A business’ online presence has never been more paramount to its success in gaining and retaining customers. Consumers search for and share, post, pin and Tweet every interest and action online on a daily basis. It’s important for your business to be present on all those online marketing channels and also maintain a cohesive image across all platforms.
Once you choose the social network(s) you want to connect with (Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn, Instagram and Google+ are by far the most popular and are good places to start if you’re not sure) build your brand image online by adding photos, links and information, carefully choosing those that will help establish brand consistency. Your business’ brand image starts with the logo and design formats (e.g. colors and font usage).
Multichannel Merchant wrote, “There must be common ‘threads’ that run through every means of visual communication to the consumer … each channel has different parameters within various channels of communication. … Knowing what is appropriate for a catalogue, such as elaborating your message through copy, vs. for a Website, where the consumer wants to be shown rather than told is also important.”
Take a look at Etsy, for example. On their Facebook and Twitter pages the logo is front and center, they use the same font styles and colors while placing many images of handmade goods all over each page to communicate their brand and what they do. Looking at Etsy’s presence on Pinterest makes it clear that they are all about handmade, do-it-yourself goods. You’ll find carefully pinned products from their website as well as other tasteful crafts that might be interesting to their do-it-ourselves customers.
On all their social media pages, Etsy is showing customers that they care about handmade arts, crafts and goods rather than saying it. Each picture is accompanied by an insightful blurb with a link to their Website where potential customers can find more information.
You too can build and maintain your brand image while reaching out to customers by posting pictures of new listings with information like, “Open house this weekend” and a link to your Website for the details. When you sell a property, post a picture of the “sold” sign or the new owners in front with a, “I’m happy for the new owners.”
Finding Your Voice
Now that you’re plugged in to all these online platforms with your logo, colours and pictures, what do you say? Who are you trying to communicate to?
Wax Marketing offered a new angle on how to determine who your audience is, saying, “trying to market to ‘anyone 18-80’ is nearly impossible … we can’t market effectively to ‘everyone.’” Wax recommends focusing on what your buyer/audience does rather than who they are, and, more importantly, determining why your buyer would be interested in you.
Once you know who you are trying to communicate to, present the same message you would if you were seeing the customer in person, by adding photos and links to property listings, links to your Website where they can learn more and “pins” on Pinterest of items/places/themes relevant to your message–always making sure your brand image is at the forefront.
Consistent online branding doesn’t mean you have to change your whole marketing campaign. Jack Daniel’s is a brand that has maintained the same marketing strategy successfully since the 1950s: telling their story, through the use of advertising customers are able to see and understand that even though the bottle may adjust over the years, it still remains faithful to the appearance of the very first bottle.
Every technique that Jack Daniels uses to promote their company eventually goes back to their company’s story. Jack Daniels senior vice-president and managing director Jon Hayes told Marketing Week that consistent branding doesn’t mean you’re inflexible, “You have to evolve with the times. We’ve had a consumer relationship direct marketing program since way back in the ‘50s which started out with old-fashioned mail and progressed to email. Now we have 5 million fans on Facebook who we communicate with. It’s just a matter of evolving with the technology.”
Author Bio: Olivia Rose enjoys reading novels and listening to Jazz music. Her biggest loves are her two Cats Mia and Toulouse. She loves blogging about advertising – branding especially. She suggests keeping on top of your business branding at all times with the help of a label printing service, such as Hague Print, to deal with your branded label needs.
