The internet has become the primary means through which companies showcase their products, generate sales, and truly connect with their audiences and a strong digital brand is the catalyst that pulls it all together.
With so many things attempting to grab the attention of us online, the importance of digital branding cannot be overstated because you have very little time to connect with and make an impression with your audience.
Read on to learn more about why digital branding is important and how you can review and revamp your own.
What Makes Up a Digital Brand?
A company’s digital brand is the cornerstone of its online marketing efforts and it’s a combination of many different things, including social media, paid ads, websites, emails, content, logos, and copywriting.
Overall, digital branding means managing how your brand is presented across all digital avenues—websites, social media, emails, and ads.
It’s visually made up of your logos, wordmarks, and colors and completed with copywriting that delivers the tone, voice, and personality that you want to portray to the world.
Together, a digital brand is the impression you leave on people and the feelings they get when they see your logo, hear your jingle, or read your content.
Reasons Why Digital Branding is Important
Having a Consistent Brand
A digital presence is made up of many different mediums and platforms including social media, websites, videos, ads, emails, and more.
The more places you make your brand available, the better.
But remember that the more a brand puts itself out there, the harder it gets to maintain a refined, singular image across every piece of content you put out.
73% of consumers today use more than one channel to interact with brands on their shopping journey.
Without a consistent brand, businesses risk confusing their target audience who want nothing more than to connect.
Inconsistent branding can put off the wrong or conflicting messages to consumers. This becomes a big problem over time if brand guidelines are put in place and enforced.
That’s why building a consistent digital brand is so important, it keeps everything straight to your audience.
When they see your marketing emails or social media post, they know both come from one place. Brand consistency is all about making sure everything about your brand maintains similar styles, colors, fonts, feelings, and voice so that it’s instantly recognizable across all the aforementioned platforms and mediums.
Represent Who You Are In Your Branding
In the same vein as being consistent, a brand should consistently look, feel, and sound the way you want it to.
A bad logo, the wrong colors, or poor copywriting can completely flip the way a brand is perceived.
Better digital branding tells the story you want to tell and gives a company personality, making it friendlier and more approachable to new and returning customers.
Like with brand consistency, bad branding can confuse customers, driving them away because they don’t know who you are, what you do, or why you do it.
Increase Brand Recognition and Awareness
When someone sees your branding, it should be an immediate lightbulb moment.
They should know exactly who you are, what you do, and what your story is. If it doesn’t, you have a problem.
A strong digital brand is crucial for businesses because it gives you that moment by creating a brand that tells a story the moment it enters somebody’s brain.
70% of purchases are influenced by interactions with a brand, so building one that is easily recognizable is key.
Additionally, a recognizable brand helps to increase awareness, meaning people remember a business and develop a familiarity with a brand.
Higher brand awareness results in more repeat purchases and a stronger field of former customers who become brand ambassadors online, driving referral business and drawing in new customers.
How to Know if Your Digital Branding is Doing the Job
It can be difficult to know when is a good time to overhaul digital branding or to understand when it is or is not working.
To find out, use the analytics tools at your disposal to get a better grasp on the areas where your digital presence isn’t being felt as effectively.
Are you not getting high engagement numbers on social? Is your website bottlenecking your lead generation? Are your emails not being opened? Are your ads not generating traffic to your landing pages?
The numbers behind these questions can let you know exactly how your digital branding and marketing efforts are working and where they made need help.
Here are a few of the clear-cut signs that a company’s digital branding needs a shakeup.
Signs You Need a Digital Branding Overhaul
Weak Social Media Presence
If you’re not getting the engagement you want on your social media channels, it might be a chance to redo the way you present your business on them.
If you have little to no social media presence, that can be a great chance to jumpstart your digital branding.
Inconsistent Branding and Messaging
The messaging across every channel needs to be consistent and sound like it’s coming from the same company.
If you’re sharing cat memes on Facebook but keeping it suit-and-tie professional on Twitter, you’re putting forth an inconsistent message to your audience.
Ugly or Difficult to Use Website
Not only does your website need to look great visually and represent your brand that way, but it also needs to be helpful, intuitively designed, and easy to understand.
Bottom Line
Digital branding is a vital part of digital marketing and requires more thought, time, and effort than most businesses realize to build a brand that truly represents you.
If you think your branding could be stronger and want an expert eye, contact Impact today to speak with our digital marketing team about our brand marketing and strategy services.
