What's All This About Content Branding?

Have you heard of content branding? What's the buzz about? What does it mean to brand yourself or your content?

If you've ever seen an old western, you're familiar with cattle owners burning their ranch logo into the rumps of the cows they own. They would brand them to show ownership in case of theft or if a stray cow got out other ranchers would know who it belonged to.

Business and content branding works in a similar manner, except you won't use a hot iron. Instead, you will use your writing voice and perhaps a logo to brand yourself as a writer so that you are easily recognized.

Depending on the services you offer, your brand can be something like "The Sassy Marketer," "The Barefoot Executive," "Ghostwriter to the Gurus" or "The Sweetie Marketer." These are a few brands that I am familiar with that you can search online for an example of what branding is.

To brand yourself as a writer you need a consistent voice. You need to stand out from the crowd. You can do so by being humorous, serious, or use certain catch phrases or words to identify your style of writing.

Many times, the adjectives or descriptive words you choose will set you apart from other writers. It's part of your voice. You may use the word rambunctious instead of wild, or the word eccentric instead of odd. Some words will become synonymous with your work. I know one writer who uses the phrase "cornbread hell." There's no doubt who wrote the piece when I see those words. But she didn't brand herself with this phrase, though she easily could have, in a sense anyway.

Branding yourself can be relatively easy. Deciding on your specific services and a logo for your brand may be the difficult part.

Your logo should be simple but eye-catching. You can use an image to design your logo or the initials of your company name. You can use eye-catching colors that you've chosen to represent your style and personality or it can be a mixture of all these things.

Your tagline should be short but descriptive enough to let people know what you're about. A tagline you may be familiar with its Lays potato chips, "Bet you can't eat just one." Nike's tagline is "Just Do It." When you see these taglines or those logos you automatically know which company they are associated with.

However, you need more than a catchy logo or tagline. You need a certain je ne sais quoi, something identifiable that sets you apart from others. Content branding is a great way to do this.

Spend some time thinking about how you can brand yourself and your content so that you are easily recognized. Once you've done that, start promoting your new brand.