6 Powerful Ideas that define Online Brand Building

Over 600 websites are created every minute, that’s over 200,000 every day and 73 million a year. That is a lot. And every one of them is fighting for someone’s attention, that someone could be your potential client. Websites come and go, but brands are forever. If you want long-term success online, then build a brand that people can relate to, that connects with them and that they will remember for a very long time.

Why is building a brand important for your online success?

1. 1. People have a very short-term memory of unremarkable things
   2. People do not trust everything they read online. Do you?
   3. It’s easy to get lost in the information overload.

Idea 1 : Lifestyle projection driven consumer decision

Did you not feel like going out and getting a Nike right when you saw Kobe Bryant dribble past opponents and slam that dunk?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Hi0skAwlHM

Nike uses the lifestyle of high performers to project its brand. As you watch the commercial, you associate that lifestyle with Nike, and that’s how Nike imprints its brand into your mind.

Ways to project lifestyle for online branding:

1. Make sure the product or service you are selling is designed to project the ideal lifestyle
2. Make cool banners which project the same and capture the audience within 2 seconds.
3. Use Google Adwords or Facebook ads to target the right audience and use relevant lifestyle creatives.

Idea 2: People buy into stories before they buy into brands

Designers and Marketers are the storytellers of the 21st century.

You can project a lifestyle all you want, but people do not care until they buy into your story. If they do not feel that your story is authentic, they will simply walk away.

How do you tell a good story:

The Origin:

The origin should capture an episode that creates empathy with your audience. All stories fail when the audience does not empathize with the protagonist.

The Journey:

Tell a story, where the protagonist faces adverse difficulties and overcomes them. The journey is more interesting when it has its ups and downs, struggles and successes.

The Finale:

The epic battle and the glorious victory.

This is one of the 7 most common story plots. Read about the other plots here.

Idea 3:  People listen to people

People are social beings,

In the avalanche of information we read about branding strategy and techniques, we might forget to act upon this basic truth. Backed by this simple truth, you can do the following to really connect with your audience.

See new technological news, tips, tricks, reviews, how to do things and cool stuffs here.

Use Personal Tone:

Apple is almost always the first name that comes to your mind when someone talks about biggest brands in the world. Though technology and product design have a big part to play in getting them to that status, branding ideas like the content tone play a huge part which we do not realize most of the time..

Here is the banner for the newly announced macOS Sierra,

Source: www.apple.com

Communities:

When you are starting up, nurturing a community is the best strategy to gain a lively, passionate and vibrant following. And, these are the people who make your brand valuable.

Social reviews:

When people see your advertisement, and if you are not a well-known brand, they go online and read reviews about your brand and your products. And when they do, you better have some really good reviews.

Before you scale, build social trust.

This is why instead of focusing on scaling too quickly, make sure you have a very passionate early following and also be sure to get good reviews early on.

Idea 4: Capture only a portion of the value that you create

If you approach building your brand with the only intent of making money, you will end up with nothing.

Be generous.

Give more than what they want. You’ll get more than what you ask.

Here are some ways to create additional value for your brand,

1.   Give away free trials
2.  Create informative blogs

iii. Create and give away e-books with a valuable resource. Neil Patel uses this as one of his primary ways to create value and gain email subscriptions.

1.  Give additional amenities to compliment your product or service. Airbnb schedules professional photographers to visit you and take pictures of your house when you want to rent away your place through their website.
   

Idea 5:  Law of brand differentiation

When two brands are very similar, which one you would you choose? I would choose the one that I have always been with.

That my friend is why you need the law of brand differentiation.

If you do not differentiate yourself from your competitor in a market where you are just entering, you lose.

Either be 10x better than them or show how you are different from them in a way that people care about.

People always prefer the incumbents, because they know them and what they are about. The new guy always has the harder time. Unless of course, you differentiate yourself.

Idea 6:  Trust is built on consistency

When people falter, they are pitied. When heroes falter, they are vilified.

When your brand is well respected, people invest a lot of emotional interest into it. It all goes crashing when you let them down. You may have won them over by clever marketing, but if you want them to be your lifelong supporters, you need to build a trust based on consistency.

Consistency across all your products, services, support, communication and design is crucial if you are to build a valuable brand. Invest in branding services who can help you make a clear and effective strategy across all your touchpoints.

Do not take the well-trodden path. Make your own and most of all think more about your customers, their emotions and the things that they care about. Those that build on the surest foundations build the tallest towers.