Brand Identity can Make or Break your Online Business
WHY DOES BRAND IDENTITY MATTER?
Branding is the cohesive look and feel of your business. It includes everything from a business’ brand colours, fonts, logos to its uniforms, website and advertising. Your brand identity directly impacts your online success. It distinguishes your business from your competitors, and communicates to your audience who you are, what you are about and what you stand for.
Brand identity connects you with like minded audiences, builds customer trust, and increases new sales and repeat customers. It is a user’s first impression of your business, and, you know the saying, “first impressions last”.
So, how can you optimise your online brand identity?
Step 1: Audience
Establish your target audience. Your product or service will naturally be relevant to a specific audience. Use analytics (eg. Google Analytics) as well as an Audience Profile or digital audit to determine who your existing audience is, and the relevant audiences you are currently failing to reach. This information helps to make informed decisions about the ways to tweak your current branding.
Step 2: Get Creative
Now that you understand who your audience is, brainstorm ideas about how to connect with them. How will your business be identified? What message are you conveying? Think of any brand that you know well. You can recognise it by its colours, font, packaging, logo etc. It is important to appeal to your demographic, and equally important to create points of difference so that you stand out from the crowd.
Branding is a complex science. There is psychology behind the use of colour, typography, shape and form. If you feel at a loss, there are branding experts on hand to help steer you in the right direction.
Create Brand Guidelines and Branded Templates to help your business develop ongoing materials in a timely and consistent manner.
Step 3: Non-aesthetic assets
Along with the aesthetic decisions, consider the usability of your website, products and services. Always strive to optimise the user experience. Your customers will thank you.
Brand tone is your brand’s voice. It helps portray your business’ personality. Be consistent with the language style that is used across all your assets, including your website copy, tagline and mission statement. While it may feel tempting to include a number of different messages, sticking to a clear and consistent message is far more memorable and effective.
Remember to apply the above to Email Direct Marketing, business cards and email signatures.
Step 4: Stay True to your Brand Identity
Optimise the impact of your brand identity by being consistent. It depicts confidence, vision and reliability to your audience. Always refer to your Brand Guidelines.
Your Website and Brand Identity
A website is your digital storefront, and salesperson- available 24/7. Potential customers who visit it will make an immediate first impression about your brand. Keeping audiences curious and engaged on your site lowers bounce rates. It gives them time to connect with, trust and desire your business, making them more likely to convert.
Ensure that:
Fonts, colours and feel are consistent on all pages
A contact form is included
A call to action button is on your landing page. This will help convert audiences by taking immediate action.
Your website is optimised for mobile. Don’t let a clunky mobile version of your website let you down. Mobile is fast becoming the most popular device type of choice for users globally so ensure that user experience is optimised for mobile.
You include testimonials or case studies. Help your audience understand why they should trust and choose you over your competitors by demonstrating how you have successfully helped others.
Copywriting has a consistent tone of voice across your website, blog, emails, EDMs and marketing materials, and is optimised for SEO.
A digital audit can help identify areas where your online branding may be letting you down and damaging your online growth. Independent Digital Audit reviews a business’s entire digital footprint and makes recommendations across all platforms. Learn how to reach more of your relevant audiences, and the best ways to connect and convert them to loyal customers. Get in touch today.
