Online branding is defined as a marketing technique that leverages the possibilities and opportunities on the internet to position a brand on the market. The strategy has been around since the internet itself and evolved over time, but one thing is for sure: it continues to gain importance as companies increase investments into online branding each year.
There has been a sharp increase in the need for online branding for businesses due to the COVID-19 crisis. As businesses around the world close or work irregularly, it’s time to start working on your online presence in order to stay afloat. Transferring pieces of your previously implemented marketing strategy to the web can help you weather this storm as well as prepare for any crises in the future. Here are some important points to help you improve online branding for your business, regardless of whether you’re selling products or services.
Differentiate from Competitors
Online branding can increase your brand’s market positioning through differentiation. This is also one of its biggest benefits. In regular market conditions, you have to differentiate based on quality, price, reputation and other factors. With online branding, you can use communication and connection to your customers to set you apart.
In other words, you can choose online marketing platforms and stand out from your competitors by doing something differently, uniquely and on-brand. Your business website is the perfect opportunity to go all-in with personalization and branding because on social media networks you will be constrained by their formats and requirements.
“There has never been a better platform to form a unique voice for your brand than the internet. Whichever channel you use, be it your own website or social media, you can customize it to reflect the values and strong points of your business,” says Marie Fincher, a head of content at TrustMyPaper essay writing service.
Online branding can differentiate you from your competitors in many different ways. Here are some of the most prominent ones:
- Brand recognition – the more visible you are online, the more people will recognize and be aware of your brand
- Customer loyalty – you can leverage the support from loyal customers and easily use their positive reviews as marketing material, prompting a cycle of new loyal customers
- Less advertising expenses – when we’re talking about long-term marketing investments, online branding can have the capacity to reduce the investment necessary for your offline promotional activities
- Sticking to memory – while users are browsing their favorite websites and social media channels, you have the opportunity to introduce your business to a potential customer in an environment where they feel safe and relaxed. In turn, this will increase your chances of sticking to their memory
Tell Your Story
Online branding is the chance to shape the narrative around your company, brand, collections and products. Instead of letting others (especially competitors!) talk about you, you can use this platform to tell your story and present it to audience in a captivating way.
It’s advisable to hire an expert for your brand writing if you don’t have previous experience. Here are some of the services that you can use to get top-notch brand storytelling: GrabMyEssay (to find expert writers in any industry or niche), ClassyEssay (to hire writers who will know exactly how to approach your brand story).
Connect to the Right Audience
Another important aspect of online branding is that you are more likely to connect to the audience you’re trying to target, more so than through any other traditional marketing channel. Social media ads and search engine promotion allow you to serve your business proposition to those individuals and businesses that are most likely to be interested in your services or products.
This targeting strategy has been employed for a long time in marketing. In the 70s, if you were targeting teenagers, you would run a TV commercial during a sitcom, not during the evening news. At the same time, you wouldn’t target 50-year-old males with a brochure in a makeup store.
The mechanism stayed the same, but the scale and power of precise targeting have gone through the roof. Now, you can target potential customers and clients based on their age, gender, location, job, income level, interests, hobbies and much more. As a business, you have to come up with an idea (or profile) for your ideal client. If you get it right, each of your marketing campaigns will be more successful than the next.
This connection to the audience that’s relevant to your business is not just important for advertising and paid promotional activities. Search engine algorithms are also set up in a way that they want to present relevant and valuable content to users based on the queries they entered. According to the majority of marketers, search engine optimization is just as important as your paid online marketing efforts.
Another benefit of this aspect is the possibility to identify your ideal audience if you haven’t already. The analytics and insights you can get from online branding info can show you whether you’ve been targeting the wrong people.
Conclusion
Online branding is a necessity for modern businesses. If you are not online, it’s as if you don’t exist to a lot of potential customers. Don’t let your business miss any potential business opportunities due to a poor online presence. If you are not sure how to go about it, online branding is a rapidly growing industry with plenty of experts who can help you succeed.
