Whatever your size or sector, standing out online is harder than it’s ever been before. With so much competition, you need to make sure your branding is perfect. It needs to completely reflect who you are as a business and attract the attention of your target audience.
Here’s what you need to keep in mind if you’re looking to nail your online branding, as told by Digital22.
Who are you?
Take some time to really think about who you are as a business. What is it that you want to achieve? If you had to sum up your brand’s personality and identity, what would you say? The answers to these questions will help to shape your branding.
Where does your business fit in the wider marketplace? Are you a niche business that’s found a gap in the market or do you offer a premium service for customers looking to pay a little more for something?
Who is your ideal customer?
After you’ve thought about your business’ identity, you’ll have an idea of the kind of branding that’s right for you. For example, if you’re a high-end fashion boutique, then you’ll be aiming for ladies of a certain age and demographic. Your branding should be created with this in mind and appeal to that group specifically.
At a basic level, you’re speaking directly to your customer. Everything you do should be done with the aim of attracting and persuading them. Keeping your target audience in mind will help you to shape your branding in the best possible way.
Here are a few questions you should consider when creating your ideal customer:
- How old are they?
- What’s their job?
- How much money do they have to spend?
- Where do they live?
- Do they have a family?
- Are they shopping for themselves or for others?
- What are their hobbies?
- Where else do they shop?
- How will they have seen your business?
Answer these questions and you’ll start to paint a picture of your ideal customer. Then, when you make any further decisions or branding choices, decide if you’ve made your business more or less appealing to them.
What do they want to see?
Once you have an idea of who your ideal customer is, you can determine what they want to see from a brand like yours. The right combination of colours, fonts and imagery can grab someone’s eye and become a customer. Make the wrong choices and you could end up sending them to your competition.
If you already have a brand identity, think about how customers feel about it. It’s worth asking current customers for feedback. Were they attracted to your business because of the branding or is it something they didn’t even notice?
When choosing colours, it’s important to remember that there are some basic emotions that each one conveys. These are just a general rule but they’re worth keeping in mind.
Red – Energetic, powerful, passionate and intense.
Yellow – Optimistic, joyful, creativity and happiness.
Orange – Determined, unique, warmth and excitement.
Pink – Feminine and youthful.
Blue – Calm, assurance, peace and trust.
Black – Quality, class, bold and mysterious.
Green – Growth, health, wellbeing and nature.
If you’re a gym looking to create a brand, then a red-heavy brand is great as it connotes power, energy and intensity. Perfect for reaching gym-goers and those looking to push themselves physically. A business that specialises in fresh fruit and vegetables should aim for greens and yellows to promote healthy living, fresh produce and happiness.
These are just basic guidelines and sometimes subverting them can help your brand to really stand out from the crowd. Play around with a few different combinations and styles to find a brand identity that suits you.
It isn’t just about finding the right colours and imagery; you need to make sure you’re creating consistent content that your target audience will find engaging and valuable. Make sure the tone of voice in the content matches your businesses. It’ll help your blogs, downloads and videos become instantly recognisable.
Keep this tone consistent across all marketing material and social media and you’ll create a unified tone that’s unique to your business.
Following this advice can help you to nail your branding, as branding is the first step you’ll need to take to be a successful online business.
More on brand equity and small business marketing.
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