Online Marketing Branding

How to Build your Website's Brand from Scratch?

One of the most important things about any website is it's ability to convert visitors into potential leads and customers. Most of the times people do not move forward with their purchase decisions because they have never heard of the website and do not want to take risk with a new business. This can be overcome by a brand building exercise that builds trust and improves reputation. This helps the potential leads and customers have more confidence in their purchasing decisions.

Introduction

People buy from people they can trust. That is one of the key sales principles put in layman's terms. Branding is all about creating that identity one can relate to. When someone comes across a new website, trust is the single most important factor that drives the decision to buy or request more information from that source. You could have an excellent product or a service that you are offering but the chances of losing a sale to a reputed competitor are extremely high. Selling online is about building relationships with people who are completely unknown. Branding helps gain their trust so they give you a chance to service them online. Once they have experienced your products or services and are satisfied, they will help you solidify your brand and help bring in more customers. In this article I will focus on the steps you can take to build your website's brand to achieve a higher conversion rate.

Easy to Remember Website URL

Choose a website URL that is easy to remember. Having a very long or confusing URL will make it difficult for people to remember or even type into the search or address bar. Catchy phrases are even better in terms of creating a lasting impression on people's memories.

Good Logo Design

A good logo design should have the following characteristics:

It should represent your business in a unique and honest way. Your logo must accurately reflect the essence of your business or the image you are trying to promote.
A simple design is better in many ways, so avoid complex graphics in your logo.
It should fit well in smaller spaces. Most usable websites have a limited header space that should accommodate the logo without affecting the layout.
Make sure you have reviewed the logo in reverse and black and white options. This will ensure that you can create printed material and use the logo in more creative ways in other marketing material that supplements your business.
The logo must be visually pleasing and artistically balanced. This means that the colors, brightness and contrast must be balanced and should not be too strong and distracting.

There are plenty of good logo maker software available these days. Even if you hire a designer or a marketing firm to create your logo, it is usually a good idea to review logos from popular brands to get an idea of how you can adhere to some of the basic concepts in logo design.

Finalize your Messaging

This is one of the most important aspects of you establishing your expertise in the market. How do you want to be remembered? What is that one thing so unique about your offering that you want to lead with? This messaging can make or break your brand. Focus on your edge. Your competitors are offering the same things that you are, so what differentiates your business from them. A simple yet powerful message that resonates with your target audience can help you lead and establish your as an expert.

Professional, Usable & Attractive Website

Web design is not a piece of art. It is a usable interface design that presents your products and services in a professional manner and makes it easy for your users to buy your products and services from you. In this day and age, people are already used to buying online. Creating an experience that is completely different from the experiences they are used to, can work against you. A good website must be professional and easy to navigate. Most importantly it should be consistent with the user experience that most people are used to. Check out the leading websites that your target audience is familiar with and make sure that your website offers a similar experience in terms of browsing and checkout. Cart2Order website templates offer the experience that is consistent with the best shopping websites in the world. We have researched numerous popular websites to create the experience that is required to succeed online.

Searchable Business Information

When people come across a new website and are considering the offers, their first reaction is to find out if anyone else has used it or bought anything from it. They usually turn to search engines to look for more information about the website. If they do not find any information or very little information then they will most like pass. With a good and organized content marketing strategy you can create and distribute searchable and useful information about your business across the internet. This includes social media accounts, helpful blog articles, press releases, YouTube videos and many other channels that can increase your visibility on the internet. This is not an easy task and cannot be achieved immediately. The best way to build brand awareness is through a content calendar where you can organize your tasks and routinely create and publish various types of content related to your business.

Active Social Media Accounts

It is important to remain active on social media so your business does not look slow or out of operation. Post on social media on a regular basis to appear active and busy with your business activities. You need to create an image that you are approachable and can be reached through various channels easily. This instills confidence in people who are considering using your products and services. They will know that if they run into any issues, they have multiple avenues to contact you or get the attention they need.

Reviews and Testimonials

This could be a challenge for newer businesses but as soon as you have your first few customers, you must do everything to exceed their expectations and try to get some reviews and testimonials. There are many services that help you get product and service ratings from your clients using automated communication. Adding a review section on your e-commerce website is also a great way to invite product reviews on your own website. Cart2Order has built-in reviews that can be activated for the entire product catalog enabling verified customers to write their experiences with your products.

Regular Communication

You should establish regular communication channels with your website visitors and registered users. Newsletters are a great way of keeping in touch with your subscribers. You can also add a discussion forum or use social media accounts to create a platform where people can participate in your business communication. Joining various relevant groups on different internet forums can also be very helpful. There are a lot of ways to keep the communication going but at the same time the strategy must be crafted properly to keep things simple and maintainable.

Brand Consistency

We have talked about several steps to build your online brand so far. It involves messaging, content, distribution channels etc. So what is brand consistency? In simple words, no matter where people come across the information about your business, it should all be relatable and point to the value your brand has to offer. This can be achieved by focussing on content that revolves around the core of your business principles. When we hear about Mercedes we immediately relate it to success, luxury, wealth etc. When we hear about Nike we immediately relate it to fitness and style and so on. Maintaining the focus on what your brand brings to the table is directly proportional to how consistent you are with your approach.

Conclusion

This article is in no way meant to be a comprehensive guide to branding but an attempt to outline the key steps to be considered when starting to build a brand. Cart2Order platform offers several inherent benefits that helps establish an online brand for an e-commerce website or any other kind of website. Content management tools, SEO & marketing tools and professionally created website templates are at the forefront of all what the platform has to offer while considering brand development.