Although Eleni Gage had been writing for many well-known publications—including Travel & Leisure, People, Allure, Elle, Instyle, and Real Simple—for years, she did not have a strong, cohesive brand presence. She wrote travel and beauty articles as well as personal essays, and she also taught writing and wrote books, but there was no easily perceivable link between the various types of writing she did, so it sometimes seemed like she was "all over the place" careerwise. To make matters worse, her website was outdated, and did not project her offline savvy. Eleni's Personal Branding 360 results (how others saw her brand) demonstrated how highly respected she was amongst her peers and colleagues, who saw her as a dedicated professional, but the challenge was to spread that message farther, and to define what made all the different kinds of writing she did part of the same "brand". Because her work was entirely for print publications, Eleni had also never thought of blogging as a way of building her business as a writer. Eleni's first novel, Other Waters, was due to hit the stands in early 2012, and she wanted to capitalize on this opportunity, and to bring together all the work she did into one creative whole.
We delved into a thorough 12-week personal branding program that uncovered Eleni's strengths, and differentiators, and tied those into the strong voice she had developed through the years as a writer. Once we defined what made all of Eleni's work unique—her background as a folklorist, her sense of humor, and her way of looking at the world—we created a blog, TheLiminalStage.com, where Eleni could explore these ideas further and also start building an online community. We helped Eleni "connect" the dots between her print career and her online writing with a new branded website and logo that reflected her Greek heritage, and her love and knowledge of culture, mythology and folklore (her B.A. is in Folklore and Mythology). The blue tones represent the Mediterranean and Aegean seas that surround Greece, and the red reflects Eleni's passion and warmth. The mosaic is a common style of a great deal of the iconography in Greece that speaks to Eleni's strong spirituality and the pomegranate represents fertility, everlasting life and resurrection. In fact, the pomegranate is a very strong symbol in many faiths. We worked with Eleni using the power of social media marketing to grow and engage a community which could also translate to sales for her book release.
Eleni now has a central headquarters: A branded location to showcase all of her past and current writing. It has become very easy for editors, publishers and media to see the scope of her work and has inspired editors who became familiar with her voice through her blog to assign her different types of writing. Consumers and readers can get information about her books as well as see where to buy or pre-order them. Using social media, she has been able to encourage book reviews and interact with her readers.