Having a Brand is not enough until it has a strong Digital presence. A brand without a digital presence is just like a car without tires, pizza without cheese. The brand will not get anywhere if it is not present digitally. This does not mean traditional branding has lost or is of no use, instead, branding has got new recognition. It has got a new framework and has diversified itself since the inception of digital/ social media platforms.    

Today businesses need a diversified digital presence and that is possible through Digital Branding. The Big Unit in Melbourne is the best digital marketing and branding company. Contact us and kick off your own brand strategy with our essential guide to digital branding. We will explore everything from social media to SEO and influencers to emails so that your brand checks all the right boxes through digital branding.  

Understanding the Basics  

Branding is the creative, strategic process of telling potential customers about your company, the products, and the services it offers. After you start a business or after you create your first product, building a brand identity should be your number one priority.  

Branding distills all about what you do and how you do it for your customers and stakeholders.  

Defining Digital Branding 

Digital branding is the process of designing and building a brand online using websites, applications, social media, video and much more. Digital branding involves the combination of digital marketing and internet branding to build a brand online. 

Why Does Digital Brand Presence Matter?  

Today, almost everyone engages with the larger world through the lens of the internet. So, it makes it essential for brands to reach the target customers and convert one-time users into long-term loyalists. 

Digital branding allows any company to build its online presence in just a few clicks.   

Digital Branding vs. Digital Marketing 

Let us understand the difference between digital branding and digital marketing.    

Digital branding focuses on providing value and inspiring loyalty. Digital marketing is all about finding new customers and getting sales. 

Advertisements on social media channels are lobbed at you constantly online, even if you do not notice it. This is what digital marketing does the best.  

Unlike traditional advertisements, digital branding does not talk to you. Instead, it seeks to engage with you. It is more about establishing an online identity and building positive feelings, rather than inspiring people to make a one-time purchase.  

Benefits of Digital Branding 

A robust and a result –oriented digital presence makes customers feel personally involved with a company and its products. Well-designed branding builds relationships with users and allows them to speak directly with consumers through frequent interactions on the digital platforms that the consumers use.  

Target Your Audience 

Your brand’s online presence will be the primary mode through which most potential customers will learn about and interact with your brand. Digital branding allows you to zero-in on your audience by targeting specific customer groups and by using online platforms that they use most frequently such as Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, snapchat and today even LinkedIn. 

Connect With Current and Potential Customers 

Successful digital branding gives your customer a platform to speak to you directly and engage. By talking to the customers, you can convert visitors into your customers.  

At its core, digital branding facilitates easy and open communication between a company and its customers. This can be as simple as making it easy for the customers to find information about your brand and your company either through your website or social media pages. Ultimately, the brand that is not searchable online practically does not even exist in the contemporary consumer’s mind. 

Spread the Word Really Quick 

There are some tertiary benefits to digital branding too, like the potential to “go viral” or even reach a mass audience in a very short span that too at a little or no cost. 

For instance, Twitter users can share, post, and like the posts. The same goes for other platforms.   

Few Components for Successful Digital Branding 

 Logo of the Brand 

A logo is the single image with which a customer can associate with your brand. Logo gives your brand recognition. For example, think of Disney and you see mouse ears. Think Apple and you instantly conjure a fruit. 

Logo should match the personality and value of your business, target audience and the industry itself.  

While you might not want to get too flashy, your logo design should be memorable, easy to understand. It should leave an impression but should not be so complicated that the audience fails to remember it after a short span.  

Have a look at logos in your industry to see what your competitors are doing. And do not forget about the colour theory - The right colour of the logo can make you stand out and even set the mood right. Such a scheme of colours should be standard across the branding materials. 

Your logo should look good in all sizes and on all your brand materials such as letterheads, business cards, billboards and even on the stationery.  

But remember digital platforms need specific sizes and images so you must design a logo that works well on your profile picture, email headers, app buttons etc.  

Business Website 

If your logo is the sign for your business, your business website will be your digital storefront location. When a customer wants to know your location, hours of operation, your product listings, your contact information or about your services, they should not be calling you now and then by phone. Your website should explain everything and any query they may have.  

Creating an effective website is important because these are simple and can be navigated easily. Just streamline the design and maintain your brand’s consistency using a limited color scheme which also matches your logo.  

Let your brand name and essential details stand out with bold, legible fonts. Keep the web pages concise and to-the-point.  

Your website should also have a ‘crawlable’ link structure. By the same token, the website content should be easily indexable by the search engines so that your content does not get lost in the internet’s sludge pile. 

At last, make sure your website works well. Check every link, button on the website. Anything non-functional on the website can make you lose the customers.  

Brand Message  

Brand message is what your company says and how you say it. The brand message should reflect what your company does and believes. Also, it should speak succinctly to your customers’ instant desires and needs. A successful brand message should answer the following questions such as: 

What do you do? 

What do you stand for? 

Why do you matter? 

Your tone of voice should also align with your company, product and services it offers. For instance, if you are a restaurant in Melbourne, you must keep it lively and full of life yet professional at the same time. Ensure that you focus on the positive side and look for solutions rather than the pain points. 

Your brand message should sound the same everywhere. The text that appears in a Google search of your company should match the brand on your website and other platforms.  

Make sure that your brand message speaks to an online audience. In a nutshell: If your brand is on the internet, it should act just like the internet does. The internet has its own unique means of communication such as memes, GIFs, slang. You can use the different modes to keep the customers engaged.    

SEO- Search Engine Optimization 

SEO ensures that your brand and its offerings are easily found on search engines, one of the primary avenues through which customers look for your services. Just start by designing your website using SEO.  

Social Media  

Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat: almost everyone, including your 85-year-old grandma, has social media presence. If your customers are there on digital platforms, your brand should also be there too. 

Social media platforms allow you to tailor every post to the platform on which it appears. For instance, Snapchat content tends to be fun, lively and targeted toward a younger crowd. Instagram posts are more image-driven and designed to drive likes and comments. Twitter works in real-time and also responds to current events and news. Facebook involves a little bit of everything.   

Email Marketing 

With all the flashy tools to market your brand digitally, it is easier to forget about the old-style emails. Emailing is one of the best and easiest ways to reach out to customers, especially for those who hardly use social media.   

Just start by building a list of emails that you want to target. The leads will then turn into your customers and subscribers through digital marketing strategies.   

Before you send a mass email, identify what you hope to achieve through it: Is it boosted engagement? Nurturing existing relations? Announcing a new product? Or something else. Your goal should drive everything from your subject line to your image selection. 

For effective email marketing, target your emails to specific customer segments and then write them in a lively, engaging tone which fits your brand or a company. For result-oriented email marketing, contact the best digital marketing agency, the Big Unit in Melbourne.