Tuesday 4 September 2012

Branding 101: Integrating Online and Offline Marketing | Business 2 ...

Branding is vital for both small and large businesses. Branding allows your company to communicate to potential customers about who you are and what you have to offer. The success of a startup or small business is dependent on how successful they are at branding. Many companies that have placed branding on the back seat have had to suffer heavy losses before they finally realized the importance of investing in branding.

The brand of a company is what the public sees when they look at your company. It includes the name of your company, the company logo, and how the public perceives your company e.g. the brand of your company can be what your customers think of the quality of your products or services. Your customers may refer to your products as being of top quality and therefore trust that all products from your company are of high quality.

Importance of a Brand for Marketing

Developing a strong band is vital for the success of a business especially with the high level of competition amongst businesses today. Your brand influences how your customers perceive your business and its products or services. A strong brand will therefore remain in your customers? minds and hearts. It will keep them coming back to you when in need of your services or products. Branding is therefore the foundation of marketing your business. It is the means of communicating to your customers that you cannot afford to be without.

Building a winning brand

There are several steps you need to take so that you can create a winning brand:

  1. The first step to creating a brand is to craft an image for your business. This begins with creating a name for your brand. The name should be unique therefore making it memorable. You should also create a logo that represents the image of the company.
  2. The next step is to publicize your brand. There are various forms of media to use today in publicizing your brand. You can use traditional media such as direct marketing events or online social media such as Twitter and Facebook.
  3. If you want to increase the chances of your business?s success, you should take some time to find out more about what your customers want. This will help you make your brand much stronger and increase the level of satisfaction of your customers.
  4. You also need to understand the true perception of your brand from your customers? points of view. You can find this out using questionnaires to gather information.

Building a Brand Online

Building your brand online requires that you get to publicize your brand online. This means using a variety of online media to reach your target audience. It is vital that you include social media in this mix. It will give you an opportunity to interact with your customers and get their feedback while letting them know more about your brand.

Building a Brand Offline

One of the best ways to build your brand offline is by using promotional merchandise. These may include gifts, free samples, or branded products. This form of marketing is cheaper and more effective than advertising in newspapers or on TV.

You can also get the word out to your customers using promotional brochures or flyers. These can be handed out physically or placed in newspapers or magazines.

Mistakes to Avoid in Creating a Brand

Businesses that are starting out in branding for the first time are prone to make mistakes. The following are some common mistakes you should avoid:

  1. Confusing branding for communication. You should invest in training your employees to promote great service for your customers
  2. Basing your branding on the price of your products or services. It is important to establish trust with your customers and not have them purchase your products solely based on their lower cost.
  3. Changing your brand. Avoid changing your brand entirely. Keep the good things about your brand and do away with the bad. Your brand is how your customers identify you.
  4. Overpromising. Do not promise your customers what you cannot deliver.

Conclusion

Creating a brand is vital for the marketing of your company. Marketing your brand online is more affordable and will expose you to a greater customer base.

Source: http://www.business2community.com/branding/branding-101-integrating-online-and-offline-marketing-0269308

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1 comment:

  1. To turn the business into a brand is what most people aim for. For this, businesses first need to gain large scale recognition for long time and build a huge customer base. We to aim to achieve the same goals for our business, so we’ve hired the best Adwords Marketing agency to effectively promote our services on search engines through PPC advertising.

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