Building your brand online means making yourself more widely known to a worldwide audience. This is both an exciting and daunting opportunity. There is some work involved, but the reward is worth the work. So, if you are interested in moving your offline business online, the following steps are the way to go.
First build your brand offline
The look and feel of your business will impact the strength of your brand. Your brochures, posters, logo, and other advertising media will impact your audience. Your job is to grab the attention of your target audience. Once you understand your target and build a brand to suit them, you are ready to add value to your brand online.
Stay in line with your offline brand strategy
The same methods of design and communication that you use offline should be implemented online. This will let your customers know that they can trust you. They will expect continuity between your brochures, for instance, and your website.
Now you can make your presence known online
Social media sites and blogs are an excellent way to connect with customers. As customers follow your posts, they learn more about you and the value of your brand. Commenting on other businesses’ posts will build your popularity as well.
Comment on every blog you read
One part of branding is becoming well-known. As you make comments on other’s blogs you are creating a presence. The higher the quality of the comment, the more powerful the branding becomes. Give your audience an impression of the type of business you run by the blogs you comment on and what you say. If you are present everywhere, you can become a must have brand.
Keep your profile consistent
This means picking an avatar and sticking with it. Try not to change your profile, signature, and font types. Stick with the style that best fits your business. If you are forever changing, then you will not be memorable. Being memorable and easily recognizable is a huge part of proper branding.
When you have added value attached to your brand, you become the brand that everyone talks about. There is an emotional value attached that will turn your customers loyal and your prospects into customers.
It’s important to remember that once you’ve established your brand and have a nice following, you can change your avatar and the like as much as you want…that’s the beuty and freedom of “making it,” so to speak.
Great tips.
Jason recently posted..Online Income Report 003 – November 2010
Hi Anna,
Helpful tips here.
Creating your brand offline first forces you to plan your branding campaign.
I am big on commenting. Each comment is a form of content, your cyber-signature. Comment only on high-quality blogs and make sure to take your time. I suggest spending at least 3 – 5 minutes on each comment.
Whether you pen one or not, your signature is linked to each piece of content linked up to your blog. Each piece should make an indelible impression.
Thanks for sharing and have a powerful day!
RB
Ryan Biddulph recently posted..5 Uber Clever Ways to Advertise Your Home Based Opportunity
Well said. We should talk Ana,seriously. This is exactly what I do, transition direct sellers into the online world.
Dennis Edell @ Direct Sales Marketing recently posted..“Best Laid Plans” – A Brief Personal Post You Must See
Nice. These tips in a nutshell is what everyone should really be doing regardless whether you have an offline business to build upon or not. For branding purposes, I thing that being “consistent” is the right move to ensure that the brand you are building gains exposure and the follow the momentum. Thanks
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Anna, I’m taking a bit different tack. I’ve mostly worked on establishing myself online, and now I’m doing some offline branding also.
I totally agree with consistency and high-quality. I chose a gravatar with my smilin’ face and a teal shirt. I think the teal color will help people recognize me. I’ve been using that pic everywhere — LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, etc.
John Soares recently posted..Why Freelance Writers Should Specialize
Hi Anna,
Branding is such a key element in any business and if done correctly can be a great asset to your business.
You’ve provided great tips here. I especially agree on keeping your branding consistent; whether you are using the same gravatar every where or your name.
Thanks for providing such a quality post! Truly appreciated.
Hello Anna,
Branding is indeed one of the most important part that we need to take into consideration. I love the way you deliver your post which is very clear and direct to the point. You are right about being consistent with your profile so that others will easily recognize you and you can establish yourself well.
All the best to you,
Ana
Ana/Traffic Generation Cafe recently posted..From Ebay Link Building to Ebay Traffic Generation- Let the Auction Begin
Hi Anna,
Implementing a social media plan is also a great way to connect with your target audience. In fact, most of them already have accounts with Facebook and Twitter. I think, getting personal with them there through giving excellent content will pump up the brand much more as well.
Awesome tips and thanks Michele!
Cheers,
Thu
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I do agree that once your brand has become well-established, leniency is allowed on the rule of never changing a gravatar and other brand elements. But even large brands need to be careful of changing up their look. If you check out the transformation of big brands throughout their years in operation, they only make one or two brand changes at a time to remain recognizable by loyal customers.
Commenting seems to be the one area that a lot of businesses online do not seem to understand. You are very right in that commenters should offer intelligent and thoughtful comments that reflect well on their business’s brand. Thanks for pointing out this out!
Awesome! This transition – from direct sales to online sales – can be a difficult one to make without guidance. Glad to know there’s help out there.
I agree that these tips certainly can be used by companies who are solely online. Yes, momentum is one of the greatest benefits gained from a consistent brand; this momentum is what takes good brands to great so quickly, such as with Starbucks.
I commend you on taking your brand offline. For Internet companies, online establishment is very important, and I would recommend that they take the same route as you. But for those companies who also have a store front, it is easier to decide on branding before taking it online. And great thinking on the teal shirt – it’s a distinct and therefore memorable color.
@Jason – I do agree that once your brand has become well-established, leniency is allowed on the rule of never changing a gravatar and other brand elements. But even large brands need to be careful of changing up their look. If you check out the transformation of big brands throughout their years in operation, they only make one or two brand changes at a time to remain recognizable by loyal customers.
@Ryan Biddulph – Commenting seems to be the one area that a lot of businesses online do not seem to understand. You are very right in that commenters should offer intelligent and thoughtful comments that reflect well on their business’s brand. Thanks for pointing out this out!
@Dennis Edell – Awesome! This transition – from direct sales to online sales – can be a difficult one to make without guidance. Glad to know there’s help out there.
@DiTesco – I agree that these tips certainly can be used by companies who are solely online. Yes, momentum is one of the greatest benefits gained from a consistent brand; this momentum is what takes good brands to great so quickly, such as with Starbucks.
@John Soares – I commend you on taking your brand offline. For Internet companies, online establishment is very important, and I would recommend that they take the same route as you. But for those companies who also have a store front, it is easier to decide on branding before taking it online. And great thinking on the teal shirt – it’s a distinct and therefore memorable color.
@Michele – I’m glad you enjoyed the post.
You bring up a good point. A name is equally as important as a gravatar in branding online; specifically, using the same name with the same gravatar. This way, as you comment on more and more blog posts, followers of those blogs will begin to recognize and remember your brand.
Great post Anna.
I strongly agree with you keep your profile consistent that can help another blogger can remember your brand with the special picture or signature. Anyway, thanks for your sharing. Anna
So true and so important, I think about branding nonstop! Thanks for sharing this awesome post.
I am interested in internet marketing, and I have plenty of products and plenty of websites that i want to make to advertise those products for income. How do I handle multiple niche ideas?? It seems like I have too many, but if I try to stay with just one idea, that is so boring and limited to my multi-faceted, multi-idea, entrepreneurial brain. Please help – advice!!
That’s an interesting point about not changing your avatar. Never really thought about that. But I guess, as Jason said, once you make it you can do whatever you want.
So hard to keep the same picture for an extended period of time though! Get’s boring, don’t you think?
Yeah, brand building is surely important to take our business into next level. Having the well-known brand always means that the selling will be good. That’s also applicable for blogging if we consider our blog as our business.
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Your blog is very useful. Thank you so much for providing plenty of useful content.
Hey, nice and a very good piece of share. I like the way this has been crafted. Keep up the great work. Retweeted
Keep posting
Now as the world is become a global marketplace, it is absolutely essential to become as wellknown as possible
@Ana – Thanks! I’m glad you enjoyed the post. I like the word you used: established. You are completely right in that the purpose of remaining consistent in branding is to make your business established enough so that consumers and clients easily recognize you.
@Thu – Yes, social media has definitely become a necessity in developing and maintaining brand identity. Many businesses are still hesitant to incorporate this form of marketing into their plan, but to those businesses I would say that they cannot afford to avoid social media marketing. Today, customers are rapidly becoming social buyers; businesses have to develop relationships with customers in order to survive, and social media is one of the main methods of keeping connected with loyal customers today.
@Ryan – You’re welcome! For me, a consistent profile is just as important as consistent colors, fonts, or icons in a website and other marketing media. Just like a logo is an identifying piece for, say, postcards, a profile is an identifying mark online.
@Ben – It’s good to be thinking about branding non-stop. Many small businesses often forget to keep this crucial aspect of marketing in mind, which is what I think is a very common cause in failed businesses.
Social media is very popular nowadays and using it to promote one’s business is such a very good idea. Nice post here Ana. Direct to the point and very simple. Thanks for sharing.
So true that building a brand online will greatly help the business known globally. Social media has now become an important factor in reaching out more customers. Your tips is very useful in developing a good business marketing strategy. Thanks for posting.
Nowadays Social Media is one of the best way to interact with the customers and it is also an effective way to promote your products and services. Your post is very informative. Thanks for sharing valuable tips.
I agree with everything you say here. It is important to have consistent branding across all platforms (both on and offline). Your brand is the first thing people will notice and it will say a lot about you and your business.
Why is online branding should mirror/reflect offline branding?