In the digital age of today, branding is more crucial than ever. Because businesses are spending more time online, it is essential to establish a strong brand presence in order to stand out from the competition and interact with customers. A company’s revenue, trust, and reputation can all be increased with the help of strong branding. In the world of digital marketing, where businesses have to navigate a congested online space and figure out how to communicate with customers across multiple platforms, the significance of branding is even higher.
In this article, we’ll go over the importance of branding in digital marketing and offer some practical advice and strategies.
According to Jeff Bezos, “your brand is what other people say about you when you’re not in the room”. Everyone has a different style when it comes to their own brand. A good brand doesn’t need to cost you millions of dollars, but it does require a lot of creativity and research. Studies show that 89 percent of shoppers stay loyal to brands they share similar values with.
Here are some factors that you need to consider to build a strong brand:
- Brand design (colors, font, packaging, themes, etc.)
- Social media presence
- Environment and company culture
- Product quality and pricing
- Website and marketing
- Taglines and slogans
- Customer service
Other than these, there are other factors such as message, awareness, tone, philosophy, and overall personality of the business that contribute to building a good brand. In today’s world, people are bombarded with millions of messages throughout the day. To stand out from the crowd, not only do you need to have good products and services, but you also need to create a good brand. When done properly, a strong brand can advance a business much further than it was ever thought possible.
The Role of Branding in Digital Marketing
Here are some of the important roles that branding plays in digital marketing.
- Create a strong impression
Many customers are drawn towards visual representations as opposed to mundane proclamations. So, branding helps to decipher your message accurately and tell the story of your brand.
- Build your uniqueness
Branding is like DNA. It informs your potential and existing customers what makes you unique
- Attract new customers
Today’s consumers have many options. This consequently increases the level of competition. Branding can help you stand out from the crowd and help consumers to connect with your brand
- Makes content memorable
Adding images in your content will help to keep your reader’s attention, make your content memorable, help you get more social shares, and make your content rank better through image SEO
- Drive conversion
When you build a marketing campaign for your products or services, the marketing materials, images that connect with your brand, colors etc will shape how customers view your business and can help with conversions
- Makes your brand visible
When it comes to CRO (Conversion Rate Optimization), concise design decisions, changing the color or placing the CTA button in a different area can make a significant difference in the visibility and conversion
No matter the industry you are in, digital branding will apply. Have a clear idea of how branding can affect your business, and you can use it to market your talent, skills, or expertise.
- Authors
If you are an author, branding can improve your chances of visibility among literary agents
- Attorneys
As an attorney, if you concentrate more on branding your digital marketing collaterals, you will put your practice in front of people who are looking for your service
- Real estate agents
If you are a real estate agent, branding will help your digital marketing efforts by improving your chances of working with people who are looking to buy or sell properties
- Consultants
As a consultant, branding will make you look credible in the eyes of most of your consumers and make it easy to interact with you
- Pastors & Spiritual Leaders
If you are looking to build a congregation or gain more followers, branding will help to amplify your marketing efforts in growing that congregation
- Public officials
As a public official, how you portray yourself will help you win the hearts of the public. Branding can help you a lot when you run election campaigns
- Entertainers
As an entertainer branding will help you attract people or bring more eyeballs to your production house. Any digital marketing efforts you employ will also look professional
- Anyone other businesses
If you are in the business of offering a product or service, your digital branding will help the audience with their decision-making process.
Read Also: What Are The Types of Brands?
No matter the industry you are in, digital branding will apply. Have a clear idea of how branding can affect your business, and you can use it to market your talent, skills, or expertise.
Benefits of Branding
- 1. Customer Recognition
In the world of ads, when a customer recognizes a brand’s color, theme, logo, etc., they are more likely to choose that product over all others. This is because they are already familiar with your brand and what it stands for. From something simple and minimalistic to something wild and eye-popping, a good brand will always be recognized in a sea of others.
- 2. Customer Loyalty
Once a customer begins to recognize and buy a product or a service, good branding will keep them coming back for more. A good company with great products combined with effective branding hits all the right notes with customers. This will increase customer loyalty in the long run. A good example of customer loyalty is Apple, which has one of the most successful branding stories in the world. It managed to build a loyal following by building an emotional connection with its customers. Brand loyalty is one of the major reasons behind Apple’s massive success in the market.
- 3. Consistency
A good brand sets the foundation for a business. Once a business has found its branding – company philosophy, colors, typography, etc., all other efforts can be modeled around it. All future marketing efforts can branch off of this foundation. This creates consistency within a brand and helps customers relate to it more. Imagine a company changing its logo every other month. Most customers would get confused and not even want to buy the products and services from inconsistent brands.
- 4. Credibility
Every customer has their trust issues whenever it comes to trying a new product or service, However, a strong brand can help you set yourself apart as a well-established business with strong values that customers can resonate with. Innovative marketing coupled with exceptional products and services, phenomenal customer service, and interesting visuals will surely help even a small company establish itself as a serious professional business.
- 5. Improve Company Values
If your brand has a personality, it is easier for people to relate to your company’s values and motives. When people relate to your company values, they are more likely to want to do business with you. Take Toms’ shoes, for instance. They are one of the most popular shoe brands in the world, but the main thing the brand is known for is their donations. For every pair of shoes that you buy, they donate a pair of shoes in partnership with humanitarian organizations. This fosters a shared emotional connection between the company and the customer and is one of the main factors of branding.
- 6. Stay Ahead of Competitors
If you have so many competitors in the market and you are just starting, it may be a tough job to get ahead of them. However, a personalized and unique brand can help attract the right customers for you. You can also charge extra for premium quality products with good branding.
- 7. Brand Equity
One of the most important benefits of branding is that it helps to promote new products and services. If people are loyal to a brand, they are automatically interested in whatever new the brand has to offer. When Apple first introduced AirPods in 2018, it dominated the wireless earphones surpassing giants like Samsung and Xiaomi in the global market. A study by Strategy Analytics shows that AirPods has over 50 percent of the global market share.
- 8. Attracts Talent
When a business has effective branding, it is hard for people to not notice. This attracts influencers, content creators, social media marketers, and other concept builders. When a business draws these kinds of people in, it increases its creative powerhouse. Collaborations with the right people can go a long way to promote your brand and uplift your brand’s digital presence. This helps you reach an even larger audience because people trust the recommendations of their favorite influencers and content creators.
Tips and Strategies for Branding in Marketing
- Customer Recognition
Customers are more likely to select a product over all others in the world of advertisements when they are familiar with a brand’s color, theme, logo, etc. They are aware of your company and what it represents, which explains why. A strong brand will always stand out in a crowd of similar ones, no matter how plain and minimalistic or unacceptable and eye-catching it is.
Because digital technology provides for such a vast amount of information and options, customers now have the power. Artificial intelligence (AI) has allowed us to learn a lot more about our clients in return. By using client data to predict your customers’ next steps, you can enhance the customer experience. Our customers now anticipate that we are aware of their wants and requirements. They therefore insist that we provide them with pertinent content across the channels they use on a regular basis. The best way to introduce them to your products if they are unfamiliar with your brand is by offering them content they find interesting.
Your logo is the focal point of your brand, even though excellent branding requires many different visuals to work together. Because graphics will appear on every email, business card, brochure, label, and piece of advertising produced by your company, logo creation is essential. A strong logo is memorable yet distinctive enough to leave a long-lasting image of your business.
- Building Trust
Building trust is a challenge that advertising makes difficult but branding solves. Branding integrates a business or product into consumers’ everyday lives. Customers prefer doing business with individuals they can rely on. Your efforts at branding must offer your company credibility and an affinity for the values of your customers. Don’t just distribute information. Deliver emotional, relatable customer encounters instead.
Brand confidence will be strengthened by creating a strong, recognizable, and relatable offering that distinguishes you from competing businesses and endures across all distribution channels. Trust is more important to customers than finding goods or services for less money.
Building credibility and trust requires an organized and constant appearance. People are more likely to buy from a company that presents a professional and reliable image. Your company’s value and sales may increase as a result of the emotional response to your brand.
Customers-trusted digital platforms like social media and online reviews enable more in-person interactions between your business and your prospects. Trust is more important to prospective long-term consumers than getting goods or services for less money. In spite of the pandemic and enormous price increases, this is precisely why many luxury companies are still in operation.
- Build your uniqueness
Digital marketing can target very precise audiences or broad markets. Understanding your target population and developing an image that effectively conveys the advantages of your company to that group are important components of building a successful brand. Engage prospects across all of their digital touchpoints in order to welcome them into your brand experience.
The rule that states a person must see a message seven times before they can recall it remains unchanged. According to a survey by Salesforce, 73 percent of customers who don’t receive the consistent experiences they anticipate across all channels will switch brands. The satisfaction of a client affects their loyalty and retention. Additionally, more than 76 percent of respondents stated that it is simpler than ever to switch to a different brand in search of a superior experience, going from brand to brand until they find one that meets their standards.
People find it difficult to ignore a company with a strong identity. This draws idea builders, content producers, social media marketers, and influencers. A company’s inventive powerhouse is increased when these individuals are attracted. Working together with the right people can help you to grow your brand’s online presence and market it. Because people believe the advice of their favorite influencers and content creators, this helps you reach an even larger audience.
- Create a strong impression
Your branded “content” should align with the values of your prospects and consumers and motivate them to get in touch with you again when they’re ready to make a purchase. These target audiences also anticipate that you will recall them. Along the consumer decision journey, they seek consistency in what your brand stands for at all marketing contact points. Additionally, the messaging must be suitable for each contact point. They also want you to value the same things that are essential to them.
The promotion of new goods and services is among the most significant advantages of branding. People who are loyal to a brand will always be interested in anything fresh the brand has to offer. Apple dominated the wireless earphone market when it first debuted AirPods in 2018, outpacing industry juggernauts like Samsung and Xiaomi. According to a Strategy Analytics study, the worldwide market share of AirPods is greater than 50%.
