A strong and easily recognizable brand is a valuable asset to every entrepreneur. With all the digital noise online, branding can make or break your business. It helps your customers recognize you and your products quickly in an online world full of similar products.
Online branding is especially crucial for service providers who don’t have a tangible product that clients can look at. Instead, customers buy the information you present about the service and the reputation that you’ve built up to support it. Apart from the product, a great brand experience gives consumers another reason to choose you over the competitors. 73% of people preferbrands that personalize the shopping experience. If your brand creates memorable experiences online and adds the value of personally connecting with the customers, they may be willing to pay more. This ultimately translates into more profit for you.
So how does one develop a great online brand experience from an online business? Here are some tips to help you get started and quickly bring you up to date with best branding practices for your online business.
Find Your Voice
The impression that your brand creates is crucial, but you can’t ignore how you convey it. Your company’s “voice” is the language and personality you and your employees use to relay brand messages and reach customers. Brand voice has become more key than ever if you need to stand out from the crowd of digital chatter.
Communicating the values of your brand to all the workers is the first step to consistently presenting a brand to the public. Only 48% of employees believe their leadership team, corporate communications, and marketing departments all speak about their brand with a unique voice.
As you create an online brand, you need to ask yourself: If your brand was a person, what personality traits would they take on, and what would they actively avoid? What phrases and stylistic choices does your brand use consistently? The answers to these questions combine to create your brand voice. You can apply this personality everywhere your brand speaks, including newsletters, social media posts, and internal communications like company announcements and advertising.
Use Social Media Consistently
We all use social media in our day-to-day lives, so there’s comfort with the tools to get started using social media for your online business.
Before social media arrived on the scene, branding essentially took place via word of mouth referrals or through traditional means of advertising. However, social media is one of the most efficient online branding tools you can use these days, and rightfully so. It doesn’t cost anything to create a Facebook Page for your business, start posting on Instagram, or create a presence on Twitter.
You can use social tools for free but the time and effort involved still represent an investment in your business. Take the time to create a social media plan upfront. This ensures all your social efforts support specific business goals, and you don’t lose focus. For example, on Instagram, 7 out of 10 hashtags are branded. And this is a great tool to use to increase your brand recognition. Be attentive and consistent on social media to avoid missing these helpful details.
Start Blogging
Using a blog for branding is hands down one of the best things you can do for your online business. Brands with blogs generate 67% more leads than those without a blog. Blogging clears the difference between branding and marketing practises to grow your business.
Blogs are easy to start, inexpensive, and only require a bit of your time. With your blog, you can easily leverage the power of social media to build brand recognition in your industry and establish an online presence.
Your blog content should be relevant and aimed at improving your business’ income. The effort to keep content and business-critical data fresh is worth it. 61% of people are more likely to buy from a brand that delivers unique content. That is where SEO comes in to help create content that attracts and converts traffic. The content needs to work together to establish a clear, seamless identity without unnecessarily duplicating the same information.
Also, stay updated on what your target audience is looking for, and adjust your approach. At clickslice, we offer SEO training that will go a long way to help you start blogging. If you can read, listen, and watch the latest news in your space, you will be able to connect to your niche and keep your blog content relevant.
Add Credibility With Testimonials
Testimonials are one of the most powerful marketing messages and brand boosters that you can have in your arsenal. Make sure to capitalise on the exceptional customer relationships you already have by gathering and sharing client testimonials and reviews on your website.
If you have received “rock star” testimonials from your customers, you can even tweet them out to your followers and publish them on your Facebook page. Testimonials are much more than an ego boost. They have tremendous power to persuade other people to seek out your business for products and services. Getting real clients to share their experiences boosts your credibility because it shows that your service has been tried and tested by the public.
Consumers naturally trust each other more than they trust just marketing collateral, so testimonials add more weight to the decision they’re trying to make. Encourage consumers who enjoy your product or service to leave a positive review or testimonial. Those initial happy consumers encourage more purchases, which creates more satisfied customers.
Pick Your Colours and Fonts
Once your business is up and running, you’ve got a name down, a consistent tone, and memorable experiences, you’ll need to think about how you’ll visually represent your brand. This is where your colours and typography come in handy.
Colours and Fonts don’t just define the look of your brand. They also convey the feeling you want to communicate and help you make it consistent across your entire brand. Customers are 80% more likely to identify you if you use the same colour patterns consistently on your branding material. You’ll want to choose colours and fonts that differentiate you from direct competitors to avoid confusing consumers.
