Branding is part of creating a strong positive perception for your company, its products or services in the mind of your customers by combining elements such as brand identity, brand positioning, brand personality, brand quality, brand experience and brand communication.

A unique brand can have a huge impact on your bottom line by giving you a competitive edge over your rivals and helping you acquire and retain customers at a much lower cost. These days, almost anyone can produce anything in this crowded environment. However, only a few has a good brand identity. Branding is crucial, as it focus on building your brand (long term) than just gaining quick profits and sales (short term).

Branding must clearly communicate its core benefits to the consumers regardless of whether or not you are investing time and resources into crafting a compelling brand or paying no attention to it whatsoever. Hence, to succeed in today’s marketplace, your business MUST invest in branding. Taking out time to carefully construct your brand through stories, relationships, marketing messages and visual assets you have the opportunity of shaping your customers’ expectations and creating a unique bond that goes beyond the buying – selling relationship.

Good branding is strategic, while marketing is tactical. When you establish the higher objectives and clearly define your brand promise, you can start crafting a strategic plan that is geared towards achieving your business goals. Either you are running an E-commerce business or a pastry shop, branding is very important especially for online businesses.

I understand there would be questions like “How do I go about building a brand for an online business”?

The answer to this question is for you to understand your customers. To effectively communicate with customers, you need to identify the elements that influence your target customers and focus on leveraging them. As a new business operating online, you need to create a buyers’ persona to clearly understand your customers’ or target audience. Ask yourself some pertinent questions like:

What do they like?

What motivates them to buy?

Where do they spend most of their time?

What do they like about your brand?

Hence, you also need to define your brand persona. A brand persona is the personality of your business in which you will deliver customers’ experience. It will be strongly influenced by the insights you manage to gather about your target customers.

What tone of voice will suit them?

How do you approach them?

What type of language will have the greatest effect?

What images will attract their attention and so on. Crystalize your brand promise. What is the ultimate promise you’re making to your customers? How will your product/services make their life better? How are you going to deliver these promises? According to a research conducted by Accenture in 2019, 73% of consumers think transparency is one of a brand’s most attractive qualities. Although it may seem like you have little control over how your customers will ultimately feel about your brand, you should do your best to make sure every interaction you have with your customer is aligned with your brand promise and follows your brand guidelines. According to the report mentioned earlier, consumers say that they are willing to share more if brands are transparent. This encompass everything from your return policy to shipping arrangements if you run an E-commerce company.

Finally, always remember to give back. Something as little as saying “thank you” to your loyal customer would go a long way in strengthening your brand image and the way customers perceive your brand. You could show gratitude by running a special loyalty programs or promotions, offering occasional free gifts or extending discounts. For businesses who are willing to create brand awareness and constantly be in the mind of the customers, I would advise they run a display advertisement where their ads will be seen on popular online newspaper sites, blogs and forums. Hence, their potential customers will be able to view your ads and your brand remain fresh in the minds of the consumers. This is a surefire way to build long-term relationships with customers and humanize your brand. For effective display advertising, you can visit www.adsmyway.com
source: https://blog.adsmyway.com/2020/01/09/why-branding-is-important-for-small-and-medium-scale-businesses/