How to Build a Brand as a Web Design Freelancer or Agency | EP 666

How to Build a Brand as a Web Design Freelancer or Agency

1. Become an Expert/authority in your field (podcasting, livestreaming, content marketing, tutorials) 01:35
2. build community and engage with your user base so they want to promote you and refer business you 02:23

Read the full episode transcript below:

00:28 David Blackmon: Hey everybody. Welcome to another episode of wp the podcast i’m David Blackmon

00:35 Tim Strifler: And I’m Tim Strifler.

00:35  David Blackmon: Im today we’re going to talk about how to build a brand as a web design freelancer or agency. And we’re going to kind of dive into a couple of different scenarios that we think would be really really good to do. I mean in this day and age branding is super important there’s so much noise out there in the world having yours, your company or your brand stand out above everybody else, is pretty crucial now um because we’re so connected. I mean we’re not just competing with businesses that are in our little community that we’re in we’re competing with global companies and stuff even companies that are on the other side of the world especially when it comes to web design freelancer and agency because price matters and they’re looking at prices way cheaper in another country and you know so what are some of the things you can do to build your brand up as a web designer and freelancer jim you want to start with me

01:40 Tim Strifler: I’ll i’ll start a couple things to add the intro a few episodes back we talked about how to make your business stand out and i think building a brand is how you do that and as a web design and freelancer because when you’re you’re building websites for clients you are a service provider but you don’t want to just be another service provider like all the other ones out there you want to build a brand so that people get to know your brand and recognize your brand and and everything and so um any time there’s conversations about branding it can be kind of an elusive topic it’s like you know what is a brand what do you you know how do you build and stuff um and so there’s yeah we’re going to talk about some practical things you can do to build a brand um but one thing i i do want to say before is branding isn’t just great for like recognition and stuff like that but it’s also really good for seo if you look at big brands out there they immediately rank in the search engines whenever they put out any type of content and it’s because they have authority a brand is authority and so google loves that so it’s like if you’re just you know pumping out articles but not building a recognizable authoritative brand that people like and trust well then you’re gonna have a lot uh harder overtime ranking compared to a company that maybe doesn’t put out as much content or as in-depth of content but they have authority and a brand and people love linking to them and stuff like that google loves that like they’ve mentioned that branding having a brand is how you exceed in the search engine so the first thing on how to build a brand as a web design freelancer or agency is become an expert or an authority in your field now there’s so many different ways to do that david and i are doing one of those ways right now podcasting right we’re putting out content we’re providing free value and we’re we’re building that credibility um live streaming is another one that’s huge right now um there’s content marketing there’s uh youtubing creating tutorials uh you know anything that your ideal customer will find valuable that’s gonna help you become an expert in authority build credibility and as a result help you build your brand

04:11 David Blackmon:  Aabsolutely and and another way that you can build a brand as a web design agency or freelancer is is to build that community build your community and engage with your user base so that they want to promote your business and refer business to you um you know tim and i speak at at conferences all over the country and stuff and you know one of the big things at all of these conferences is swag you know i mean swag is like it’s like the holy grail you know you get there early enough so that you can get the really cool good swag and stuff and basically all it is is is um you know your branded gear that you’re giving away to allow other people to promote your business and stuff and if you if your brand gets big enough and recognized enough you know you can turn that into a money-making machine even and i was telling tim when we were discussing preparing for this topic you know one of my favorite companies is north face and i just love the way their hats fit my head you know so i’m going out and paying 25 bucks for a hat that’s got north face right on the front of it you know i am yeah i’m advertising for them i mean they are you know they have built that brand really really well so um you know build the community engage with your community and then what what in turn happens is your community has a lot of pride in promoting you and or wearing your swag for example because they really love you know what you’re doing what you’re putting out into the to the world and stuff and it matters and stuff so building that community creating those relationships engaging with that community can you know build a rock-solid brand tim and i experience that with the podcast with some of the other things we do in the divi community and stuff

05:59 Tim Strifler: One of my favorite examples of a a super strong brand that has basically created a cult like following is tesla i mentioned them a couple episodes back as well but they like a lot of them just bought a new tesla by the way folks i did so i’m a little bit on that high but elon musk has such a a following he can literally promote anything and it will sell out in in seconds um and tesla as as a company too for example they created a tesla like usb charger you can like plug your phone in and stuff like that they don’t even put the features on it you have no idea if it’s any better than something that you can find on amazon for way cheaper but because it has a tesla brand on it because it’s them selling it it’s sold out in minutes and uh and you still can’t get one it’s on their website but it says sold out and so it’s like that’s the definition of of a brand that has built such a following in a community that people want to promote them and buy their stuff no matter what and obviously as a web design freelancer agency like you’re not going to create a following like tesla obviously with their innovative products but you can kind of look to brands like that there’s many of them like that and and look at things that they do in the way that they build that community and they get people just to fall in love with with their brand like yes people are in love with their products but they’re in love with the brand because sometimes the products are as generic as a usb charger but it’s because of the brand that people want to promote

07:39 David Blackmon: Now Tim did i hear you correctly and that you just called Elon Musk alone. I could have swore i heard you say Elon Musk we’ll have to listen to the recording don’t hold it against him sports fans

07:53 Tim Strifler: I said it fast

07:54 David Blackmon: All right Elon. well there’s a couple of really good examples i hope you get some good takeaways um you know obviously tim and i just started recording back wp the podcast we’re excited to be here our episodes are about twice as long as they normally were a couple of years ago so we’re getting back into the groove i guess maybe we missed talking to you guys and sharing information so we will try to be more concise as we we go and stuff

08:26 Tim Strifler:  Yes but before we do i have a few more stories to tell i’m just kidding

08: 27  David Blackmon: All right we’ve got another great episode tomorrow you do not want to miss this one because can’t believe in 2022 we are still talking about this and there still is this question email marketing for web designers does it work you’ll have to tune in tomorrow to find out tim until tomorrow

08:51  Tim Strifler: Take care

09:04 David Blackmon: Take care, see you later we’re still getting that outro down. We are getting the outro down i keep screwing it up we’ll see you all tomorrow peace out everybody

09:05 Tim Strifler: Take care. Bye. Bye.