At first, standing out sounds easy—you give your audience what they want, and they'll love your business. However, the online market becomes more saturated every day. Your online branding can help you push your way up from the crowd and stand out against your competitors.
How Does Branding Work in Ecommerce?
Branding shapes how your audience sees you. It's more than logos or packaging—it's storytelling to influence the perception of your brand.
In the Ecommerce world, great branding is a powerful tool to have in a congested market. It starts from the look of your product line, your social media activities, and up to the shopping experience you provide. Effective branding can turn your Ecommerce business into a success, with easier marketing, higher customer retention, and stronger brand loyalty.
Why Your Brand Matters Now
Nowadays, consumers are overwhelmed with various online shopping options. The number of Ecommerce platforms is growing, paving the way for every aspiring entrepreneur to open their store. With more people jumping in the online store bandwagon, how do you stand out and gain your audience's interest? The key is your brand .In a marketplace wherein businesses look virtually the same, your brand is your competitive advantage. It serves as the safety net that can shape your customers' expectations and form a relationship beyond the typical buy-and-sell transaction.
Developing the Right USP
What makes you stand out in your market? A Unique Selling Proposition (USP) can help you further enhance your brand. It's a benefit that can differentiate your business and guide your audience into choosing your products over your competitors'. Reliable USPs must show that you value what your customers care about, for them to appreciate what you're offering. It should be integrated across all areas of your Ecommerce business to show that you're walking the talk with your promises. A perfect example of this is FedEx's, with their old USP "When it absolutely, positively has to be there overnight." The slogan stated two promises that the company guarantees: safe and on-time delivery. Once you find a strong USP that embodies your business like FedEx's does, you'll have a stance that your competitors can't copy. Plus, you'll get a solid audience base that knows your brand and trusts you well enough to keep coming back to your business.
How Your Ecommerce Brand Can Stand Out
After identifying the right USP for your online store, what comes next? You need to leave a mark in your audience's mind. That means having more consumers aware of you and how you operate and getting more customers to keep coming back to you. With that said, here are eight tips to help you boost your Ecommerce brand online.
1. Shape Your Look
A lot of your competitors offer similar products at similar prices. Your branding can help you define your brand design online and prevent your business from becoming another typical store. Most consumers value consistent branding across brick-and-mortars and their online shops. Brand design shapes the aesthetics of your brand, making it easier for your audience to see if you have visual consistency and coordinated graphics. Brand design goes beyond your logo—it's also the color swatches, fonts, and images you use on your Ecommerce site and marketing collaterals. These visually represent your brand online to help you resonate with your audience. Take Zendesk, for example.
"Keep it beautifully simple." is their branding philosophy. It's evident when you browse through their website. By putting this philosophy into play, Zendesk has established their brand without the need for words—just visual consistency and coordinated graphics. Your Ecommerce business can achieve this level of online branding with the help of a full-service brand design agency. Good design can help you whet your consumers' visual appetite and ensure that your brand design is consistent across all your platforms.
2. Get to Know Your Audience
It sounds like a basic tip from Marketing 101.However, consumers' habits have been transforming over the years—you'll need to adapt to the changes in the online market. In the Ecommerce business, getting to know your audience means going to where they are, digitally. Just pick the social media platforms relevant to your audience and suited to your branding. Consumers' social media posts are mostly dedicated to themselves, so they post personal opinions, beliefs, likes, and dislikes publicly. Using social listening, you can understand what they're saying about your brand and even your industry. It's the life-saver of market research in the online market. As an Ecommerce business, you get to see what they're saying, allowing you to find a way to meet their needs, solve their problems, and leave a lasting impression of your brand in their minds. Who knows, you might even find a new market while doing this.
3. Partner with Influencers
You see them everywhere—from YouTube to Instagram, influencers are all over your social media feeds. Influencer marketing involves social media personalities or well-known industry figures promoting your brand online. First, they establish trust and authority in their field. Once they gain a larger following, they soon move on to advertising. This is where you come in as an Ecommerce business. Influencers give your brand exposure. When they promote your business, they add credibility and project authenticity. On top of that, consumers trust opinion leaders more than they do branded content. They buy something when someone they follow recommends it. Partnering with an influencer involves making sure that their fans are similar to your audience. Better yet, their values must match with yours to prevent your brand from getting tainted by a malicious act by an influencer whose background you didn't check. The influencers you usually see on your feed are social media personalities, but you can also take your pick among actors and other celebrities. Alcoholic beverages company Diageo went down this road with their My Tales of Whiskey Yule Log, starring comedian Nick Offerman.
With fresh content and the actor's trademark dead-pan, Diageo successfully introduced the brand to younger single malt whiskey consumers. The video reached 175 news stories nationally, earned 1.1 million YouTube views in two days, and boosted Diageo's YouTube channel subscribers from 5,500 to 23,000.
4. Blog Outside Your Own
As your Ecommerce business grows, exploring beyond the confines of your site becomes a necessity. One way to do this is by guest posting—publishing your article on sites or blogs other than your own. You might be wondering, how can blogging for other sites help my online branding? Guest posting can increase brand awareness for your business. Publishing your content on blogs relevant to your industry can help you reach new potential customers similar to what you currently have. Moreover, it allows you to add backlinks that will drive traffic to your site. With guest posting, you represent your brand. So, your content must be high-quality to help strengthen your brand image and show your audience that you have authority and credibility over your subject-matter. Great content will appeal to your new audience and attract them into making business with you. Here are blogs that accept guest posts. Each has its guest posting guidelines. Think of it as visiting another house—it has rules that you must follow unless you want to get kicked out. In this case, you must keep them in mind to prevent your content from not getting published.
5. Curate an Exceptional Shopping Experience
Lack of physical connection is the main problem of online shopping. However, you shouldn't allow this to prevent your Ecommerce business from putting your customers first. You can turn this into an opportunity to develop an exceptional shopping experience. Your customers can't touch, feel, smell, and see your products, so it's up to you to take their buying experience up a notch and therefore strengthen your online branding. Warby Parker is a great example of a customer-first business.
As an online retailer, they found a way to get around the lack of physical connection. With their Home Try-On, their customers can test out five frames for five days, all delivered for free. It allows them to see the products for themselves and try them out before purchasing. You can also create a positive buying experience for your customers. Start by providing at least three photos of your products, so they can see and understand what you're offering. Add more convenience by removing the friction in the checkout process. You wouldn't want them to abandon their carts and look for another store just because you're asking them to fill up too many form fields. These are necessities to create a great customer journey. You can develop it further by crafting a shopping experience unique to your brand with the help of Ecommerce web designers, who can transform your site into a highly-optimized and fully functional user experience.
6. Let Your Customers Do the Talking
Almost every consumer reads reviews while online window shopping, and most agree that reviews influence their purchasing decisions. By providing reviews, customers can show that your business is trustworthy. They help other consumers by letting them know about their shopping experience with you. And by seeing these reviews, new customers can feel more comfortable with your business. It doesn't matter if it's a positive or negative review—positive reviews can build more trust for your brand, while negative reviews can establish credibility for your products. In fact, negative reviews are better than no reviews at all. Treat your customers well, and they'll do the same to your brand. They can become your brand ambassadors as long as you make them satisfied with your business. In turn, the more your business will grow. After all, a satisfied customer can lead to a glowing review, which can then result in strong word-of-mouth marketing that can support your Ecommerce brand in the long-run.
7. Build Memorable Customer Relationships
With the prevailing lack of physical connection, building customer relationships online sounds challenging at first. How can you connect with your customers without seeing them? A high-quality customer support service can make up for the lack of face-to-face interaction. Through this, you can show your customers that you care. Show them that you value them, so they'll appreciate your business in return. Consumers want instant gratification. On Facebook alone, they expect a response from you within six hours, and on Twitter, it's even shorter—all you have is 60 minutes to answer them. A stellar customer support service can ensure that their messages aren't buried in your inbox or that their comments aren't lost in your sea of notifications. It builds your brand's credibility and shows that you have quality service dedicated just for them. In turn, your customers will see your brand in the best light. Spotify understands the value of great customer support service. They have a dedicated Twitter account for customers' queries, with trained agents that provide specific details to solve their problems.
8. Take Advantage of User-Generated Content
Consumers have more ways than ever to share their opinions on products they bought. With that, most trust the opinions of other customers online instead of branded content. Here's your opportunity to take advantage of user-generated content. Sharing photos from your satisfied customers can help build trust and authenticity for your brand. Long-term, it can also help your bottom line as most user-generated contents are unpaid. Consumers can see how your product works and how it can meet their needs. Even better, since customers like them created the content, they see themselves in what you post. User-generated content can show them that what you're offering can do the job, thereby helping your Ecommerce brand stand out. Social media is the best medium to encourage user-generated content. Customers tend to post about their new purchases, and you can leverage this with a hashtag that will further push them to show off online. Sperry did this, by starting #SperryMyWay on Instagram. Online window shoppers search the hashtag to see photos of customers with their Sperry shoes, allowing them to see the product in action, "from sea to shore."
Boost Your Online Branding
You can shape your online branding by fulfilling your customers' needs, from their visual appetite to their user experience. But with the volatility of today's market, you can't foresee which strategies will keep working in the future and which will not. One thing's for sure—if you keep focusing on your customers, you can keep the spotlight shining on your brand and stand out against any competition. Navigating the Ecommerce world for the first time can be challenging. So, it's best to partner with an experienced full-service Ecommerce agency, who has the right services and experts to make your brand stand out online. Partner with Us
