Is Your Business Branding Working For You?
Branding is the labeling of your business to distinguish yourself from your competitors. As a Virtual 
Assistant, I did not think that branding was necessarily as important as just having an online presence. I thought that all I needed was a mediocre website so visitors would understand my services. Ultimately, I just wanted them to know that I was here and available. Right? Wrong. After some research and advice from a mentor my views changed. I now understand that could not be further from the truth. My goal is for visitors to remember my website and maybe use and share my services with others. Unfortunately, my previous website did not set me a part from the others. Having an online presence is great but you cannot make a website without branding and expect visitors to remember you once they leave it.
Your website is not the only part of branding. It also includes everything from logos, taglines to the colors on your business cards, stationary and marketing materials. Also using the same photo on your different social networking websites can be included in your branding. The key is to have everything consistent and uniform. The goal with branding is to establish a good image so that others will easily remember your business, service and/or products.
Is your branding working for you? Have you made any changes in your branding? If so, I would love to hear about them.
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This is a great post! Thank you for this discussion.
I agree that branding is extremely important and that is clearly evident by those companies such as Coke and similar which only need to post their logo without words to be recognized for the product (quality, value, etc.) they represent.
The tough part, I’ve found is using the branding across all of the boards we use as virtual assistants. Sure, we can use the logos and taglines on our websites, blogs and written materials but since much of what we (I) post to or participate in either doesn’t allow the use of the logo or uses a photo which in and of itself is not good (in my opinion) for branding. It would be much easier to have a physical product to hand out that would tipify the logo. However, since our services are virtual, my feeling is that there are fewer opportunities to get that brand out there. So being creative is key.
Using the branding in an email signature or creating a twitter page using logos and taglines or creating a video/slide show using the graphics are some ways I’ve been thinking about more branding. People need to see it often in order to make the branding connection. Being virtual does not always offer that opportunity so as VAs I believe we have to try harder to get that brand out there.
The changes in my branding have been to settle on a brand and a tagline and really think about where it needs to be placed. Can I put it in my emails? Can it be incorporated when I post an article? In the past, I just used an avatar or a photo but now I’m thinking more about strategically placing the logo in more places than before.
Thank you.
Janine Gregor
Virtual Assistant
http://www.YourVirtualWizard.com
Thanks Janine for your comments.
I agree with you regarding branding across certain social platforms and forums being limited at times. Creativity is definitely the key.
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