Building Your Brand {and How to Profit Off of it}
When It Comes to Monetizing Your Following, Brand Yourself Like the Stars
The entertainment business has transformed over the past decade from the untouchable and the unobtainable to entertainers being your friend and relatable online influencers you’ve built a connection with. For the influencers, this means being uniquely themselves across multiple platforms. Bloggers, Instagrammers, gamers, Youtubers, and musicians now sit on the phone screens of fans all across the world and build real connections with people from coast to coast with their influence reaching different countries all over the globe.
When someone posts a new blog, video or EP, they’re taking another step in building their brand, this set of phrases, stories, styles and sounds that is exclusive to them. Just like creating a brand for a company builds customer loyalty, building a brand online does the same thing. Your viewers and followers become invested in you, trust your opinion and seek your advice.
A great example of this can be found in the music industry. Stars like Taylor Swift and The Grateful Dead have both built very successful brands. Taylor Swift’s Swifties and The Grateful Dead’s Deadheads are fandoms, groups of fans, that have very little crossover due to their strong brand identities. Swifties are typically young pre-teen and teenage girls who have been known to defend Swift to no end. Swift’s music is written by her detailing heartbreak and misrepresentation. Sharing such personal and relatable stories with her fans has created a strong bond, and brand.
Deadheads have been around since the 70’s with the name first coming around to represent groups of fans who would go to each stop on the band’s tour and record the concert or sell food and apparel at the venues. Deadheads are now in their 60’s and still share and watch concert footage online as a means of connecting with one another.
How to Build a Successful Brand
- Find A Purpose
And there’s where the real purpose of creating a brand lies. When you have a brand, you have something that connects a large group to you, you become something that community has in common. The Grateful Dead isn’t touring or putting out new music anymore but the tapes the Deadhead’s recorded, the music The Grateful Dead wrote, and the merchandise they sold all the way back in the 70’s are what hold that fandom together. Your brand makes you marketable.
But the Deadheads and Swifties didn’t just appear overnight. It took Swift until around her second album and first multinational tour to see the kind of brand loyalty we see today. Swift has been unapologetically her with each album she released. Each discography tells a story about breakups and triumphs, giving fans lyrics that ring true.
So let’s analyze turning points in Swift’s career that built her brand:
- Teardrops on My Guitar: This teenage anthem preaches the story of a first crush, an anecdote every teenage girl can relate to.
- Fifteen: This track told the story of every incoming freshman girl, one you and all your friends could sing at sleepovers. This was another relatable track that groups of young freshman girls could point to and say, ‘hey, everyone’s kinda scared! I’m not the only one who feels this way.’
This song was one of Swift’s most popular on her Fearless tour, a song that all the Swifties in the audience could sing together on tour. But sometimes it’s not just songs that unite your audience and help build your brand, but stories as well that can be shared by everyone.
Swift was receiving an award for her Fearless album when she famously had her mic taken from her by Kanye West. Many fans and celebrities rallied around Swift to defend her, a point in her career where her brand of personal storytelling and heartbreak translated to her music.
Having these moments that your audience can rally behind are important in building your brand. Not all of us can have Kanye West steal the mic from us on national television, but a vlogger telling a personal story of something they’ve overcome or a musician getting signed after years of struggling are all points in your career that your audience can get behind. These moments help shape the image you present to people that find your music, videos, blogs, or livestreams.
2. Create Brand Cohesiveness
The last tip we have for you is to have a cohesive image across all of your platforms. People who follow bloggers on Instagram are looking for an aesthetic they like, a cohesive blend of images of your personal travel with friends, family and your favorite coffee shops. Fans of musicians are looking to hear your story in your music you post on youtube or Spotify with a consistent genre and a history of personal growth.
Followers of gamers are looking to watch people play the games they love with commentary that draws them in and makes them laugh.
A brand is cohesive and consistent which is what brings your followers back for more.
Your fans are looking for a way to connect with one another and you to feel the community you’ve built. Having merchandise allows fans to find one another on the street and share their passions with others. Hoodies and totes that look like your aesthetic and say your famous slogans or lyrics help to build your brand and give your audience a way to support you.
Building a brand and keeping up with it takes time! Time you don’t have to waste on keeping your online merchandise shop running. Spreadshop allows you to easily create and post merchandise for your audience for free.
As the internet and platforms are changing, it’s becoming harder and harder for some artists to make a living online by creating. Selling merchandise online gives your fans a way of supporting you other than watching your videos or reading your blog.
Brands aren’t just for Billboard Hot 100 chart toppers though. Anyone can have a brand — including you.
Questions you should ask when building your brand:
- What do you love?
- Are you a musician? A gamer? Or just someone who loves Miniature Schnauzers?
2. How many followers do you have?
- You don’t have to have thousands of followers to have a loyal fan base. Your followers can be your closest friends, family, co-workers, classmates, etc.
3. How’s their engagement on your social pages?
- If you post a picture — do they leave you a comment? Do they ask you for advice and recommendations?
4. Do you put in a lot of work to your social pages, streaming games or Youtube videos?
- If you do, are you looking for a way to make money off of all that time spent?
5. Do you have your own small business?
- Are you looking for a way to make money in ways other than selling your business’ products or services?
Think of your small business as if you were Taylor Swift. She doesn’t make music just like you don’t just sell cupcakes at your bakery or post reaction videos on Youtube (or however you hustle!). With a growing follower base or customer base, you have a small amount of people who are VERY invested in your success. Your brand resonates with them and they can see themselves in your story. Followers of small businesses and brands are always looking for ways to support the people and companies they love; an online merchandise shop could be just that.
In small towns all across the country, people are looking to connect. A t-shirt with your brand plastered across it can be the connection someone needs to step out of their comfort zone and bond with another person.
3. Make A Profit
Making the transition from having a viral effect and popularity online to being able to make your living off of it has been difficult since social networks and blogging came about. In the ever-changing climate of search engine optimization and algorithm changes to your networks, Spreadshop remains consistent.
Building a strong brand and following created a connection between you and your viewer or reader where they want to support you. Having an online merchandise shop gives them a place where they can do that while receiving products they love based on your personal brand. Spreadshop is free, easy to use and takes the hassle out of your side hustle.
Using an online shop is as easy as creating a blog post announcing it, adding a link to your home page, or add a link to your caption on your post. And that it literally it. The link takes them to a Spreadshop page of just your merchandise, they place their order and we ship it. We take can of any problems that may come up or returns. You just cash the check! This ensures that all your free-time stays free and you don’t have to focus on the administrative issues that come with keeping a shop up and running day to day. So while your Spreadshop lines your wallet, you get to keep creating.
Creating interesting, eye-catching designs can also mean more in-store sales or online followers. Your merchandise can become a point of conversation. Your customers from your online shop become walking billboards and spokespersons for your brand after our Spreadshop box hit’s their doorstep.
Transactions happen in everyday conversations, when one of your followers tells their friend to check out your channel or shares your blog URL with someone who loves the style of your merchandise, you can gain a new fan. Merchandise can simultaneously supplement your full time grind and promote it at the same time. A free shop with Spreadshop really pays of, right?!
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Whether you’re looking to build a brand from scratch or make a larger profit off of your existing brand, Spreadshop works. Spreadshop is the only free online custom merchandise solution that puts your brand first. Learn how you can earn money online for free and open your Spreadshop today!
