How To Build An Incredible Brand Online

Branding is the art of giving products, firms, or services an identity and a personality that makes them unique and distinct from others. This may involve the use of symbols, slogans or storytelling.

The internet has come to stay; businesses must adapt, it’s therefore important to build an online brand for your business that resonates with your consumers. When you build the brand of your business, your business will enjoy a lot of benefits, such as increased sales, brand loyalty and many more.

The following are ways to build an incredible brand online.

1.  Choose a Name

This is probably the most important decision you will make when you introduce your brand to the market. When you want to name your brand, you need to take into consideration what your product does together with the age of your target market.

Try to make the name you choose short, simple and straightforward for your customers to remember. Your customers should think of positivity when they think of the name of your brand.

You need to determine what your name wants to accomplish, how it will work with your products and services. Below are tips on how to choose a great name for your brand

•           Make sure your brand name is meaningful, and by meaningful I mean it must communicate what your brand is all about.
•       Make it stand out. It should be unique, simple and memorable.
•       It should be straightforward such that people can say it, search it, and connect with it.

2. Make a logo

You’ve got a name for your brand. It’s great but you need a logo too. A logo is an important foundation for the branding of your business.

You simply can’t do without it. So why is a logo important to your business? It shows what your business is all about.  It also creates an identity for your brand. When customers see that logo anywhere, they immediately know it your business without being told. That’s the power of branding. Having a logo also separate you from the crowd. It differentiates your company from that of others.

To create a good logo, make sure that it’s simple, memorable, innovative, modern and balanced. Below are tools you can use to make a logo for your brand.

·        Tailorbrands.com

·        Graphicsprings.com

·        Placeit.net

·        Wix.com

3. Be authentic

The third step to build your brand is to be authentic. Know what your brand is all about. When you try to get your message about your brand to customers, make sure that the claims you make about your brand are true, because consumers will always question some of the claims you assert.

If your brand does what it says, it brings credibility to it and this would build a good relationship between your brand and its consumers. It also increases the publicity of the brand by word of mouth because consumers will tell other consumers what your brand is all about together with the claims you make. This is more reason why the claims you make about your brand should be true in all aspects.

READ ALSO: How To Advertise On Facebook

4. Publicize it

To get your brand In front of people you need to publicize it. For people to see and hear your brand, you should as much as possible create publicity for it. It should be noted that publicity is different from advertising. Publicity is better at creating awareness for your brand than advertising. This is because publicity is far cheaper than advertising.

Publicity is about increasing the awareness of your brand at a much lower cost. Another advantage publicity has over advertising is its longevity. It lasts longer than advertising. For example, an article about your business will last longer than an ad about your business.

So how do you publicize your business? You first need to know what you want to achieve through the publicity. Your goal may be to drive more traffic to your website. Just try to be specific as possible and to do this you need to develop a marketing plan. The following are the ways you can create publicity for your brand at little or no cost.

•           Create a website

You can’t talk of building a brand if you don’t have an online presence. The benefit of having a website cannot be overemphasized. Having an offline presence is no longer enough. You need to go online because the world is going digital.

You can reach more people that you can’t even think of. To create a website you need a host, domain name and a platform. There are many platforms such as WordPress, Wix, Squarespace, etc.

•       Search engine optimize your site

It’s one thing to set up a website and it’s another to get it to people to see it. One way to do this is to seo your website. Seo is the process of making your website understandable to search engines for them to be able to show your website to people who search for what you sell or the information you provide.

•       List your business in local directories

Another way to reach more people or make it easier for people to find our company, it's advisable to list in directories like Google, Yahoo, and other local directories.

•       Utilize social media

Social media is no longer for just meeting with friends. You can reach a lot more people with social media. Set up a profile or page on relevant social platforms and be sure to link to your website.

You can also join industry-related groups, participate in their conversations and indirectly promote your business. Be careful not to spam them though.

•       Ask for customer reviews

These days’ reviews can do a lot for your business and ultimately for your brand. When someone buys your product or service, kindly ask them for a positive review and include them on your website where people can see them.

•       Embrace YouTube

Although this is optional, video sharing could be a cool way to promote your brand. Even though it requires a little bit of work to create good videos, it could be rewarding if done right.

Read also: 10 Tips to Improve and Optimize your Social Media Ad Campaign

5. Advertise the brand

After publicizing it, you also need to advertise the brand. Although advertising is more costly than publicity, you could do with a little of it. Publicity and advertising complement each other.

Advertising is an easier and stress-free way to increase the visibility of your brand. That’s why you pay for it. when you’ve launched your brand, advertise it in order to keep the name in the mind of the consumers. You also need to know the message you will put out when advertising, try to advertise why your brand is the best at something. A way to do this is to show how your brand is the leader in terms of the quality of its products or services.

To have a successful advertising campaign, you need to have a thought out plan coupled with some research, that’s the way you know what you are going to do. There following are ways to advertise your brand.

·        Social media advertising

Many social platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, etc. have a way you can advertise with them. Go on these platforms and figure out how you can do that.

·        Pay per click advertising

Pay per click advertising is a type of online marketing where advertisers pay a small fee for every click on their ad. It is a way of buying visits to their sites instead of doing it organically.

·        Display advertising

It is the use of banner ads on websites placed in specific places. It comes in different sizes.

6. Keep it simple stupid

When you start a brand, make sure you are known as a leader or an expert at something. Avoid the temptation of expanding your brand. The easiest way to weaken your brand is by expanding the product line too much. Try to keep it simple, let your brand specialize at something. Don’t be a jack of all trade and the master of none, that way you focus on promoting your brand for being good at a specific thing.

7. Think global

When your brand begins to grow, you must look beyond your immediate environment. You should think global. Like the saying goes “think big, start small” same applies to branding.

Therefore, when you are thinking of naming your brand and what products or services it should offer, think global. Make sure what you do as a brand appeal to international markets.

Building an incredible brand online may not be easy. It takes a lot of hard work, perseverance, planning and strategizing but it’s surely doable. If you have any issues about branding your business, don’t forget to drop a comment below and I would be glad to help.
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