Brand Building Tips for eCommerce Companies
In the eCommerce market, it seems that branding is half the battle these days. If you can get your brand into the hearts and minds of consumers, you’ll be able to stay there for some time to come. If you can’t get that initial exposure, it makes it very hard to survive.
What is branding? There seems to be lots of misconceptions around this topic, so it’s the perfect place to start.
What Does ‘Branding’ Mean?
Out of everything in your business, your brand is about the only thing that can’t be touched. Your ‘brand’ is intangible because it’s something that’s felt by consumers. What comes to mind when we say Apple or Starbucks, for example?
Unfortunately, we don’t have control because it’s the responsibility of the consumers to decide how they feel towards a company. This being said, we do have a say in how our business is received and this is the process of ‘branding’.
In the eCommerce world, where competition is rife and it’s easy for consumers to click away from your page and find another reliable service in seconds, branding is essential. We want consumers to connect with you emotionally, enjoy their experience, come back again in the future, and recommend your service to friends, families, colleagues, and even strangers.
We spend so much time chasing important KPIs, but branding is perhaps the most important of the lot. If you get this right, meeting your goals will be a lot easier.
Read More: Brand Building 101
How to Master the Art of Branding
So, how do we beat the competition, win customers, and become a memorable name? It doesn’t matter about your industry, the advice we have today is universal and will provide the foundationa you need to go on and succeed.
Consider Your Unique Selling Point (USP)
You’re probably tired of hearing this, right? If you want to earn money, you need to have a USP. You know why phrases such as this are still being uttered in the business world? Because it’s true. This isn’t something you can cheat; believe us, thousands have tried before you.
What problem are you solving in the industry? This is the first step. If you’re selling homemade items, you’re helping those looking for gifts. How are you doing this differently to all the other homemade gift eCommerce stores? This is the second step, and it’s one that trips up businesses continually.
With huge stores like Walmart and online presences like Amazon, people need a reason to choose YOU. We don’t want you to think the reason has to be extravagant. If we look at Dollar Shave Club as an example, their product and premise is incredibly simple. Customers were struggling to choose between all the different bells and whistles that come with modern razors, so DSC simplified the whole process and played on this simplicity with their marketing materials.
Remember the Customer
When considering advertising and branding, it’s so easy to get carried away with the product itself or the aspirations you may have. If you don’t consider the wants and needs of your customer, the message will be wrong, and you won’t be able to generate leads.
There’s no shame in not knowing your audience, but there is shame in guessing and getting it wrong. If you need a starting point, look back to those who have previously purchased your products. Is there a specific trend with age, gender, or another demographic? Also, look into the many fantastic platforms that exist to help you identify your audience. Even with social media, the profile of those who engage with posts can provide a good insight.
Over time, as you gather data and make more sales, you’ll be able to really refine your target market, and this will be helpful with branding. With advertisements, for example, you can reach out to a particular niche group.
Tell Your Story
Once you have your USP and customer profile, you can really dig into the branding process. More than ever, consumers are looking for a story so don’t be afraid to tell your own. On a biological level, humans connect through storytelling and this has been true for generations.
Don’t be boring, don’t just explain your products and how you can help. Bring your brand to life:
- Why did you start the business? Did you get the idea from a family member?
- Why have you chosen to provide this solution? Did you have the same problem for many years?
- Who are you? How can the audience relate to you?
- What is it that you care about?
In the modern world, you may have noticed that consumers, if given the choice, will support a company that is doing good in the world. While the only thing that mattered in the past was pricing, the modern-day consumer is willing to pay more money if a percentage goes to an important cause. They will pay more if you’re an environmentally-friendly company too.
Do you manufacture the product in a sustainable way (a method that other competitors don’t use)? Do you donate a certain percentage of each sale to charity? Are you a family business that has recently launched online as an eCommerce store?
You can evoke emotion in customers and give your target market a reason to choose your business. Every company has a story, tell yours.
Be Consistent
When it’s time to produce marketing materials, you can get away with small mistakes. However, there’s one thing you absolutely need: consistency.
While building an online presence, your name can probably be found on a website, Google, guest blog posts, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, paid ads, an online store, and various other locations. No matter what platform you use, keep your message and branding consistent.
First and foremost, this starts with a good logo and web design. We could write a whole guide on the use of colors in branding, but just know that each color will evoke a different emotion. For example;
- Green — Peace, health, growth
- Red — Excitement, bold, youthfulness
- Blue — Dependable, bold, strong
- Orange — Confidence and warmth
- Purple — Wise and creative
With a light blue, you can suggest a wholesome and cheerful environment. With a vibrant red, you’re suggesting an exciting and daring product. As you create a logo and a color for branding purposes, keep this in mind.
The classic example of this is Coca-Cola and the way they use the same red color and the same font for ‘Coca-Cola’. Whether it’s on product packaging, leaflets, their website, their trucks, while sponsoring an event, or on a billboard, their logo and design is universal. If you can achieve this with your own marketing materials, your eCommerce business will be easier to remember. Just think of Apple and their part-eaten fruit logo. Show that to anybody and they’ll instantly know what brand it belongs to and what they think of said brand.
Read More: 13 Marketing Newsletters You Should Subscribe To Now
Manage Customer Expectations
Remember, the ‘brand’ is all about how the customer feels towards the company. Therefore, it can be affected by the way you treat customers and how you deliver on your promises. With the former, you don’t want to be known as the company who is unfair with refunds or rude with customers. Furthermore, you don’t want to promise the world and then under-deliver.
With your eCommerce branding, you should be aiming for openness and honesty. If anything, you should be under-promising and over-delivering. If a product won’t be available for three weeks, don’t promise ten days in fear of losing the sale; be honest. You know what will happen in ten days? You get an angry message because you’ve broken a promise. With each day that passes without them receiving the product, the likelihood of a bad review increases.
Make sure your eCommerce store has a clear returns and exchange policy to avoid disappointment for customers too.
Make Your Business Accessible
Garner a reputation for being helpful by answering Facebook messages and emails, answer all questions and messages as soon as possible, and set up a website to complement your eCommerce store. If you want to go down the route of providing value, you could even set up a blog or YouTube channel. With simple tips and tutorials, you gradually become a reliable source of information.
If we return to the earlier idea of homemade gifts, you could really build a community by making tutorial videos. Not only do you sell high-quality products, you help others to get started.
Build Your Brand Today
Everything you say and do will be reflected in how people feel about your brand, so remember this. If you remember your USP, keep the customer in mind, tell your story, remain consistent, manage customer expectations, and stay accessible, the whole environment around your brand will remain positive.
Bonus! Marketing Tools:
2. Bilbi AI: Daily Marketing Campaign Insights
