When you need to take a copy of an important document, do you call it a photocopy or “Xerox”? When your friend is on the lookout for a piece of important information do you ask him to use the search engine or “Google” it? These terms are known as “generic trademarks” or “proprietary eponyms” and they are the vertex of brand awareness. These brands have become so popular that they have replaced the generic terms for similar products. If a brand name becomes a generic trademark, it is the pinnacle of brand awareness.
Is it important to brand your business? What’s the worth of digital branding? Find out the answers from this article
What is digital branding?
There’s a huge difference between the brand name and branding. Your brand name is tangible, whereas branding exists in the mind of the consumers. Branding is anything that helps your target customers instantly acknowledge your brand. Branding is how people recognize you as a company. Traditionally, a brand was recognized using its logo, slogans, name, and advertisements. But, in this digital world, a brand without a digital presence is considered as a beautiful car without tires.
Digital branding is a combination of internet branding and digital marketing. It is how you build and promote your brand online through various sources like websites, social media sites, apps, and more. Digital branding lets your brand well-known to anyone, anywhere in the world, anytime.
Why is digital branding important for a business?
Why should someone choose a specific home cleaning service company when there are a lot of other companies who do the same thing? Why most people prefer a particular online shopping site for their shopping needs? They choose those companies because of the strong feeling that they build up around their brand. This feeling among the target audience is what impels the buying decision.
If you don’t have branding, you cannot make them feel anything. Digital branding has provided a golden opportunity for businesses to reach the target audience in a very short period. Digital branding increases your company visibility online by over 400%, which leads to improved traffic, leads, conversions, and sales.
Though there’s no quick-fix for making your brand name a generic trademark, here are 10 ways to build a brand through digital marketing.
1. Know your target audience
Any business, irrespective of its size revolves around its customers. Knowing who your target audience is as important as getting new customers and maintaining a relationship with them. You should have a clear understanding of what the consumers want. Customer’s preferences are flexible and they keep changing from time to time. It is essential to stay updated with your customers’ preferences so that your brand’s values can be directed towards its audience persona.
2. Influencer marketing
75% of digital marketers use influencer marketing these days. Find friends in high places or existing influencers in your industry and get help from them to boost your brand awareness. The idea is to make them spread the word about your business for you. You can ask the influencers to review your business, put up social media posts, and more. You can also build up valuable partnerships with influencers who can help your business long-term.
3. A strong website with brand identity
A report states that 93% of the online experience starts with a website. Thus, it becomes crucial to have a strong website presence that creates a good brand impression for first-time visitors. Ensure that your website reflects your brand identity. Right from the color scheme to web design and images everything should act as your brand identity. Remember, you have only a few seconds to attract your visitors and show them why they should prefer your brand over others.
4. Make use of SEO+SEM
A winning combination of SEO+SEM strategy can help you build a strong online presence and rank higher on search engines. A combination of the two can increase the organic traffic and drive visitors that are looking for products and services offered by you. Moreover, the higher your website ranks, the more the trust it builds among your potential customers. Implementing a well-planned SEO+SEM strategy can help build your brand more effectively and increase your revenue significantly. You can approach an SEO company who can build up a well-planned strategy and provide you with some worthwhile digital marketing tips.
5. Impressive content
Again, another great way to get your brand well-known online is content. Content is the only way through which you speak to your customers. It helps in creating the brand personality you want your audience to perceive. Ensure that your content is valuable and appealing. If your content fails to inform the customers to make informed choices, then they will move towards a different brand. Irrespective of the type of content, good content creates brand reputation, earns natural backlink, increases traffic, and leads.
6. Social media focus
People nowadays spend a huge amount of their time on social media, which presents a great opportunity for businesses to market their brand online. With the increasing number of social media sites, it is imperative that you understand the pros and cons of each and choose a platform wisely. Know where your target audiences hang and focus on those platforms. For example, if you’re into creative industries or run a photo studio, you can choose Instagram. If you’re a B2B company, you can choose Twitter.
7. Use videos to tell your brand story
Want to be an indelible brand? Use video content to tell your story. Videos are a great way to speed up the growth of your brand online. If you want to increase your engagement online, invest in personalization. People are driven by emotions and when you create emotionally moving and compelling videos, that can help your brand connect with your customers at a more personal level. It can also build credibility for your brand online.
8. Listen to your customers
Social listening is another important factor in building your brand online. You need to pay attention to what people are discussing your brand online. Have a comprehensive insight into your audience. Know what their expectations are and respond to their comments and reviews. When something goes wrong to make efforts to set them right. You can also use Google Analytics to gain more insight into how your audience perceives your brand.
9. Integrated marketing
Integrated marketing is the process of combining various promotional mix elements to communicate with your target audience. Integrated marketing insists that it is important to understand that different channels have different types of audience and are better suited for different types of messaging due to their distinct pros and cons. You should optimize the ad campaigns accordingly while the overall feel of the content remaining consistent. This will enhance your brand’s voice and increase overall awareness of your brand.
10. Run webinars and contests
Webinars and contests are one of the best ways to build brand awareness and position yourself as an industry leader. You will not believe that it could generate 35% of your followers and bring in 1000s of leads for your business. For a successful online business, you need to generate leads that can be converted into sales. Running a webinar or social media contest can help you with this.
The whole concept of digital branding is a long-term process and might seem a little ambiguous. But, the more consistent you are with these basic branding strategies the more likely you can improve your brand awareness. Digital Branding, when done correctly, will reduce your acquisition costs and increase return on investments to a considerable extent.
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