brand Kit for easy access.
Related Post: How to Set Up Your Brand Kit in Canva
Don’t forget to download your alternative logos and watermarks as a ‘Transparent background’ as well!
INSPIRATION & STYLE
Your brand’s inspiration is one of the most important sections of your brand board!
Grab our Canva Brand Board template in our FREE Blog Brand Guidebook!
This is where you’ll choose about three different images (ideally stock photos) that truly describe your brand.
These images need to be your entire essence. Your blog’s style, attitude – everything that makes your blog YOURS all rolled into an image.
These images need to be so like your brand that whoever looks at them can tell exactly what the personality is for your business.
Once you have your three images chosen, upload them into Canva and add them to your brand board.
Don’t have a brand board? Use our Canva Brand Board template in our FREE Blog Brand Guidebook!
BRAND FONTS
We always joke that you’re not really a blogger unless you have a Google folder filled with fonts that you’ll never use… they were just too cute to pass up!
With that said, we completely understand the obsession with fonts! If that’s you, you’ll need to channel every fiber of self-control in your body and choose two to three fonts – MAXIMUM.
Related Post: Our BEST Typography Tips to Create Amazing Designs
We usually suggest having one premium font that’s specific to your brand.
The reason is that so many bloggers use free fonts provided by Canva and Google.
Your one premium font will help your designs stand out, but it’s definitely NOT a deal breaker if you can’t swing it with your current budget.
Simplifying DIY Design started with a basic font and a fun (premium) script font.
We used our two fonts, Poppins and Justinot Infinity, on every element of our blog – social media, lead magnets, digital products, blog images, logo, email signature, slide decks…
We only experimented with a few different fonts on our Pinterest graphics. However, our style remained the same.
BRAND ELEMENTS
Unlike your style images, your brand elements or patterns will be used in the things you create.
Incorporate brand elements into your website, social media images, Pinterest graphics, digital products, etc.
This works well if you want to ensure your brand is INSTANTLY recognizable. Using these elements consistently will help boost brand recognition with your audience.
When we first launched Simplifying DIY Design, we consistently used the same banner style (and dashed arrow) throughout our entire brand.
Now, don’t go overboard with design elements, either. We recommend no more than three elements or patterns.
We do NOT want to create design overwhelm and give off an unprofessional hodgepodge of a brand to our readers.
All of our Canva brand kits within our Five-Minute Brand have two to three brand elements, max.
Are we saying EVERY brand needs to use design elements? Absolutely not.
There are some who’ve been so consistent with their blog’s brand that no additional design elements are needed for instant brand recognition.
If design elements or patterns fit your brand’s personality, great! If not, that’s totally okay!
CREATING A BRAND FOR YOUR BLOG TAKES TIME.
A brand is so much more than a color palette, font combination, or even a website design.
Yes, the colors and fonts you use play a part. It’s what your reader sees! But it’s so much more than that.
Your brand is the personality of your business and what you want to convey to others.
It’s your style and how you make people feel.
Our brand personality is fun and bold. We provide easy-to-use design templates and easy-to-understand design resources.
If our brand personality wasn’t approachable, how could we help eliminate the overwhelm of graphic design for bloggers?
Our readers would feel intimidated reading our content, buying our products, or reaching out for advice!
Creating a brand for your blog takes time.
However, if you’re struggling with creating a brand for your blog, you may need to take a step back and go deeper into your market research.
RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THIS POST:
- Five-Minute Brand
- How to Create a Stand-Out Logo for Your Blog
- Read This Before You Make a Logo in Canva
- Our BEST Typography Tips to Create Amazing Designs
Don’t forget to get our FREE Blog Brand Guidebook + Canva Brand Board template and learn how to create a powerful brand that sets you apart from the sea of sameness!
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WANT TO SAVE THIS FOR LATER? PIN IT TO YOUR FAVORITE PINTEREST BOARD!⬇
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