In a world where everything is either a product or a service, and where you’re either a follower or an entrepreneur, success is defined by your ability to reach the hearts and minds of people by creating something truly unique. If you’re thinking about venturing into the world of e-commerce, your first course of action should be to develop a brand that will resonate with your target audience, and inspire people to fall in love with your story.
In the modern world, your story is the key to long-term success in the oversaturated online business arena. So how do you go about building a personal brand? What are the core elements that will set you apart from the crowd and elevate you above the noise of countless ads, promotions, and push notifications? Here’s your essential guide to branding in the e-commerce arena.
Start by building your brand strategy
In the beginning, there was a brand. Numerous key elements come into play when writing your business plan, but all of them depend on the viability and awesomeness of your brand. Defining your brand strategy means setting clear and precise long-term and mid-term goals for your company, yes, but beyond that it means thinking long and hard about the unique values that will shape your stories and images to resonate with the hearts and minds of your demographic.
In essence, you’re creating a family of loyal customers. And in order for people to want to be a part of your family, they need something to believe in, something to trust, and something to love. Your brand strategy should aim to target those emotions that move people, rather than focus on the best ways to push ads into their SM feeds.
Establish yourself in the market
USP – Unique Selling Proposition. You’ve probably heard of it the moment you started discussing your business idea with your friends and colleagues, and while it is a concept as old as time, it still holds true in the modern market. Particularly in the online world, the need to differentiate yourself from the rest of the herd becomes even more apparent, as brands are fighting over every potential customer who doesn’t really know whom to trust.
By finding your unique angle, your “purple cow” as the marketing agencies like to call it, not only will you differentiate your brand from the rest, but you’ll also create an opportune environment for unique brand development and positioning. This brings us to another crucial point in your journey.
Create a unique story and visual identity
In creating a winning brand strategy, your brand stories and visuals play the leading roles. These elements will define the core elements speaking to the minds and hearts of your target customers. Your brand needs to have a unique voice, personality, look, and feel that people are going to fall in love with.
A great idea is to take a look at the Australian business market, where branding is given top priority. Every brand has a unique story it shares with the world, with entrepreneurs working closely with a professional branding agency in Melbourne, and other start-up centers across the country, in creating the values, stories, and visuals people are going to love. Remember that your established brand personality needs to be portrayed through every online channel, including social media, ads, content, your website, and more.
Focus on audience engagement
Speaking of ads, a modern brand attracts customers with quality and emotion instead of pushing their products into the market. Now that you have a brand in place, you want to focus on creating a killer marketing strategy that will attract customers and engage audiences across the globe. Nobody likes pop-up ads or caps lock banners screaming at them to buy a pair of underwear RIGHT NOW; instead, people prefer a personalized experience and feeling like they truly belong and matter to your family.
To that end, focus on engaging with your audience through quality content. Whether that’s a killer blog post with your unique tone, videos, infographics, or podcasts, you want to focus on bringing value to your customers – something they can use to better their lives. With this type of engagement, you’ll immediately establish your personal brand as the go-to solution for all their needs.
See how branding shapes the consumer mindset? Great, now disseminate your story and reach millions.
Spread the word of your amazing brand
Don’t think that all this talk about inbound marketing and engagement aims to degrade the notion of advertising, because advertising is a powerful way to spread the word of your brand across the globe. However, your ad strategy needs to follow the same principles in portraying your brand stories, messages and visuals.
In essence, your brand needs to be consistent across all channels of communication, be they social media, websites, or other. Therefore, the ads you put out should not only aim to bring the value to the customer, but they should also be tailor-made to speak the language of your target demographic. In the last decade or so social media has becoming a primary marketing and engagement channel, so paying some extra attention to them is probably the best way to go. Fortunately, there are a variety of resources, similar to this social commerce ebook which could be a valuable resource when it comes to tapping into these channels. Alternatively, if you want to make sure you’re doing the best you can in this area, hire a professional for monitoring and consulting services. When searching for the best company for the job, look for a local crew, someone who knows not just your niche, but the psychology of your local market. For instance, if you’re covering Australian market, go for media monitoring company from Australia.
In the overly competitive e-commerce world, building a personal brand is one of the most powerful ways to separate yourself from the herd, and establish a name in the market. Before listing your products online, be sure to first establish a brand that will attract a global audience and create a loyal following.
Author: Oliver Curtis
Hi there. I’m Oliver. I’m just a young boy from the outskirts of… Okay, that’s a lie, I’m not a young boy anymore, although I certainly feel that way at heart.