15+ Branding Tips to Build a Successful Online Business

Branding can make or break your business in 2021 because there's a lot of digital noise online. If you want to stand out and make a statement, ensuring brand visibility, awareness and consistency are critical to maintaining your brand image.

If you've started a new business, your brand will be your best and most valuable friend. While you can market around your product, service, or organization, you'll find that the most effective strategy is customer-centric.

There are 15+ branding tips and strategies that will help you take your small business to the next level.

How does an online business develop a strong brand on a limited budget? Here are 15+ tips to help you get started:

1. Be unique.

One of the most iconic brands of our time - Apple - was reborn in 1997 after launching an innovative campaign that invited people to "Think Different." Today, Apple is considered better designed, more interesting, and more reliable than those of Apple's competitors.

What makes your business special? What's your story? What are you doing that others in your industry aren't capable of? Only a unique brand impression can make your small business survive and become sustainable.

2. Find your voice.

What brand impressions conveys is important, but don't ignore how to convey it. Your company's "voice" is the language and personality that you and your employees use to convey brand messages and reach customers.

Successful brands speak with a unique voice. Think about the brands you admire: What makes them different? How do they communicate with their customers? Do you like their voices?

3. Consistent tone.

Unified communication with your market and customers is critical to building recognizable brand awareness. It helps to reinforce the character of the business, and customers are more likely to recognize you because of the repetition of your voice.

Make sure your website, marketing materials, business cards, labels, videos, banners, and social media images are all presented as a carefully composed package that highlights a structured approach to the overall business.

4. Stay updated.

The effort to keep content and business-critical data fresh is worth it. Your key engagement information needs to work together to establish a clear, seamless identity without unnecessarily duplicating the same information.

Stay in touch with what your market is looking for, and adjust your approach to stay in the loop and ahead of the curve where possible. If you can read, listen, and watch the latest news in your space, you will be able to connect to your niche and stay relevant.

5. Track every conversion metric.

You have to know your numbers - if you don't know, even a penny, how much it costs you to generate leads and sales, you'll crash and burn.

▪ Cost-per-lead (CPL): You need to know the cost of generating each lead form, from email submissions to phone calls. Mixed CPL doesn't work -- you need to be as specific as possible. If you can generate E-mail leads for $1 each and cost $8 per telephone lead, but convert at the same speed, wouldn't it be wise to devote all your efforts to generating more E-mail leads?

▪ Cost-per-sale (CPS): All your data works together. For example, your conversion rate and cost per lead will help you determine your cost per sale. Business 101 tells us that CPS is profitable if plus the cost of the goods sold is less than the selling price. But you need to dig a little deeper. Where do you pull the lowest CPS? Can you turn on the faucet and generate more sales from the road?

You need to know where your different landing pages have been converted and where your best-performing potential customer sources are. You'll never find a winning combination that you can set and forget; it requires constant monitoring and optimization, after all.

6. Keep promises.

While this is common sense, you'd be surprised how many small businesses sully their relationships with customers by failing to deliver on their promises. Satisfied customers who feel content about your business are your best source of referrals.

For example, Zappos (an American online shoe and clothing retailer) built a lot of trust and credibility with customers by promising fast delivery (2-5 business days). However, Zappos has gone a step further and upgraded most customers to free overnight shipping. As a result, Zappos has loyal and passionate customers.

7. Build an “About Us” page.

The profile you write for your Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter accounts may be limited in terms of brand awareness. There simply isn't much room for your brand strategy to shine. If you want to further develop your brand strategy, please consider implementing the "About Us" page. (You can also call this page "About," "Our Story," or something similar.)

Many of your brand awareness efforts will guide your site in one way or another, and the "About Us" page is one of the focal points of your site. Or at least it should be. Explain why your store is different and why people should feel comfortable shopping with you.

8. Brand guidelines.

To ensure your visibility, awareness, and consistency, you should also start your brand journey by writing a series of guidelines. Your brand guide is a set of rules, regulations, and steps that your staff must take to ensure that your brand is visually consistent throughout your marketing.

These guidelines are also important when describing the tone and message to a target audience. Your guide should cover everything from your logo and color palette to your choice of typography and images. You can even specify the line spacing you wish to use. Don't leave details open to explanation.

9. Looking for partnerships.

People always tend to do business with brands they trust. But if you're a new brand, building that trust can be time-consuming. You can look for cooperation opportunities with other brands that your target customers already work with. Think of it as building trust through proxies.

If your customers are introduced to your brand through a brand they already know and trust, they are more likely to extend that trust to you and provide you with business.

What is the key to the success of this strategy? Look for businesses with similar but non-competitive audiences. So, for example, suppose you're launching a new energy bar for endurance athletes.

You can seek to partner with local events, place your sticks in their gift bags, leave samples at local running stores, or write guest posts on popular endurance blogs. All of these companies have the audience you want to target -- endurance athletes -- but none of them are direct competitors, which makes them more willing to work with you.

10. Media exposure.

If you want to scale, it's critical that you and your brand stand out. There are plenty of opportunities for free media exposure if you're willing to put in a bit of work. Social media is a tool you can't ignore since you want to build an overall brand.

It brings different people from different places to the same platform and interactively engages with them. Plus, it's an easy place to target an audience. The audience is interested in what you're doing and what you're offering them. So Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram are a must.

11. Empower your customers.

You can't control your brand. You can set the direction of your brand, but how it is perceived depends on your customers and prospects. People can be ambassadors for your brand. Your customers will spread your ideas and brand across their networks.

Take the time to cultivate relationships with these people. Who are they? What can they give and receive to help your brand? Ultimately, successful brands recognize that if they help their customers succeed, they in turn help the brand succeed.

12. Brand email signatures.

These things are sure to make your brand shine in the marketplace. The fact is that creating a brand signature and making it an email signature will retain all copyright to your brand. The fact is that email signatures make your brand true all rights reserved.

So, to ensure these facts and keep up with online consumers, design your brand email signature. Another thing related to email signature is making it visible in your promotional email or blog so that your brand can reach to more online consumers.

13. Personalize your business.

This tip works if you are the sole entrepreneur in a creative business or even in the sale of goods. People love stories, and they want to focus on the founder's story and the behind-the-scenes story behind the company.

Your social media can constantly capture the life and story behind each product. This will create instant connections and make your brand more approachable and friendly.

14. Answer questions.

Social media has revolutionized the customer service game. It allows the brand to answer any query and question instantly - just do it! If you don't fix it, the situation could get worse, or you could leave the customer feeling left out. Oreo is a perfect example of a brand that answers questions and responds to its audience.

On their Meta (Facebook) page, you'll find droves of complaints about everything from the smell of cookies to how Nabisco is moving its factory to Mexico. Whenever they reply, the person handling the account won't take the bait or get offended; they will answer politely and wisely.

15. Deliver value.

Value does not always mean the lowest price. You can focus on product leadership (having the best product in the market, like Apple), operational excellence (lower prices in the market, like Ikea), or great customer service (like Zappos). You can also focus on a combination of these things.

As you consider the value your company provides, you can ask the following questions: How do your products, services, and company differ from those of your competitors? What value do you offer, and how does it differ from what your competitors offer?

16. Be confidence.

This is your business and you need to be confident in the way you promote your brand name in the online marketplace. Real and true. After all, you are doing business with other people.

It can be difficult to get your brand name online in a short time. But nothing good has a shortcut, remember? Experiment with your brand strategy to find out what works best for you. Your brand represents you, so it's important to be yourself when promoting your business.

17. Bonus tip - Grow your online business with DSers.

Providing quality products and services is always one of the best ways to build a promising brand image. With the help of many e-commerce tools like DSers, you can save a lot of time and find the best products to sell. DSers can help you save up to 97% of time on order fulfillment.

Keeping your customers up to date with their purchases makes them satisfied, so they are more likely to buy from you again. DSers offers you the Auto Sync Tracking Numbers features to give correct information and feedback to your customers.

Final Word

Branding is, in essence, your way of turning visitors into people who will keep coming back. And there you go, 15+ actionable online branding tips. Remember, it's never too late to start your online branding strategy or revamp your existing strategy.