About 40 percent of people purchase products from an eCommerce business or online store. They continuously look for online stores that provide a seamless customer experience.
But, how do they recognize a perfect brand among millions of stores available online? The answer is quite simple! By building an eCommerce brand awareness.
eCommerce branding helps business owners establish a distinct personality for their online store, which makes them stand out from their competitors.
Building an online brand is a continuous process that provides your customer with a better understanding of what you have to offer, what you stand for, and how your product can improve their lives. Always remember that your customer will only be satisfied and build a sturdy relationship with you once you have a solid brand identity.
In this blog, we are going to discuss some of the most effective branding strategies that can make your brand appear more professional and legitimate.
Why Is Branding Important For eCommerce Business?
Branding is an intricate process that requires both careful planning and a calculated approach. It is because your brand summarizes everything about your business such as your visual style, your brand personas, as well as the way your customer service team communicates with the customers. It makes your site different from other eCommerce sites.
Years before, the word “Amazon” was only associated with a rainforest. But, today, we all recall this word as being one of the world’s most prominent brands. This is what the power of branding holds.
The impression your brand leaves on the people who have interacted either directly or indirectly determines how impactful the brand is. Hence, it is significant, as it controls the way people perceive your eCommerce business.
Furthermore, branding takes care of your business’s sustainability, as it, along with the product or service, will assist you in solidifying your place in the competitive market.
Proven Ways To Build Your Brand
Below are some of the proven ways of branding your business online.
Define Your Market
It is one of the most solid branding techniques, where you define your market and sell the product by tailoring your solution and marketing it to your customer. You then speak in a way that resonates with the customers.
You should know that not everyone is your target audience and that all will not like your message. Your message will only resonate with the determined market.
Identify Your Target Audience
As an owner of an eCommerce business, your goal is to make online connections with a large audience. However, it’s an uphill task and can be prone to obstacles if you do not define your availability and attainability in the market accurately. Therefore, it is essential to find your target audience.
Boden, for example, built its business around a target audience. It defines its brand as a clothing line, strictly adhering to sustainable and ethical manufacturing. This means that their target market is eco-friendly clothing.
Therefore, identify your target audience based on the purpose of your brand. After this, you have the time to branch out your product and services. Moreover, consider your market based on the locations and demographics of your potential customers. This way, you will be able to grow your business efficiently.
Set Your Vision & Mission
No matter whatever the business is, setting up a vision and mission is very essential. Vision helps you maintain your focus on the goal you have set for your eCommerce store. It also assists you to address the problem that your customers have and make necessary judgments. On the other hand, your business’s mission acts as your overarching goal. It means that it defines your existence in the market.
Amazon, for example, caters to the needs of its customers via physical and eCommerce stores. Their primary focus is selection, pricing, and convenience. Apple has also visioned to make its brand sustainable by 2030. For this, they consistently work on developments and experiments.
Therefore, you need to have a clear vision and mission of your company to attract more consumers.
Establish Your Brand’s USP
Brand identity plays a crucial role in constructing your brand message. The way you convey your product to the customer, the values, the emotion you want to evoke when the people tend to interact with your brand.
To achieve this, you need to establish a specific brand identity like Unique Selling Proposition (USP) as it makes the cornerstone of the marketing efforts.
It is very significant to focus on the things you can offer to the customers that are unique from your competitors. When you combine your eCommerce business with Unique Selling Proposition (USP), you tend to create an accurate message and present your products to the customers in a way that can make your brand stand out in the target market.
Since your brand defines the motive of your business, we advise you to establish it in the first place. It is the best marketing strategy that can make your brand recognizable to a large audience.
Consider Your Customer
Always keep your customers in consideration. When you remember the needs and wants of your customers, you dictate your actions as a company and set a path to success. A lot of times brands forget about their audience and focus on their product or the catalog. They tend to miss out on the most valuable information that can increase their sales.
Therefore, you need to take your time and inspect their past purchasers. Also, look at the trends in the analytics and reflect on the experiences you have had with your customers in the past. This way, you will be able to understand your customer and their retention of your products or services.
You can start by looking at your store’s overview data, like abandoned cart data, purchase funnel, and most importantly, popular products. Moreover, dive into the customer’s data further to understand their behavior. It will help you in personalizing their experience.
With the help of your analysis, you will walk on the right path and serve your customer better, thereby increasing your revenue and your eCommerce brand.
Plan Your Content Strategy
Content runs the entire eCommerce ecosystem. It contributes to building strong relationships with your customers. Thus, planning your content strategy according to your niche is very important. The crucial high-converting contents that you can pay attention to are:
- Podcasts- Several customers like listening rather than reading. Hence, we advise you to either learn to make podcasts or sponsor relevant podcasts.
- Video- Video branding is a trendy topic today. Creating vlogs, product demo videos, and explainer videos will help you to reach your customers instantly.
- Infographics- Infographics work more than just telling people about your brand, product, and services. When you provide infographics based on your brand’s identity, you will be able to spread more awareness about your brand.
Share Your Brand’s Story
Stories directly connect people with the storyteller. It provides information about the steps the storyteller took to reach success. You can do the same to build your brand. It will help you to acquire the trust of your target audience by giving them a glimpse of the journey of your brand.
You can share your creative start-up story. It is because when you will use creative elements and narrative formats for your brand story, you will be able to deliver the message you want to communicate to your target audience more efficiently.
It is a great opportunity to position your business as a brand. A perfectly-written, creative story will help your audience to know your brand better, thereby building relationships and trust and increasing sales.
Create Catchy Tagline
The tagline is another point that provides the answer to the question – of how to brand your eCommerce store. Customers remember a brand throughout their life because of a catchy tagline. After the brand’s logo, the tagline plays a very significant part in your business.
It is used every time to promote your product and service. It clearly defines your brand to the people. However, you need to avoid a few points before making a tagline. Make it catchy and memorable. It also appeals to your target audience that complements your eCommerce branding.
Make Social Media Your Friend
Successful eCommerce brands consider social media in their marketing strategy. It helps you to connect with your audience on a one-to-one basis and makes communication more special and effective. With the help of appropriate social media marketing, you can boost traffic to your website, engage with the audience, generate leads, and reach out to a dynamic customer base. Moreover, you will be able to create consistency and build a recognizable brand.
Reflect, Refine, and Get Advice
Reflecting on your ideal customer by stepping into their shoes is the best way to receive the answer on how to build an eCommerce brand. Consider the challenges you and your customers face to build trust and add value to their lives. It becomes easy and effective once you are aware of your audience. Refining your brand can make a considerable impact on your customer and improve your conversion rates.
Align everything you do to connect with your customers better. You can do it by:
- Creating a value statement that makes you different.
- Use new technologies and strategies in your marketing.
- Use trendy hashtags to help shoppers find your store.
- Considering user-generated content for sticky content.
- Sharing a consistent message all over the channels.
Key Takeaway
The above-mentioned tips provide a transparent view of how to build a successful brand online. Building an eCommerce brand involves a lot of time, energy, and financial resources. It may seem overwhelming, however, it is necessary. And if done right, it will surely give you significant returns in the long run.
