2014 Plan (Part 5): Re-Branding

I've brainstormed, vision quested, searched and researched what I wanted to do for marketing and branding moving forward. If you're an Indie Author like myself you know one of the major challenges we face is having to learn more about the craft and how to market, while implementing what we learn and always moving projects forward. You also have to feed yourself etc. and it takes an enormous amount of time, risk, and sacrifice.

Step one in marketing seems to be branding. You need to know how you intend to present yourself to your customers right away so you can weave it into all your other marketing efforts.

I've come to the conclusion that my original attempts at branding weren't that far off the mark. I do need more than one brand though, so I can keep communicate better with my audience and so I can more easily design my marketing efforts. Just as it's hard to write a book when you don't have an audience in mind, it's hard to make marketing decisions without a brand to guide you.

My early attempts at branding established the Sir Bunch thing, which was pretty effective at market penetration but didn't really communicate what I did. I also worked on the Adventure Writer concept, which doesn't describe me as aptly as it once did, but still applies. (I used to do more physical adventures but I've been pursuing more relational and spiritual adventures in my middle ages. More on that in future posts.)

My rebranding will split my public persona into three brands.
Sir Bunch: Author - for all my fiction writing
Sir Bunch: Scribe - for non-fiction and freelance
Sir Bunch: Cleric - for my adventures (whatever area I'm exploring; physical health and casual adventures like taking up geocacheing with K, or Spiritual Adventures like deepening my intimacy with God, or even soul level stuff like more effectively managing time and money.)

This division should allow me to sort my efforts into channels and give my fan base an easier time following what they wish to follow.

The steps ahead involve revamping my website and social media presence which should be a lot of work but I think it will pay off in spades. So keep an eye out for developments. And thanks for joining me in another crazy year. Let's choose life at its most vulnerable, and live more this year than ever before.

God Bless! and a belated HAPPY NEW YEAR!