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Branding Your E-commerce Business
Brand building is the process of creating awareness and promotion of services or products of a business by using advertising campaigns or through sponsorships. Brand building strategies bring target consumers closer to the brand. They also provide value for them so that they know, feel, and experience the brand. Your strategy in building your brand online will influence not only the perception of your business but also how you generate income. Having a strong online brand is vital for any business looking to make money from the millions of online visitors.
When connecting with your community online, you need to be trustworthy and in command of how the brand is perceived. Trust and authority complement each other, and a faceless brand has neither. Now, building an online brand is a bit difficult as everything is virtual. More elements are required to build trust and retain your customers because the competition is high. This article will offer guidance on how to start building your online brand, giving insight into some of the factors you need to take note of.
In this article we will discover various ways to improve your e-commerce business:
- Considering your business
- Brand guide
- Social media consistency
- Testimonials
- Blogging
- Team Section
- Conclusion
Considering your business
Industry – E-commerce, also referred to as electronic commerce or internet commerce, is the activity of buying and selling of goods or services using the internet. It also extends to the transfer of money and data to execute these transactions. Once you decide to sell your goods or services through the internet, that is e-commerce. The online marketplace has few barriers to entry, so competition is very high.
Unique selling proposition – Many online businesses are almost similar and few are one-of-a-kind. A vital component of effective selling in this situation is having a “unique selling proposition”. if your target audience cannot pinpoint what makes your product or service unique in a world of homogeneous competitors, you will have a tough time targeting your sales efforts successfully.
Brand story – A brand story narrates the events that sparked your business’s start. It expresses how that story still drives your mission today. Just like your favorite comic or movie characters, if you can create a convincing brand story, your target market will remember your business, develop empathy for you, and ultimately, care about what you’re selling.
The product – Is your product available physically, digitally or it’s a mix of both? As a business, you need to look at adding ‘digital value’ to customers through your product. This can include customizing the product before shipping it to the customer. Also, there must be little or no difference between the two. What you sell, should be the same as what you deliver.
Target audience – A target audience is the group of people most likely to have an interest in your product or service. When setting up your online business you have to be aware of your target audience. Who do you want to sell to? Failure to determine your target audience might lead to limited sales as your advertising is general and not specific. You can define a target audience on factors like age, location, and social class.
Brand guide
A brand guide takes the heart and soul of your brand; your mission, vision, and values and translates it all into the design. It also clearly tells your audience exactly how to communicate with your brand or business. In the brand guide, you explain elements like your logo, corporate colors, and fonts used. This story helps to create a picture of how the brand is to be perceived. According to experts, color increases brand recognition by up to 80%; This means your brand must have a colorful, powerful, and memorable logo. The colors used in your logo should be different than your competitors. Your fonts also have to be visible and relatable to the brand. A seasoned designer can give guidance on this topic.
Social media consistency
Social media has become an integral part of any business looking to grow. It is free and you can manage it on your own. However, you also need a strategy on how to use social media for your business. Find social media sites that best suit your needs and maximize your consistency there. For your audience to recognize and interact with your brand, you need consistency. Ensure that you post regularly. Organic reach, which is the number of online audiences you reach without paying to promote an advertisement or post, can be seen only a by certain amount. Each post can be viewed as another chance to reach your audience. Posting strategically and consistently will maximize your organic reach. Being consistent on social media and even with your message offers you an opportunity to grow in audience engagement and reach. From the tone of voice, you use in messages to page design and colors, you need to be easily recognizable to gain traction among your intended market.
Testimonials
There can be no brand or consumer relationship without trust. We are living in a time where consumers don’t trust businesses easily. Techniques like publicity in which the company boasts of its successes don’t work as well as it used to. Instead, consumers now trust peers (social proof) and every brand needs to find ways to gain the trust of people. This is where testimonials come in. Testimonials are written accounts by consumers where they are praising a product or service. They are authentic and the more testimonials you have for your product or service, the more likely people are to try it and recommend it to others.
Blogging
One of the most effective ways of building brand awareness while giving your target audience relevant and useful content is blogging. Businesses now operate in an ever-changing environment of technology and consumer demands. It is becoming quite important for small businesses to craft a strong online presence to engage and communicate with their audience. Blogging offers an inexpensive way for small businesses to drive traffic to their website, improve inbound marketing efforts, and attract more potential customers. A marketing survey that was conducted showed that almost 80% of businesses that use blogging as part of the marketing strategy reported gaining customers through their blogging activities.
Team section
With a growing world of virtual communities, teams have become more pronounced. Your “team section” on the website helps your audience put a face to the brand or business. This helps them to relate to these normal people, thus creating a feeling of belonging to a wider community.
Conclusion
Building a successful brand is not easy and it will take time. As a small business, you have to set yourself apart from the competition to build a successful brand. The overall buying experience as well has to be easy, unique, and memorable to the customer. This will greatly increase the chances of a repeat buy from that customer as well as positive recommendations and testimonials.