In today's digital age, branding is no longer a matter of systematic implementation of clear, clever, creative & timely ad placements. It has evolved into an art of emotionally connecting with your target audiences through right marketing messaging, in manner, medium and moment of their choice, intending to improve the way they experience your brand.
A brand is a name, logo, design, color, image, sign, symbol, words, sentence or anything else that one business uses to differentiate itself from others.
According to Wikipedia “A brand is a name, term, design, symbol or any other feature that identifies one seller's good or service as distinct from those of other sellers. Brands are used in business, marketing, and advertising. Name brands are sometimes distinguished from generic or store brands”.
Act of marketing, promoting and advertising of a brand using the digital medium is called the digital branding or online branding and sometimes referred to brands online authority.
Easy availability and accessibility of digital channels, combined with raging audience appetite, has made it imperative for B2B businesses, (Enterprises and SMEs, alike), not only to have an online presence but also to have clear, consistent and defined messaging across all digital channels.
Today, brands can gain, instant success ( Strange Things) or failures
A sustainable brand building takes time, effort and a systematic approach. It encapsulates everything that you are already doing (website, content creation, social media, marketing) and more. It’s a herculean task to make a brand stand out and appeal trustworthy to the target audiences.
You not only need to have a big voice, that can be found by the right audiences, at the right time, but also has to have 'key differentiators or niche areas of expertise' to demonstrate the unique experience that your brand represents
In the end, a brand is what its audiences and customers perceive it to be and its success and failure are determined by its customers.
Strategy, in spite of being a word favored by the shiny suits of the world, really just means thinking about why you’re doing something before you do it. So starting your digital branding strategy is as simple as deciding what you want to do, how you’re going to do it, what you eXpect to happen, and when and how you’ll measure your success.
For a brand to be recognized, they needs to maintain a consistent brand experience across all channels, no matter which channels your customers choose to interact with your brand – website, blog, email, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube – they should all demonstrate the unique experience that your brand represents. From logo, colors, fonts to design & over all visual look and feel, brands should strive for same consistency, making it instantly recognizable across all channels.
Your value proposition is a promise of value to be delivered. It’s the main reason a prospect should buy from you, and not from your competitor. The core of your competitive advantage, and it is the most important thing people will take with them when considering your brand.
A brand needs to convey clearly - What they do - defining clearly what they offer, How they do it - describe exactly how they do what they do and For who for they it - explaining areas of specialization or vertical and articulating how it sets them apart from others".
Inbound marketing is based on attracting, engaging, and delighting people to grow a business that provides value and builds trust.
THE BIG RESULTS: WHAT DO YOU WANT TO ACHIEVE ?
Brand awareness: Do you want more people to know about your brand and get your
products and services more widely known?
Acquisition or lead generation: Do you want to reach people who’ve never bought from you before and bring them into your buyer’s journey?
Growth from existing customers: Do you want people who’ve already bought from you before to buy more frequently or a different kind of product? If possible, set a specific goal – one with metrics attached to it and a time limit. These might include:
A brand strategy consists of long term specific goals and a clear roadmap to achieve them. Taking into account brands tangible and intangible (name, product, services, logo, website, and far more - the visceral and frequently intangible) aspects of the company's identity.
A well-defined brand strategy becomes the backbone of a successful company, especially for online enterprises that typically lacks a physical brick-and-mortar store.
Setting - SMART GOALs
Start with setting up smart goals. The types of goals we’ve set out above on page, pick one to concentrate on. Really understanding the goal you’re trying to hit is the first step to reaching it.
Buyers Persona - Know Your Audiences
Get to know your audience!
If you don’t understand enough about who you’re trying to reach, you’ll struggle to deliver a message that’s relevant enough to cut through. Make your own buyer personas – fictionalized, general descriptions of your key customer groups.
Once you’ve identified your buyer personas, use them to position their company, website, and social media presence to:
According to a recent survey, successful digital brands ‘not just do things differently; but they think differently’, compared to legacy brick & mortar or traditional brands.
To understand a brands value, inbound marketing relies on understanding how connected or engaged a brand is with its customers. Herewith engagement means how emotionally connected a brand is with its audiences, to improve the way they experience it.
A higher emotional connect is not only a mantra for generating more customers but also retaining them and eventually turning them into your brand ambassadors and promoters. The crucial success factor, in this age of on-demand marketer, 'Your Customers Are Your Best Marketing Channel & Brand Ambassador'.
According to a recent HubSpot survey, 70% of emotionally connected customers, not only spends twice the amount they spend on other brands, but also 81% more likely to promote the brand with friends and family.
Today consumers are more concerned about what customers are talking about the brand than what brand is saying about itself. Brands identity has become central to its perceived value and needs to be grounded in a clear and well-communicated value, setting them apart from its competitors, and emotionally connecting with its target audiences.
Customers are the sole reason for a businesses existence and they need to recognize and understand the same. Companies must understand how to measure emotional connection with its customers.
Unfortunately, a majority of companies are simply using dated or wrong methods to understand the qualitative aspects of audience engagement. Things like audience sentiment, value alignment, and the integration of a brand into daily life and everyday conversation. Either they don't understand how to measure emotional engagements or don’t feel its effects and tend to settle for a lower level of engagement.
Companies who truly understand how engaged they are with their target audiences and customers focus on the right message and the right channel to help them grow. There is a much higher chance of converting an engaged lead into a customer, an evangelist and brand ambassadors then unengaged lead or a customer.
Engaged audiences are much likely to give you a glowing reference for future business then unengaged, whether they’re already a customer or not.
An unengaged prospect or customer is unlikely to buy from you or be a repeat customer, they are more likely to be brand detractors and might cause damage to the brand.
However, measuring engagement isn’t as simple as “engaged” versus “unengaged.” There is a much more realistic and nuanced framework to quantify, measure and increase engagement, called “Seventh Level Engagement”, derived from framework originally used to measure the engagement levels of students in a classroom.
There are a lot of meaningful parallels, from the engagement level of students in the classroom and an audience to a brand, including the difficulty of MEASURING that engagement.And that’s where the Seventh Level Engagement comes in and becomes helpful for businesses.
The lowest level of engagement – or disengagement – to the very highest level of engagement.
The bottom 3, we have
1) disengagement
2) unsystematic engagement and
3) frustrated engagement;
Top four levels we have
4) structure-dependent engagement
5) self-regulated interest
6) critical engagement
7) literate thinking.
At any given time, a brand will always have some portion of their audience that falls in all seven of these buckets. It’s not realistic to expect that your entire audience is at the highest level of engagement at all times.
That said, when you strive for the seventh level, you’re guaranteeing higher levels of engagement because you’re taking the time and energy to reach the highest level with your customers.
The best brands will have the majority of their audience at or near the highest levels of engagement and will be actively working to keep them there. However, there always be some portion of their audience spread among all the other, less engaged stages.
Taking action to move the folks who are less engaged up to a higher engagement level. Brands should first, identify audiences at each level; second, take an action to move them up to level by level; and third, having goals and metrics for actually measuring that progress.
Golf coaches around the world have long known this, to hit a perfect shot, focus on swing and follow-through.
B2B businesses looking to exploit the potential of digital branding unlocked, need to rethink their strategy, organization, investment, and measurement. The key to success here will be to think about the prospect as future users and not as a buyer.