Importance of Branding for Ecommerce

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1. Creates Strong Perception Online

Brand perception is what customers feel about your brand. It is the sum of emotions and feelings attached to a company's product or service. It covers several aspects of customer engagement with the brand. This could be marketing, point of sale, or after-sales service.
Positive brand perception is crucial for business. It's a perfect yardstick to measure your growth. Your online branding campaigns need to focus on many areas to achieve it. You must engage with customers through online marketing campaigns to build a strong reputation.
Invest in campaigns online and on social media. This helps people recognize your brand. They will come to see it as a top choice in your domain. Ecommerce branding plays a significant role in shaping perception.
Remember, it's hard to change a customer's perception after they have made up their mind.

2. Builds Customer Trust and Loyalty

Brands like Pepsi or Coca-Cola are household names. You will be hard-pressed to find people unfamiliar with them. Millions of people enjoy these beverages around the world. This is an excellent example of the power of great branding.
Shifting to the Ecommerce space, Amazon is a global giant. Its reputation globally was possible because of the immense branding efforts. It took them years to earn people's loyalty and trust.
A great Ecommerce branding campaign has the same effect on your business. It rewards you by imbibing trust in your target audience.
Quality products and great customer service are vital to building trust and loyalty. Keep customers engaged online with stories and ads. Tell them how easy it is to get in touch for help. These tactics instill trust and confidence in new and existing customers.

3. Creates an Emotional Connection

Online branding is powerful due to the number of people it can reach. You can promote your Ecommerce brand to the world at a fraction of the cost of a regular branding campaign.
A good Ecommerce branding campaign generates loyalty and a fan following. People respond well to your online campaigns. Positive feelings create emotional bonds. It makes it easy to market an idea or a service.
When people are emotionally linked to your brand, they feel comfortable. They begin to have unwavering faith in your brand. Emotional connections via great branding are good for sales and customer retention.

Related : Boost Customer Retention Rate of Ecommerce Businesses

People invested in your brand for long become great ambassadors. They promote your products and services with family and friends. Be sure to create content that invokes positive feelings in people. People love brands with a human side.

4. Drives Engagement and Sales

We know that the intent of online brand building is to achieve outstanding sales. Ecommerce branding results in sales and lead generation. Your online brand promotion activities decide your sales. It's a great business asset when done well.
Online branding allows you to position your brand uniquely. You get to promote special features of your products. Branding campaigns let you funnel leads across multiple channels. You can draw new customers from online ads, forums, and social media.
You attract customers more quickly by building a personal brand online. It helps your business stand out from other players in the market.
Focus on sales and customer service strategies such as discounts or longer return periods. These help in driving sales. Happy customers promote your brand freely. They help your sales increase over time.

5. Amplifies Reach

You reach a wider audience with strong brand awareness campaigns. It reaches people across channels and outlets. It helps people connect to your brand. There are many ways to build your brand online. Look at how other successful businesses are doing it and use those ideas.
Your campaign's main purpose must be to have people recognize your brand through its logo or ads. Use branding material across all your marketing activities. It needs to be consistent to get people to identify your brand. Once your branding activities get into high gear, it expands your reach.
You can target customers across the world or specific regions and build a relationship over time. Branding helps your product visibility in niche markets. Popularity in such markets is key to better sales.

6. Boosts SEO Rankings

Branding and Search Engine rankings have a direct correlation. People start to trust your brand. They start to identify you as a key player in your domain. Your brand elements such as logos or colors become synonymous with your products.
New and existing customers won't hesitate to check out your site for new products. Any promotions will lead to an increase in site traffic and lead generation. Search engines see this as a positive signal. It infers that your website has content of value.
A steady stream of quality traffic and conversions leads to an organic rise in your ecommerce SEO scores.
Make sure to engage your customers often with marketing events. These events build loyalty and increase brand recognition. Branding in Ecommerce is vital for getting clicks. People always prefer to buy products from familiar brands.

7. Increases Brand Recognition and Confidence

Branding makes a big difference in Ecommerce. Let's say you want to buy a music system online and you have two choices. One is from Sony, and the other is an unknown brand XYZ, which is cheaper. More often than not, you would pick a brand like Sony you know so well even though the product may be costlier.
The example above perfectly illustrates the power of branding. What branding does very well is create awareness. It makes your branding and vision popular among audiences. Well-executed branding attracts loyal customers. It is also a great way to resurrect your brand if you had a bad spell in the past.
Great branding instills confidence in customers and drives deeper engagement through sales.

Related : User Engagement SEO: Tips to Increase it and The Best Tools to Track

How to Build Your Brand for Ecommerce?

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1. Know Your Customer

Your customer is the center of your business. You must always keep them in focus whenever you make key decisions. A big investment in a brand campaign can go to waste if it does not appeal to the target audience or meet their expectations.
As a company, invest time and resources in getting to know your customer. Look at the feedback from older campaigns or customer support. This gives a fresh outlook into the psyche of a customer.
Conduct surveys and call loyal customers to get their thoughts on any new product offerings. Their inputs on pricing and product features are valuable and go a long way in brand building.
Review analytics such as abandoned cart data and top-selling product trends. This is a great place to start to understand your customers and build a great Ecommerce brand.

2. Be a Great Storyteller

Weaving an honest story about your brand builds trust and loyalty. Think of all the success stories of brands you have heard before. Stories of brands such as Amazon are motivating and emotionally connect with people. It adds a human dimension to your brand.
Tell your customers why you started the brand and what it truly means to you. Share anecdotes about how you got the idea and what gap in the industry your product helps fill.
Be truthful and sincere in your pitch, as customers can tell when brands exaggerate. Use social media to share interesting tidbits about your brand. This leads to visibility and brand awareness.
Telling a great story makes your Ecommerce brand stand out from the competition. It gives new customers more reason to spend their money with you.

3. Advocate Social Change

A company's ideology and philosophy say a lot about its ethics and values. These are strongly reflected in your branding. The core ideas that drive your brand have a deep impact on customers.
Your company may be driven by a desire to help communities or use technology to enrich lives. Whatever your core brand principle is, make sure your branding reflects it.
People look at a brand with a new lens when they see them involved in social causes. It could be an animal shelter you are sponsoring or funding education for underprivileged children. Believe in your causes and reflect these ideas in your branding. This will get you, long-term loyal followers.
Don't just list this on your 'About Us' page. Make these ideas a central part of all your branding to build a respected brand.

4. Set Realistic Expectations

A typical branding mistake that backfires is to promise and not deliver. You may put out grand-looking Ads and campaigns that promise a lot in your product. What if your product simply fails to deliver, and you were aware of it all along and did it to lure customers?
Avoid this at all costs. It is a surefire way to doom your brand forever. When you overpromise and under-deliver, you alienate customers forever.
Be honest about things such as shipping times or your refund policies. Saying that something will take a day when it takes longer makes customers lose trust in your brand.
Set reasonable expectations with your customers and work hard to manage them. Reach out to them proactively if a promise cannot be fulfilled as expected. This builds confidence and is great for your brand.

5. Identify Your Target Audience

You must clearly define who your audience is before you start with your branding initiatives. It is vital to focus on this audience. Companies often get sidelined during Ecommerce branding by doing too many things. They lay a wide net, hoping to rope in as many types of customers as possible. While this can work sometimes, but it can fail more often.
Define your market and have a clear focus on branding related to it. Develop brand guidelines and campaigns that speak to the audience you wish to target.
Create specific campaigns to meet specific audience expectations. It's impossible to target all types of audiences at once.
Look at trends in the market and choose the audience who may be most receptive to a brand awareness campaign. Develop a brand persona with this audience with relevant ads and content.

6. Constantly Seek Customer Feedback

The secret to building great brands is engagement. It would help if you were receptive to customer feedback. Try and solicit inputs at every possible opportunity. Every input, whether positive or negative, goes a long way in strengthening your brand image.
Shape your brand policies and personas based on feedback. Put yourself in the customer's shoes and think about what would delight you.
There are many ways to get inputs from customers:

• Conduct short surveys after a sale or customer service interaction.
• Call loyal customers and ask them about their experiences.
• Send product samples to a few customers and get their feedback.

A company that neglects to use customer input in its branding loses in the long run. Customer perception and experience shape a brand. Use customer feedback to improve your brand.

7. Be Consistent in Your Branding

Would you trust an Ecommerce site that changes its logo and site color schemes every week? Probably not. There is a reason why top brands maintain consistency. Whether it's the color scheme on the site, the logo on sites, and products, they maintain uniformity.
People trust companies that are consistent in their branding on various channels.
Your logo, slogan, and content reflect your brand. Don't rebrand unless there is a significant shift in your business model. Rebranding costs money and alienates loyal customers.
Your voice and tone when engaging with customers must also be consistent. All these elements play a vital role in brand building.
Hire a reputed branding agency if you're unsure if you are doing it right. They have the experience to unify all your branding collaterals.

8. Invest in a Striking Logo and Theme

A logo is one of the first things a consumer identifies in a brand. The more striking it is, the more memorable the brand becomes to them. It creates an identity for your business and ingrains itself in their minds.
Logos are strong visual elements that help people associate a product with a company.
Create logos and slogans that inspire or tell a story. Use color palettes that are memorable and welcoming. Make sure that the logos and slogans are honest and culturally appropriate.
A tagline or logo which may be witty in one country may be deemed offensive in another.
Logos and slogans create a long-term impact on a customer's memory. The more they see it in different media, the more they recognize you as a leader in your domain.

9. Use Social Media to Your Advantage

Social media is a powerful tool to build your brand. In today's day and age, one simply cannot ignore its influence on the masses. Social media is a great way to project your brand to a larger audience.
You can run entire marketing campaigns on social media and immediately see the results. Create video and ad content exclusively for social media. Use common hashtags and keywords in your posts for a wider reach.

Related : Video Marketing

Popular platforms for Ecommerce brand building are Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram. Social media brand marketing increases brand awareness. Clicks on ads and videos are a great opportunity to generate leads for sales.
Create a brand marketing plan to introduce and promote your brand on social media. Rich media and content are the key to building a great Ecommerce brand.

10. Create a Mobile App

Millions of people use the internet on their mobile phones for purchases. It is prudent to create an application for your Ecommerce business as part of brand building. There are many benefits of a mobile app. The most prominent being the ease with which you can roll out brand marketing campaigns.
A mobile app makes it easy to engage your audience through push notifications. It offers a personalized user experience that fosters loyalty for your brand.

Related : Tips to Increase the Customer Loyalty of an Ecommerce Website

Studies show that companies using apps as a branding strategy show increase in the following:

• Site traffic
• Lead generation
• Sales
• SEO scores
• Engagement with customers

An app lets you create customized campaigns for specific audiences. Creating an app is one of the best practices in the industry to position your brand in the market.

Best Branding Tools

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1. Canva

Ads are a crucial part of Ecommerce branding. This involves creating posters, flyers, brochures, and more. Creating these requires skill and takes time. It also requires graphic design skills and expensive software like Adobe Photoshop or Lightroom.
That's where Canva can help. It is a graphic design website with thousands of templates for posters and fonts. You can create great-looking branding material with little or no experience with ready-to-use social media templates.
Canva is free to use and comes with a premium version with extra features.

2. MailChimp

Emails are a powerful tool for online marketing and branding. Emails let you engage with your customer base. You can keep them informed of new products and special offers. It is cumbersome to manage a large email database.
MailChimp is a platform that makes it simple to manage email campaigns. It lets you create, edit, and automate great-looking email messages. The in-built email designer has great features and templates that make it easy to design great emails for brand promotions.

3. ActiveCampaign

Automating branding tasks saves you a lot of time. It lets you focus on other aspects of your business. ActiveCampaign is a great tool for it. With a few clicks, create personalized emails or trigger responses from customers.
Automate sending marketing emails to capture positive leads. It makes it easy to identify your most prospective customers for a new product or service. It has hundreds of pre-built automation for marketing and branding promotions.
You can try the free trial before purchasing the unlocked version.

4. AdEspresso

Creating and managing ads is a big part of any branding campaign. A common challenge is to have a consistent reach across social media platforms and channels.
Ads are effective when they can be concurrently shared on platforms like Facebook. AdEspresso lets you manage Ads from a single platform.
You can create previews of campaigns with a few clicks and share them with clients if you are an agency. Clients can sign off on the preview to begin using it instantly. It also allows split testing and comes with a free trial version.

5. Ahrefs

Ahrefs is a popular SEO and online marketing tool. It comes with tools to help with site audits and content research. Growing your visitor traffic through SEO is a great branding strategy.
Ahrefs offers keyword research, site audit, and competitor analysis functionality. It lets you keep track of your SEO rankings. An increase in SEO scores is a clear indicator that your branding campaigns are paying off.
Ahrefs has excellent tutorials to get a newbie started without any prior experience. Go for a free trial before you buy.

6. Wistia

Creating videos for your brand is a tried and tested branding strategy. Videos engage customers quickly and are visually engaging. Videos form a crucial part of any branding campaign.
Creating videos requires experience and can be costly. Wistia is a powerful video editing and creation tool. It has a simple interface that lets anyone create stunning branding videos.
It has dozens of standard templates that are easy to modify as per your campaign needs. It's a plug-and-play platform where you can easily tweak a video by adding logos and content.

Branding for Ecommerce FAQs

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1. How to Increase My Brand Recognition?

You can improve brand recognition by doing the following:

• Ad campaigns on various platforms.
• Creating a memorable logo.
• Creating a striking slogan.
• Social media and email campaigns.
• Creating a brand story

The above methods help you spread the word about your brand. A phased approach is important in branding to generate good brand recognition for new Ecommerce businesses.

2. Is Creating a Logo Same as Branding?

No. It is a common mistake to assume that you are done with branding when you create a logo. A logo is a small but important part of Ecommerce branding. It is a visual way to get your brand out there. It helps customers easily recognize a brand.
Ecommerce branding involves much more. It requires proper planning and involved online campaigns to build a brand successfully.

3. Do I Need to Hire an Ecommerce Branding Professional?

While hiring a pro is always good, not all companies can afford it. Professional branding experts can help with all aspects of building your brand. You can still do a splendid job without hiring a pro.
There are plenty of online tools and resources one can use to work in-house on brand building. Ensure that you have a checklist for all the key activities and plan your campaigns well in advance.

4. How Can I Keep My Branding Consistent?

Your branding must look and feel the same across channels and platforms. Uneven branding creates a negative image with customers. The best way to avoid this is to come up with a brand guide for your staff.
The brand guide should cover all aspects of branding. This includes the logo, color palette, and the voice and tone you wish to use when engaging customers.

5. Is Branding a One-Time Activity?

No. Branding is a long-term activity that needs constant effort. Sustaining a good brand image is more important than creating a great brand. You must have a good branding roadmap in place to ensure that your initial efforts don't fizzle out.
Make changes to your branding strategy based on market trends and competitor analysis. The key is to constantly work on branding instead of thinking of it as a one-time activity.
Are you looking for expert consultation on branding your ecommerce website? Drop your details here to get a free 1-on-1 consultation.