Branding is an important part of business marketing. It is the main tool that businesses use to create recognition, brand awareness, and customer loyalty. The most recognized companies in the world all have strong branding. Just consider companies like Nike, Apple, Amazon, McDonald’s, and Microsoft, for example.
Most people can immediately pick out the branding features of these businesses. Nike has its iconic swish tick logo, Mcdonald’s has it’s M logo and the red and yellow color scheme. You associate these features and branding elements with the business almost on a subconscious level and that is a powerful thing to have.
However, oftentimes, businesses fail to create effective branding. To demonstrate this, we have listed five things you should AVOID to make your online brand:
1. Vary your branding across different mediums
Some businesses make the primary mistake of having different branding for different mediums. For example, their website may have a set color scheme and company logo, however, they may use completely different logos and color schemes on their social media profiles.
This is confusing. It also dilutes the strength of your branding and message. The effect of online branding is much more powerful when it is consistently used across all your online outlets. Always use the same logo, color schemes, and fonts in whatever marketing you create. There is a myriad of online tools like logocreator.io that enable you to produce consistent branding media.
2. Continually change your tone and choice of language
Building on the above pointer, some businesses make the mistake of wildly varying their language across platforms. For example, they may use informal language on social media platforms and blogs, but use incredibly formal language filled with jargon elsewhere.
Whilst you can alter your tone to fit different demographics, the overall message and type of language should remain consistent. This will again help reinforce your online brand and give a cohesive message to your audience.
3. Leave parts of your marketing without branding
Astonishingly, some businesses simply omit branding from their marketing! For example, you will see many social media profiles and posts that use no branding, or blog posts that are simply a wall of text.
As a rule, any marketing and online content you make should use your branding. This could be as simple as including your business logo or color scheme in the images you use. Regardless, the more you use your branding, the more powerful the message is.
4. Use strategies that don’t reflect your target customers
The worst branding is done with no planning regarding customer demographics. Most business branding is created using heaps of research into your target customers, their psychology, and what they want, etc. If you base your branding on your target customers and their habits, it will be much more effective.
5. Emulate branding from other businesses
Finally, the worst thing you can do is to plagiarism existing branding. This firstly is illegal if they have trademarks etc. but it is also unethical. You can of course look at other businesses for inspiration, and to see what techniques they use to be successful. However, the content and ideas you create must be original for your branding to be authentic.
By avoiding the above things, you should be able to create an effective online brand. The key to success is to remain consistent. You must utilize your branding across all platforms, and all forms of marketing. Also, you must ensure that the branding elements you use are also consistent. This will ultimately help drive brand recognition and improve customer loyalty.
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