The importance of building an online brand
The importance of building an online brand Why do so many business owners assume that creating a brand means to design a funky logo, write a catchy slogan, and they’re ready to go? But in reality, successful branding requires investing a significant amount of time and work. Developing your brand means ensuring a positive customer experience at every stage of interaction with your business, including your employees, advertisements, websites, and content. All of the touchpoints for your business need to come together in the mind of your ideal customer to form the impression you’d like to leave them with. If there is no consistency in your brand message, your business will appear scattered, unprofessional, and totally off the mark. Here are five reasons why building a strong online brand is vital to the future success of your business: 1. Branding Helps Differentiate Your Business from the Competition When you appear too similar to your competition in the mind of your ideal customer, you are missing a significant opportunity to set yourself apart and give them a reason to choose you. The brand has to stand for something, be recognized by the target audience, and communicate something unique and different from the competition. It is understood that it takes seven repetitions of any message to even be heard. Branding is much more than just creating a logo. It is the ongoing communication of your value proposition in a meaningful and effective way. 2. Developing a Brand Gives Your Staff Direction Without direction, your staff will work without a purpose driving and unifying them. By creating a mission statement and direction for your brand, your employees will know where you are going and how they fit into the picture, and they’ll be able to do their jobs much more effectively. This aspect of branding is very motivational for employees. When you have a clear and up to date strategy in place which is constantly communicated with your staff, they will know exactly what is expected of them, and they will be more driven to succeed at fulfilling those expectations. A consistent brand will help your employees see the bigger picture, and they’ll take their responsibilities much more seriously when they know what the company as a whole aim to accomplish. 3. Generate More Referrals through Branding Of the three major types of referrals, namely experience, reputation, and expertise, only experience-based referrals rely on direct interaction with your company. The rest of the referrals usually come from avenues that depend on your brand to do the selling. Reputation and expertise based referrals come from individuals or organizations that have not worked with your company directly but know you by reputation. They hear about you through friends or colleagues, but almost as many will simply “know” you have a good reputation. 4. Customers Know What to Expect When You Have a Strong Brand Consistency and clarity are necessities when creating the brand message you will share with the world. When done right, your customers will know exactly what you and your business believe in, what you aim to accomplish, and how you can serve them. They can therefore determine with more ease and fewer touchpoints whether your business is the right fit for them. 5. Strong Branding Presents a Promise to Your Customer Base Last but not least, your brand represents you and what you stand for. When you approach this correctly, you’ll be able to tell the world who you are quite clearly and effectively, and they’ll have a much better idea of what your business is all about. If you’d like to discuss this topic more in-depth to see how your business could benefit from more clear or consistent branding, get in touch with Kreativworx. To request a free consult, give us a call or send us an email.
