A Case Study in Author Branding Resulting in Award-Winning Website and Astonishing Email Open Rates

Award Winning Black Château website

Author Branding Done with Authenticity, Fun and a Flashback to the 80s

Black Château’s strategy for author branding means uncovering the personality behind the writing. This case study shows how that was done for an author who has a fun yet down-to-Earth personality. He also has a love for the 1980s, and his book series is set in the late 80s and early 90s. As a musician and filmmaker, his multi-faceted brand gave the Black Château a lot of material to work with.

Among the questions Black Château strives to answer when working on an author’s brand identity are: Who is the author deep inside? What aspects of their personality can we utilize to engage their reading audience? Why are they uniquely qualified, or experienced, in spreading the messages in their books?

Award Winning Black Château website
Black Château created an 80s themed website with iconic images and an about section that captured authentic personality of the author. It won a VEGA Award for Best Website Design.

To capture the author’s authentic brand identity, the branding and marketing experts at Black Château hold several sessions with the author to define it. The goal is to use the branding sessions to create media talking points, identify audiences, establish ideas for the look and feel, and develop a brand strategy to be used in marketing, public relations, advertising, social media, for speaking engagements, in email newsletters, and for the client’s website.

In the course of conducting author branding sessions, the Black Château team, in this case, identified three brand identities. This frequently happens with clients. Writers are usually multi-faceted individuals who often are successful professionals, or passionate about causes or topics, or are creative in more ways than  writing.

Author Branding, Positioning and Beyond

Positioning this client as an author, a filmmaker and a musician meant exploring those three elements and connecting them. Once that was done, they would serve as a foundation for his book series, his film and documentary pitching, and his music. The client’s winning personality and authentic approach to life served as the cohesive element that pulled them all together.

For this client, the Black Château team built three key components to the author branding strategy:

  • Built a strong Author Platform. This included creating a  brand bible, a website, social media and the author’s book cover designs.
  • Built audiences on social media, and through email marketing.
  • Built awareness and exposure through media appearances and speaking events.

Many Black Château services were utilized for this client, including the Author Network, Branding and Author Platform Building, Photography, SEO and Content Marketing, and Public Relations.

Author Photoshoot: Before and After Examples Show How an Authentic Personality Was Captured

Author Black Château photo example
AFTER: Author headshot from Black Château photoshoot.
BEFORE: Author headshot prior to Black Château photoshoot.

As an amputee, the client was open about his abilities and enthusiastic about sharing his journey with others.

The Black Château team conducted a photoshoot to capture the client’s colorful personality. This was one of the first steps in developing the author branding, and the photoshoot also influenced the website design, email marketing and public relations strategies.

This photoshoot was done in-house, with the client coming to us. Nowadays, in-person photoshoots can be difficult to arrange because of social distancing. To be as accommodating and helpful as possible, Black Château consults with clients regarding their photography.

Black Château has frequently consulted with photographers on behalf of clients to discuss how the photographer can best capture their brand. In several instances, Black Château has done photo touchups and editing. We’ve also advised clients in preparation for their headshot and portrait photography. Find out more about Black Château photography, and the many options available.

Everybody Have Fun Tonight: An Award-Winning, 80s-Themed Website

The client had a flair for the 80s and 90s. Films, television, games and pop culture from this period were influences on the client’s writing, and his book series was set in the late 80s and early 90s.

In developing the look and feel for the author’s brand, the Black Château team created a color palette, a brand bible, and more. This led to the creation of a website with a design that had the appropriate “vibe” for the time and setting.

About Section of Award Winning Black Château website
The full about page for the client’s website shows the many panel aspect highlighting various elements of the author’s personality.

Color Me Good: How the 80s Inspired the Color Palette for This Author’s Brand

The colors were inspired by the 80s artist Patrick Nagel. Muted purples and grays gave way to vibrant neon colors such as yellow, pink, blue and green. This color palette and theme became a through-line for the client’s entire author platform.

Instagram, Facebook, and the email marketing template all featured this look and feel. The color palette was not only appealing to the client, but conveyed a notion of happiness and joy. People felt engaged by it, and therefore saw the vibrant personality of the author shining through.

Cult of Personality: How an Client’s Personality Influences Their Author Branding

An underlying philosophy of the Black Château team is that an author is a personality brand. And, as a personality brand, their authentic self is often key in creating marketing and public relations elements.

A brand is foundational. Everything else is built on top of it. Like a building, as long as the foundation is strong, then the brand is strong, too.

Have you ever been stuck on what to do next with your marketing, social media, public relations, content marketing, SEO or website, where you simply don’t know what the next steps should be? Thinking of the foundational elements of your brand can help “unstick” you.

As with with writing, if one finds themselves facing writer’s block, or an obstacle in the story, it is often a good idea to go back to the fundamentals of the story. If one writes with a good foundation, the story flows more smoothly. If one creates a solid brand from the beginning, other marketing elements more naturally fall into place.

Black Château Designs Website for UX and UI

Often, Black Château will develop an “About” section of a website, with the various aspects of the client’s personality in mind. Using several panels, all with definite color choices derived from the color palette, the consumer experiences a clean, easy understanding of who the author is.

The consumer, or user, experience is often called UX. “UI” is an acronym that more specifically refers to the user interface. Creating a website with the UX and UI in mind means using a blend of the best website development practices, strong design elements, and creative branding techniques.

See how the client’s “About” page shows their personality? It incorporates the color palette and creates a positive UX and UI for the viewer. Simple yet functional, this is an excellent example of the synthesis of Black Château’s design and branding techniques.

Website Development and Design for Authors Using WordPress

When it comes to the tools used by Black Château, our developers use WordPress and Elementor. There are several reasons for using a ubiquitous platform that the client and future web masters are familiar with. This means SEO and content marketing, as well as website updates and general upkeep, can easily be conducted by almost anyone trained to do so in the future.

Plugins are supported among WordPress developers. Integrations with other platforms is generally more streamlined. SEO is more effective, too. From the Black Château team’s experience, SEO is most successful when using WordPress and SEO plugins like Yoast. Plus, the look and feel that one can achieve with WordPress is generally unmatched by “out of the box” website development platforms.

SEO and Content Marketing for Strong Author Branding

Search Engine Optimization, or SEO, is also foundational. The keywords selected for optimization are derived from the branding sessions. A list of keywords and keyword phrases that convey the client’s brand are crucial for all the elements of the brand to truly work together.

Black Château creates a list of keywords and keyword phrases to conduct the research. Unlike some SEO firms who ask the client for a list, and who don’t take the time to understand the brand, the client’s goals, and how everything works together, Black Château puts in the extra work needed to ensure SEO and branding are in sync.

Websites should be built with SEO in mind. The keywords and keyword phrases should be used in naming images on the website, creating URLs, and copy that is added throughout the website. Doing SEO after a website is created is like adding timber to a house’s foundation after it is built. In this case study, this website, under the colorful designs, is highly optimized, using keywords and keyword phrases from the branding sessions.

Plus, the SEO keywords were provided to this client to use when creating future content. As they do with all clients, the Black Château team conducted training sessions to show the author how to integrate those keywords into an ongoing SEO and content strategy.

One Logo to Rule Them All

Example of Black Chateau author logo design
Example of Black Château logo design with elements of client’s brand identity integrated into it.

Black Château views logo design as a visual element that is the result of branding. A logo is not the brand: it is the all-encompassing element that unifies the different aspects of a brand’s personality.

In the case of authors, it is often represented with a signature logo, or their name designed around elements that reflect their personality. As a personality brand, the author’s authentic self must shine through.

To create the logo for this client, just like with other clients, Black Château conducted the branding sessions, put together color palettes and vision boards to show the client various options, and made several mock-ups to develop the end result.

The logo simply could not have been the first item developed when branding this client. The logo had to come as a result of the exploratory methods involved with the Black Château branding services.

Do you notice how the neon sign imagery, and the three items, convey the brand identity of the client? Not only are the colors and style reminiscent of the 1980s, but the items reflect the three core distinctions identified for this client: being a writer is represented by the books; being a musician is represented by the cassette tape, which is also another nod to the 80s; and the old fashioned TV represents the client’s filmmaking and director aspirations.

A Newsletter Strategy that Engaged and Captivated Users

To build an audience for the client’s books, as well as for his music, film and other projects, an integrated email marketing strategy was implemented. This means that the look and feel of the brand was also captured in the email template. The friendly, conversational tone of the client’s personality was used in the copy to make readers feel comfortable and welcomed.

Email Marketing Black Chateau Example
Email marketing example created by Black Château.

The website had a strong call to action that featured the newsletter sign-up button. This was connected to the client’s email platform using an API, or Application Programming Interface. The newsletter was also marketed on social media, and through contests and various online promotions.

An email drip campaign was set up so that people who subscribed to the newsletter would get a welcome email. In addition, after email promotions and giveaways, a welcome email was sent out to new subscribers.

The email newsletters featured giveaways of the client’s books, as well as other goodies. Black Château often recommends adding other items to giveaways to entice people to participate. Custom giveaways with fun goodies is a great way to create loyal followers and potential readers.

This newsletter, as well as other newsletters created by Black Château, also features relevant content and stories. Connecting the newsletter content to the client’s blog content created a call to action that kept users visiting the website.

Black Château newsletter design has been recognized by the internet’s highest authority. In 2022, the Black Château team received a Webby Award for Outstanding Newsletter design.

Over the course of the client’s retainer, Black Château developed a list of 6,172 opt-in email addresses subscribed to his newsletter. It achieved an open rate of 43.6%. The high-open rate was achieved with the very first welcome email. The outstanding results are attributed to the engaging design and personality of the client and his brand.

Key Performance Indicators and Outstanding Results

There were many key performance indicators used to evaluate success for this project. Like all Black Château clients, this author was provided with monthly reports showing growth and highlighting activities relating to marketing, promotions, and his complete author branding strategy.

Some of those highlights from the 10-month retainer included winning a VEGA Award for Best Website Design, email marketing open rates over 40%, and Black Château helping the client in partnering with a production management entity that, as of this writing, is making great strides in the development of a documentary film.

There were many more highlights achieved beyond his author branding: speaking engagements, high-profile media interviews, successful social media platform creation as well as extensive self-publishing support from Black Château experts. Full case studies and portfolios are available by request for serious inquiries. Let us know if you’re ready to chat and discover how Black Château can help you achieve your goals.

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