Branding Strategy: 7 Reasons You Need a Brand

Like it or not, you as an author are your brand. As a private person I find that fact disconcerting. The trouble with branding, from a privacy perspective, is that it needs to be honest. I don't know about you, but I'd rather hide behind my books than bare my soul in public. Do you share my hesitancy? I suspect I'm in good company. How many of us would bother with branding if the realities of marketing and/or others in the publishing industry didn't demand it of us? Enough said.

And yet, if I approach branding from a reader's perspective, I become more willing to brand. A reader needs a quick way to identify what I write. Without it, I could lose a sale. From a negative perspective, it's that simple. But let's look at the positives.

Seven things branding will do for you:

1. Create dedicated readers through the nifty dynamic called "brand loyalty." Every writer needs an audience base, a group of people ready and willing to purchase the next book.

2. Keep you from getting lost in the crowd. With the ease of e-book- and self-publication, these days a plethora of writers markets online. Branding will make you stand out.

3. Control perceptions about you. Whether or not you do so consciously, you will establish some sort of brand others will judge. Manage these perceptions.

4. Establish familiarity. Readers need to recognize themselves in you. If you and your website seem foreign to them, they won't hang around long.

5. Let readers connect with you. Nowadays readers want authors to be available. Branding lets them feel like they know you personally.

6. Help you find your niche in the publishing world. Sad as it may seem, not everyone wants to read what you write. People have preferences. Branding draws your specific audience, thus focusing your marketing efforts.

7. Establish reader trust. Consumers buy from those they know, like and trust.

Developing a focused author brand will make life easier for you on many levels. Given that reality, it becomes much easier to embrace, and even welcome, branding.

© 2010 Janalyn Voigt

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