If you aren’t familiar with this term yet, digital branding is a smart way of gaining a customer base by having a strong online presence that focuses on your company values and brand.
Recent studies revealed that 33% of consumers have a brand in mind when they go shopping and most of them use the brand’s name as a generic term.
We want to help you on that journey to recognition, so we present to you five tested and proven steps you can follow to optimize your digital branding.
1. Target Your Customers’ Trust
Did you know the Edelman Trust Barometer revealed that customer trust is declining throughout industries? Ouch.
Also, 81% of consumers trust the advice of family and friends over your words as a company. Double ouch.
This means, to your potential customers you are a devilish money-grubbing company unless proven otherwise.
In conclusion, being honest with your audience counts now more than ever so here are a few pointers on how to gain your customers’ trust.
Don’t ❌
- Make everyone your customer.
- Assume your audience will behave a certain way without proper research.
- Use marketing fluff to package your product or service.
- Overestimate what your product or service can do for the customer.
Do ✅
- Choose your niche. It’s much easier to dominate a niche than spreading thin over a large market.
- Research your niche and its consumer behavior.
- Show your value at first sight. Tell the customers what problem you’re solving.
- Be honest and authentic when presenting your product or service.
Example: Formon reveals what it’s about at the very first glance. It explains its main value in the first sentence and the design is simple and straightforward. We like. 👍
2. Digital Branding Means a Logo that Sticks
Brands have spent over $200 million on logo design this year. No wonder, really.
Your logo is your company’s existence crammed into one name and/or picture. Best part is, it breaks through language barriers, making it universally understandable.
Here are some dos and don’ts to keep in mind when designing your logo:
Don’t ❌
- Ignore the logo image’s quality.
- Choose colors that don’t complement each other.
- Use a font that makes the logo look outdated or cheap.
- Use a symbol or image with too many details.
- Have too much writing on your logo.
Do ✅
- Use a signature color, or color combination. It can boost your brand awareness by up to 80%.
- Include clever design or wordplay.
- Keep it simple.
- Make the symbol or image a stand-alone piece.
- Have different variations of your logo that fit with different backgrounds.
Awwwards got some great examples of clever logo design you could learn from:
3. Your Website. Your Visit Card.
Oh, the hypocrisy of saying don’t judge a book by its cover. We all say it. We still judge it.
It takes people 0.05 seconds to form a first impression about your website and if your website isn’t you, you better revamp it because 75% of people check out a brand by visiting its website.
Thus, no mediocre branding! Think colors. Think structure. Think speed. Know that a 1-second delay in your site speed can reduce conversions by up to 7%, so invest into good website hosting.
Depending on your industry, you have endless creative ways to design your website so it does justice to your brand.
In the realm of technology, for example, you can go for refined hi-tech (Riverlane)
Polished professional (Storemaven)
Iconic minimal (Gogoro eeyo)
and many, MANY other styles.
Here are a few dos and don’ts to keep in mind when designing your website:
Don’t ❌
- Have color palette and typography inconsistencies.
- Have low quality images or grainy videos.
- Focus on yourself and how great you are.
- Place huge chunks of information and expect the visitor to read it all.
- Have big page margins that make content look squished.
Do ✅
- Have recognizable main colors and use them consistently throughout your website. If you have trouble choosing your brand’s color palette, here are some amazing color combinations for you to consider.
- Use visuals.
- Choose a couple of font families for the headings and body paragraphs. Let the font be readable. Here’s a list of great fonts that can be read easily online.
- Focus on how you empower the customers and what they can do through your product or service.
- Have intriguing, descriptive titles and concise, easily digestible information.
- Have structured design that leads the reader to explore further. Here are some mind-blowing examples.
- Have strategically placed CTA buttons throughout your website.
- Have a responsive website design. According to recent studies, 70% of the searches made on mobile phones lead to online action.
If you need to spice up your current website or entirely redesign it, but don’t know where to start, at UCXmarket we offer a great selection of services and a free consultation + website audit to help you get started on optimizing your digital branding.
4. Be Direct. Talk Like a Friend.
Readers enjoy the art of simplicity.
Address pain points and drop the greasy marketing language. Just tell your potential customers how you make their lives easier.
Don’t ❌
- Throw convoluted industry jargon that makes the reader feel stupid.
- Include sentences that don’t have a purpose.
- Write without doing proper research.
- Say We, We, We.
- Make your tone monotonous.
Do ✅
- Use simple language that can be easily understood by readers.
- Optimize your content for search engines. There are plenty of free tools you can use to do that. Here’s a list of them.
- Do industry-specific research and address your market’s biggest pain points.
- Say it’s about “you, the customer” and show them you genuinely care.
- Play with words, tone, and punctuation. Here’s some inspiration.
5. Social Media Are King
9 in 10 people buy from a business they follow on social media.
People who follow a brand on social media are 3 times more likely to form an emotional connection with it and customers that have an emotional bond with brands are 50% more valuable than highly satisfied customers. Interesting!
You know why?
For the same reason people buy the newest iPhone model, despite having a fully functional older model.
It’s loyalty and admiration combined, and loyal customers don’t simply buy your products, they recommend you to their friends and family, be it via WOM or social media.
As a matter of fact, 49% of consumers say their purchasing decisions are influenced by social media posts of their friends.
Does this ring a bell? Then time to brush up your social media skills.
Here are some pointers for you:
Don’t ❌
- Have an inactive/ sporadically active social media account. It does more harm than good for you.
- Have outdated pictures or banners.
- Make it only about promoting your business.
- Ignore criticism. Usually, 91% of customers who are unhappy with a brand will just leave without complaining, so you are lucky for receiving feedback.
Do ✅
- Provide useful content. Guides, tips, hacks, or news related to your industry are always good.
- Include videos. A recent study revealed that 85% of people say video content allows them to connect with a brand more efficiently.
- Humanize your brand. People want to see the faces working behind the company.
- Flaunt your company culture and promote what you stand for.
- Create interactive posts for your followers. Ask them questions, post polls, create challenges, use custom hashtags, etc. Make them feel like they are part of a community.
- Partner with influencers who share the same values as you. It’s great to have brand ambassadors.
Aaaand that’s a wrap!
We hope this 5 step guide will help you effectively grow your brand now and in the post-pandemic era. If you have any questions about digital branding, don’t hesitate to contact us. We’d be more than happy to help you unleash your brand’s full potential!
