Your blog is one of the most powerful tools for building your brand. For those of us who came of age with Dashboard Confessional and Xanga, though, it can be tricky to frame our thinking around blogging as a digital marketing strategy. What’s the line between connection points and oversharing? In this post, I explore how your blog helps build your brand and how personal you really need to get with your audience.

How does your blog help build your brand?

When you set out to build your brand with your blog, you’re working towards a few goals. Firstly, you demonstrate your expertise in your field. Maybe you really understand how to light photos in tricky situations. Or, like seemingly everyone on Pinterest, you’re a pro at writing Instagram captions that get engagement. Tell potential clients about it on your blog! Just make sure that you explain how your technical prowess benefits them. Even nerding out is a marketing strategy with blogging!

Your blog is also an opportunity to build trust with your audience. Most people want to be familiar with a brand and trust it before they make a purchase. This means that people may not make a purchase the first time they land on your site. However, your blog builds familiarity with your brand and its values. It helps potential clients decide if they trust you to deliver what they need.

Blogging is such a useful tool to build your brand because it’s one of the most effective ways to improve your SEO. When you rank for more keywords and develop wider organic reach, you have the opportunity to connect with that many more potential clients. Imagine the myriad of concerns that would lead people to a business like yours. Then turn those into blog posts (with keyword research, of course).

How personal do you need to get on your blog?

Now that you’re thinking about your blog as a tool to build your brand, you may be wondering how much personal information you need to share and when it’s appropriate. If there’s anything you need to know about our approach to business, it’s that there’s no one-size-fits-all strategy. Anyone who tells you that they have THE way to be successful is leaving something (probably some type of privilege) out of the picture they’re selling.

That being said, how much personal information you share really depends on your brand identity and the ideal clients you want to attract. If part of your brand is that you become your clients’ best friends, you’re probably going to talk about your tastes and outside interests. A very cool brand might reference a trendy restaurant or popular clothing brand.

Alternatively, you may want to be seen as a passionate expert in your field. A photographer could tell the story of how they fell in love with documenting people’s lives. You can make the story part of your brand to demonstrate your experience and expertise. If it feels good to give your audience a glimpse into your personal story, all the better. After all, people want to buy from people they feel they know and trust. 

What are the ground rules for sharing on your blog?

Remember that whatever personal information you share, your blog will only be successful as a marketing tool if it’s really about your ideal clients. How do your clients want to feel about their experiences with you? Use that as a guiding principle in deciding what personal information to share and when. Maybe your ideal clients want to feel seen. In revealing something of yourself, they might trust you to see them too.

Tell personal stories in ways that either give people a glimpse into your client experience or reinforce your brand identity in some way. If I were to tell the story of how I left my career in special education to write copy for entrepreneurs, I would focus on my passion for helping all people thrive. I loved working with neurodivergent students, and I’m able to take those same skills into my copywriting work to support my clients. This story is absolutely true, and it lets potential neurodivergent clients know that I’m equipped to tailor my processes to support them.

Through all of these considerations, the most important thing to remember is: You’re always in control of the boundaries you set in any part of your business, including your blog. You don’t have to be any more vulnerable than feels comfortable. You don’t have to exploit yourself to build your brand successfully. Trust your intuition

Do you want help creating a strategy for using your blog to build your brand? We can help! Reach out to learn more about our blogging packages.