Today’s world is a digital world. Everything is online. Customers look online for the products they need, they go online to get more information about almost anything, and they go online to talk to friends. Whenever a customer goes online, a business has the chance to connect with them. How strong this connection is and whether it leads to a sale will depend on the business’s branding.
Customers recognize brands they are familiar with and tend to purchase more from those brands than from companies they might not have heard about yet. They tend to trust brands that are familiar to them and that they have a connection with over a new business. If it comes down to two businesses, one they recognize and one they don’t, the customer is going to go with the one they recognize and have a connection with, even if the price might be a little higher. Branding creates recognition and the connection with customers, helping businesses grow.
What Is Branding?
Logos, the look and feel of the website, how the storefront looks, and everything else about a business come together in the branding, but it’s more than this too. It’s everything a customer sees and experiences when they interact with a business. It includes how the staff greets customers, what customers see on social media websites and the story behind the business. Basically, it’s how the customer perceives the business.
Branding is created by putting across a consistent message. It’s the background story for the business, but it’s shown in everything from the website to logos to social media profiles. The branding needs to be the same, whether the customer learns about the business through the website after doing a search or they spot a link a friend of theirs has shared. With proper branding for a business, it’s possible to bring in more customers as well as create repeat customers. Branding can also offer plenty of other benefits beyond that.
Defining Your Branding
Before a business can start creating a consistent message across all platforms, they need to define their branding. They need to consider the business mission, the benefits of their products or services, what customers already think about them, and what they would like the customer to think about the business. All of this helps define the specific branding for the business, along with what colors to use on the website or in the logos, how to do the layout for the website, what social media websites to use, and more.
Defining the branding for a business is not easy and will take some time to do. This is often where businesses look for help. A marketing agency can help create branding for the business, allowing for consistency across all platforms. They can help define the branding for the business then create a branding plan that is followed for everything the business does, whether that’s answering questions for customers or creating the packaging for a new product.
Combining Branding and Marketing
Branding might sound a lot like the basic techniques to begin marketing a company, like creating a logo to use everywhere, and that’s because they tend to go hand-in-hand. Marketing is possible without a well-defined brand, but it won’t be as effective. Creating the branding for a company ensures that the message sent to customers is consistent no matter what marketing techniques are used and makes it easier to handle some techniques because the design for logos, websites, and more is already done. It encourages a consistent message through all marketing techniques, which can lead to growth and a ton of other benefits for the business. Instead of working on one or the other, work on both at the same time to start taking advantage of everything branding and marketing offer.
Branding Creates Consistency Across Platforms
Once the branding for a business is defined, it creates consistency. Visuals on websites, on the packaging, on social media sites, and anywhere else will be the same. Even if two different products are being marketed to customers, the way the packaging is done, the colors used in the products or their packaging, the way the order form on the website looks, and more are all going to be visually the same and put out the same message to customers. With the branding, it’s possible to make sure everything, from websites to social media to ads and more are all the same and all designed to attract targeted consumers who may be interested in the products or services the business has to offer.
Stand Out from the Competition
In the current digital world, it’s far too easy to slip under the radar when customers are looking for a product or service. Businesses can compete no matter if they’re across the world from each other, so finding a way to stand out is vital. Branding helps with this. Branding makes it clear that the product is from the business, not from a competitor, and helps get the customers attention as they learn more about the business and why they should stick with that business instead of trying a different once.
Improves Customer Recognition
Most customers automatically think of certain brands when they see that business’s trademarks. Just that one symbol or logo lets them recognize the company and gets them thinking about purchasing something from the company. This is how branding works. It makes everything consistent, such as the logo, so it makes an impression on the customer, and they start to recognize it whenever they see it. While customers aren’t going to start recognizing the business after the first time they see the logo or other aspects of the branding, they will start to recognize it as they see the same visuals again and again.
Create Trust in the Business
Which business is a customer going to trust, one they recognize or one they’ve never heard of before? When customers start to get more familiar with the business’s branding, and they start to recognize it when they see it, they start to trust the business more. They know what to expect from the business, they know they’ve enjoyed the products or services from the business in the past, and they know they’ll have a good experience if they purchase something from the business in the future. Customers who trust a business are more likely to stick with that business when they need something later on.
Build a Connection with Customers
Along with building trust, branding can help build a connection with customers. Branding includes not only the visuals for the business but their message as well. This is what customers tend to connect with. When they understand the business mission or history, they end up with an emotional connection to the business. This is an incredibly strong connection, and it helps encourage customers to purchase more from the company because they start to care about it more. It turns customers into loyal and repeat customers, which can help the company bring in more profits without doing more work. Marketing techniques are more effective, and customers are more likely to return repeatedly when they’re emotionally connected to the business.
The Key to Remember
A business creates a product they sell online, and they end up making a lot of money off the sales from that product. They create a new product, with all new packaging, and upload videos on social media of the product in the packaging to get customers interested. Despite a fantastic marketing plan, many customers aren’t going to recognize the business immediately because of the new packaging. They won’t realize it’s from a business they already trust because the consistency is not there.
Consistency is crucial in the digital world. There are tons of competition, so it’s hard for consumers to keep track of everything. When the visuals for a business are consistent across all platforms, customers start to recognize the brand and start to trust it more. When they see a new product released with the same branding they’re familiar with, they’re more likely to purchase it. Consistency creates recognition, trust, and loyalty with customers, helping businesses grow faster and create a solid customer base.
Your current marketing plan might be doing well, but if you’d like to it go further, think about working on the branding for your business. If you haven’t started working on a marketing plan, begin by thinking about the branding for your business so you can create a consistent impression across all platforms. In today’s world, anything that can help a business stand out is crucial.
Let us help you with the branding for your business, whether you’re already working with us on your marketing or you’re a new client. We understand how to create a brand for your business that’s going to be more effective and lead to more profits for you. Contact us today to learn more about how we can help with the branding for your business or learn more about why it’s important to think of the branding while marketing your business online.
