A compelling brand image is what sets you apart from every other wannabe travel writer in the blogosphere. There are tons of travel bloggers out there who say they specialize in one thing: world travel. Well that’s great and all, but what kind of travel?
The world is a huge place! And there are very few travel bloggers who can actually say that they’ve been to enough places in the universe to make them experts in world travel. Unless your name is Johnny Jet, then it’s difficult to build an audience around a topic as broad as world travel. If you’re just starting out, it’s simply not believable. Authenticity is key.
How to zero in on your big idea: go local.
The more specific you can be, the more likely that you will attract a loyal audience. Why? Because we are inundated with content constantly. And people only want to follow bloggers that they think are true experts and who have valuable tips to share. You should always ask yourself: what’s in it for the reader?
Start with your own backyard. I live in Miami, so I have to admit that it’s really easy for me to write and promote stories about my city. Who am I kidding? I’ve got the beach, eclectic restaurants and nightlife, and a never ending list of entertaining events. It’s definitely easy for me to go local. Don’t think your hometown has something to offer? Think again.
I wrote a blog post about an event called Christmas in the Country that happens each year in a teeny tiny cow town called Oxford, KS. You would not believe the amount of shares, Facebook likes and comments that story generated. Everyone in the town was so excited that they were in the spotlight.
Whether you live in a small town, big city or sprawling suburb, there is something going on in your neighborhood that you could write about. It doesn’t have to be your only topic, but it’s a good way to start generating a local audience and become a recognized travel expert in something you know a lot about already.
Carve out a unique position.
Besides focusing on your local scene, you need to stake out a unique position that couldn’t be held by anyone else but you.
Maybe you’re an avid fly-fisherwoman (or man) and there’s nothing you love more than your fly-fishing adventures. Write about it.
But, don’t just make it about you. Sure, your image and your voice are a huge part of the branding process. But, don’t forget to ask yourself: what’s in it for my readers?
You could give important fly-fishing tips along the way. Or reveal a few of your secret spots to go fish (if you dare!). You could build an entire brand around travel and fly-fishing. Or cooking, wine-tasting, bird watching, stand-up paddleboarding . . . you get the idea.
Today, take some time to think carefully about your brand’s positioning.
1. What’s different about your blog idea? How do you help or entertain readers in a unique way?
2. Who is your target audience? What’s special about them? How well do you know their needs and desires?
3. What’s the story behind your brand? What story could you tell that no other travel blogger could? (This might be a story about you, but it might also be a story about your readers.)
4. What’s the big idea, the specific topic that makes your audience want to follow you?
Give your blog an awesome name.
Once you’ve zeroed in on a specific topic, it’s time to start brainstorming to figure out how to name it, which web design company to hire to build it and what marketing tactics to employ. It might prove extremely imperative for a business to know which marketing techniques can be used at what point and time for an efficient marketing strategy. For instance, you might want to leverage backlinks to boost your search engine rankings, and for that, you may have to produce SEO content demonstrating your expertise and trustworthiness on the topic. This could be a way of marketing and building brand awareness (click for info on backlink strategy if you want to know more). Also, when deciding about the domain, remember that your website domain could be your own name or it could be a unique URL that describes your topic. Once you have that figured out and you have an outlined plan of what you want to do with your blog, as well as how you want it showcased to the online world, you may want to look at buying your domain name so you can get started as soon as possible.
It’s important to think ahead about whether the name you pick is available on social media sites. We’ll go into specific marketing tactics on Twitter, Facebook, and other platforms in a future lesson. But, I suggest starting with two resources:
1. Netfirms.com is a great site to start plugging in domain name ideas, to see if any of your choices are available.
2. Namechk.com is a website that checks nearly every social media platform out there and tells you whether or not the name is available.
Don’t get discouraged if your first couple of ideas are taken. Get creative, start brainstorming, use a thesaurus, and play around with words until you get to a brand name that is awesome. Once you’ve picked your brand name and started to build up your base, you can look into other ways on how to get your brand out there. If you are based on social media and you have an ‘influence’ you may want to look into clothing that you can brand, for instance, checking out companies like https://imprint.com/shop/custom-apparel/sweats/hoodies can be very helpful and show you what you may want to go for in this area.
If you need creative inspiration, check out the Travel Bloggers page on my website and start clicking through some of their blogs for ideas.
In the next lesson, I’ll give you specific tips and ideas on how to launch a stylish and simple website, without forking over a boat load of cash.
xoxo
Kara