As business owners, we need to focus on many aspects within our companies, but something you can’t ignore is branding. This part is essential if you want loyal customers and longevity in the marketplace, and it’s virtually impossible to find a business that doesn’t invest in its branding. Think household names like Coca-Cola, Apple and Nike, who are known for their branding and the feeling they convey to their customers.
So, how do you go about establishing solid branding as an online business owner? Thankfully, the online landscape doesn’t change the strategy too much. With everything from finding freelance designers to employing an FMCG marketing agency like WebOracle, many branding methods are available, no matter where you are in your journey. This article will go through some methods you can use to boost your brand position in online business.
What is Branding?
While branding might be misunderstood as something as simple as logo design or colour layouts, so much more is involved. Branding is pervasive and is a conglomeration of the customer’s impressions that occur through customer service to the checkout interface. The entire customer experience, from awareness of your business to the final purchase, has an impact on how customers perceive you and your business.
This entire interpretation of your business is branding, and whether you have a positive or negative impression can significantly impact your business. That’s why many online entrepreneurs are now focusing on branding instead of selling and marketing products. You need to have a good brand reputation if you want to be competitive and thrive long-term.
Define Your Brand Position
Before going into detailed methods when it comes to branding, it’s necessary first to establish your brand position and be crystal clear on what kind of impression you want to impart to your customers. This will help differentiate you from competitors, so ensure you look for an angle to make you unique, so customers can choose you over others. It’s all about creating a compelling message, making it consistent, and ensuring you’re clear on your intention before moving forward.
Most brands have crucial steps to define their position; they usually start by defining their target market and demographics. They will also examine the brand’s values, tone of voice and mission statement. After these are established, you can start establishing marketing strategies, fonts, themes and layouts to solidify branding further and build upon this while moving forward through other aspects of the business.
Leverage Social Media Platforms
The best way to develop your brand during the current digital age is through social media, and we can already see so many entrepreneurs taking advantage of these channels. It is an incredibly cost-effective way to build brand and audience trust by simply posting valuable and informative content over time. Just understand that it is a long game, and to build trust in the long term, you will have to put in consistency and time so your customers know you’re the real deal.
Things like YouTube channels are great because these assets can compound over time, build up views and even earn your business AdSense revenue. Posting regularly on platforms like Instagram or Facebook is a great way to push your brand message and gain loyal followers over time. If you can keep consistent and ensure these platforms are coherent with brand messaging, you’ll see success eventually.
Utilise SEO Tactics and Website Branding
All businesses have a website, but not many are coherent with branding and optimised effectively. If you want to compete, you’ll also need to ensure that your website stands out from the crowd; this can be done through Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) and good website design (both go hand-in-hand). Those with effective marketing through social media and good website metrics have a complete package.
To ensure these conditions are met, you must start building authoritative SEO content on your website and ensure it aligns with your branding. When potential customers begin to search for information, and your results start appearing, it can do wonders for your branding, and this customer will be much more likely to purchase.
Focus on Customer Service and Support
Customer service and support aren’t usually associated with branding, but this is a vital puzzle piece. If you’re website, social media and overall branding are on point, how do you think customers will feel when they experience that one poor instance of customer service? It would surely damage your reputation and brand perception. This is why customer support cannot be ignored.
If you want to level up customer support, you can put more energy and resources into training staff members so they can provide fast and efficient service. It is more important to put energy and resources into this aspect of the business because of the potential customer loss that can occur if ignored.
Getting the Boost You Need
Getting clear on brand positioning is vital if you want to market your business over the long term, and there are a range of tactics you can implement. Social media tactics, SEO methods, and even customer support are all tools that can help you build your brand over the long term. Hopefully, this article has given you some insight to implement into your own business.