11 Elements of Successful Online Branding

Last Updated on October 6, 2023 by DesignerPeople

Famous quote which says “son of a king will become king”, this quote is no more applicable in today’s era. Over a decade, the business environment has transformed drastically. Those days are gone when opportunities are enormous for people with traditional business practices.

Today and in the upcoming year 2020, the internet has opened doors of ample opportunities for budding startups and aspirants. Even the government policies over time have become startup and business-friendly, while systems have become liberal same time competition level is touching the sky.

To gain competitive advantage and to stand out from crowd against so many existing brands have become a significant challenge for brands these days. To create its unique identity and personality in the upcoming year 2020, the brand should adapt digital branding components.

Any company without branding and digital marketing is like fish without water. Companies should be aware of getting adapted with change or else their existence will be lost. Branding is a strategic and creative process of telling potential users what the company is? What do they care? What consumer can expect from them? Branding is also a process of building brand identity and creating a brand essence in

the mind of the consumer. Such as a symbol of multicolour rings in Olympics convey meaningful associations that resonate the world over.

Digital marketing is a process of how brand constructs design and build a brand online through websites, apps, social media, video. Digital marketing enables its presence throughout the world under the tips of your fingers.

Digital branding V/S Digital marketing

There are a lot of businessman and startups who initially get confused between these two terms.

Digital branding focuses on providing value which inspires loyalty and brand recognition focusing more on long-term marketing strategy. While digital marketing motive is to generate new customers, expand the business and generating sales number. Unlike traditional ad’s digital marketing don’t talk to you; in fact, it seeks to engage you with various creative strategies. Digital branding is what you as a brand are ? and digital marketing is what you as a brand do?

These two concepts are entirely different aspects along with their work process

There are 11 elements of successful Digital branding:

1.Logo

Think Audi, Apple, Olympics, Mac Donalds, Coca-Cola and many such famous brands, what is that first thing which visually displays in front of your eyes. Image of their logos right? That’s because these brands have created their brand identity through firm logos placements in the audience mind.

Logo design can be a word, letter, picture, mascot oriented, depending upon the type of industry the logo designing plan is the frame. The logo design is based on the brand target audience and its personality. The logo should not be complicated, it should be simple so that anyone can easily recall. The emotion and mood of the brand are studied, if it is playful, retro, vintage, urban or minimalistic, and hence this should reflect through logo designing.

Right colours, Font type, brand story, content, size should be as per brand personality and its relevance. The logo should be such that they can be transferred and shared on various platforms from digital to apparels.

Design a logo which goes well with email headers, cover photos, profile pictures and app button.

The logo acts as the face of the brand, and one should not risk in designing it by self. Hence there are professional creative agencies that can create it for your brand.

2.Brand story

Stories are exciting, and everyone loves listening to them; it engages people and hooks them to experience the end. A lot of brands comprehend the power of stories to transfer their presence and identity. 

A brand story is personality-driven while it’s not an individual biography; it is an evolution of an entire entity displayed with its unique personality.

The story should be simple and must connect on an emotional level with the audience. As it is said, a good story will make customers buy a part of the story and not the only product.

A brand story can be depicted through its logo design such as Baskin robins did. Their logo represents 31 number which talks about their number of flavour variants.

The logo is having a three-striped mountain on top of the word Adidas, which inspires athletes to achieve great heights in life.

A great brand story should satisfy the below points:

• The clarity in thought and its actions
• Should communicate with their audience
• Create emotional aspects by identifying what target customers perceive their brand and brand message.

Brand packaging, brand messaging, logo and overall branding elements together forms a strong story which is strengthened by its consistency across all collaterals.

Examples: Apple, Nike, Google, Volkswagen.

source: “business2community.com/infographics/100-years-brand-storytelling-infographic-01216433”

3.Website

The website acts as a digital face for any company. Any person searching brand details or product details he/she first thing they do is visiting the official website.

If the website is shabby and uninteresting, then the visitor will not stay for longer. Being the asset of the company website should be beautiful as well as functionally feasible.

If the site is aesthetically eye-pleasing but lacks on functionality element, then it is of no use. User experience, correct colours, font size, technically sound and accurate CTA will create a productive website.

The content available on the website should communicate authentic and brand messaging statements which should not deviate from its core values and cultures. 

Example: Sony is into various products and any person who visit site have to face challenges to search that one specific product from thousands of products. To solve the issue, Sony has introduced such a site’s information architecture to ensure their navigation is made sense for visitors. By sorting their products into the most logical and flexible categorization. Navigation carries over the same elements in every drop-down menu which say “Shop and Compare,” “Accessories,” and “Support & Drivers” this made user-friendly where visitors know they can perform the same actions regardless of product.

4.SEO

SEO in simple words is a technical process which will ensure your brand and its values find on search engines. Make sure the website is SEO oriented which can be Google’s webmaster guidelines which will explain how Google indexes and makes rank sites.

SEO helps in increasing the quantity and quality of website traffic by increasing the visibility level of the brand website or web page to the audience of a web search engine.

There are various tips for productive SEO:

1. Discover a useful keyword and focus while high search keyword can be identified through Ubersuggest or keyword tool.
2. Competitor research
3. Construct great brand content
4. Imbibe the keyword in page title
5. Involve keyword in the header
6. Insert internal links and get external links
7. Eliminate all that slows down the site
8. Ensure relevant meta descriptions for each page
9. Build momentum with social signals

A website which is taking more than 3 seconds to load 40% of visitors will leave the page, and 80% of them will never come back. Source

Web analytical should be in place before any brand starts its journey; this will ensure everything in place in a systematic manner.

5.Brand messaging 

It is the underlying value proposition conveyed and the language used in the content. Every piece of message is creating a positive impact on the audience and making it memorable is the real task these days.

It makes buyers relate to your brand by inspiring them motivating them, persuading them, and ultimately making them want to buy your product. Examples of brand messaging you may recognize, in the form of slogans:

Walmart: Save money. Live better.

Subway: Eat fresh.  

Coca-cola: open happiness

Nike: just do it.

The Tagline should be catchy and attractive, and they should also satisfy the positioning statement of the brand.

Product positioning, brand pillars, key benefits, audience, value proposition and brand tone are few items that need to take into consideration. All these elements combine to generate a full messaging framework which can guide the company’s marketing across every section of content and every channel. Everything you create, both externally and internally, should be able to map back to this messaging.

Make sure brand message speaks to its online audience as they are also a significant set of audience. If your brand is on the internet, it should act as the internet does. The internet has its unique modes of communication such as GIFs, memes, slang as that your company should present on social media when appropriate.

6.Social media

Social media is the world in boom these days and which is going to the future of every event in 2020. From your adorable pet, just born infant to age-old grandmom, everybody has their presence on a social media platform. The brand must be present on social media where its customers are present.

Images, videos and content should be customized as per the type of social media platform. Such as Snapchat consists of fun, cheerful young audience. While Instagram is more about images, facebook is a combination of all. Twitter is focusing on updated trends and news around us. 

The Social Network Revolution has generated the rise of networking sites which displays that the audience invests 22% of their time on social networks. There is increasing because of the widespread daily use of smartphones. Social media is used to treasure memories, learn about and invent new things, advertise a brand and to generate friendships as well as the growth of creative ideas from the creation of blogs, podcasts, videos, and gaming sites.

Tools like Hootsuite will help to streamline various platforms and track engagement. Google Analytics will display specific pages which are driving customers actions and which ones are falling behind.

Also Read: Animated Logo Design Trends in 2020

7.Email marketing

It is a process of promoting products and services with the use of email, which will also develop a relationship with potential customers. In-country like India, there is still a large section of people who even don’t exist on social media. Hence email marketing is the best possible way to cater them.

Email marketing is one such segment of internet marketing, which encompasses online marketing through social media, websites and blogs.

It is vital to render personalized services to clients, and this is very much possible through email marketing. Offering special discounts or offers on product or services on customers special occasion will help to enhance brand loyalty.

Example: A restaurant sending an email to customers on their birthday offering 50% off on entry or food will create a “sense of belongingness” amoung clients.

Be aware while scheduling out mass emails as sending too many back-to-backs may often result landing into junk mail.

The two critical advantages of email marketing are price and ease aspect. Emailing is an inexpensive way to advertise your brand and its products and services when compared to many other types of marketing.

Try to get signups from ads or you can also gather them directly on the website by adding a popup with newsletter signup on the landing page.

The motive of email marketing should be pre-decided by brand such as if it is for introducing new product? Improving relationship with clients? Enhance engagement? Make sure to plan first and then start executing.

8.Content marketing

source: “blog.red-website-design.co.uk/2019/08/20/small-business-content-strategy/”

I am sure when we hear content marketing maximum people consider and think of blogs, Facebook, Twitter and viral YouTube videos. But the concept of content marketing has been here from a very long time even before the internet exists. As it is all about storytelling and humans are related to stories from the time they could speak.

Content marketing is a way to stimulate interest in the brand and get consumers excited about product and messages.

Example: When we look at Amul social media posts, they are best at their content marketing. They are always updated and promoting ad’s through existing events in society.

source: “yourstory.com/2017/12/amul-girl-india-rahul-dacunha”

9.Influencer marketing

If we were talking about influencer a decade ago, then it was restricted only to celebrities and stars and very few dedicated bloggers. But today the market of influencers is saturated there is a vast opportunity in various sectors.

Influencer marketing works best because a high amount of trust they have built up with their loyal followings and recommendations. Here brands, instead of displaying the products of services directly to clients, they will place this task to social media stars who will spread the word for your brand.

The process of influencer marketing is done in the following way:

• Identify the relevant influencer and determine their cost
• Set budget and brand management strategy
• Decide on goals and brand messages
• Review strategy and modifications if required
• are to stay, but the way the world of influencer marketing looks and operates has changed a great deal in a short period.

10.Online advertising

It is a form of marketing where the internet delivers promotional marketing messages to consumers, also called as internet marketing or web advertising.

When we talk about advertising, then 9 out of 10 are referring to online advertising. Online advertising has been proven to be extremely productive and profitable both for small as well as large scale business. Around 95% of google revenue generated from online advertising which is a considerable number. Source

It is not an easy task where the brand will create a simple banner, webpage and get away. But today there are various other effective ways to do it, such as follows:

Search engine ads, Social media ads, Desktop and mobile feed, Display ads, and retargeted ad’s.

Recently companies have been merging their advertising messages into editorial content or valuable services.

There are various advantages of online advertising such as cost-effective, accountability, targeting, formatting, speed and coverage.

11.Pay-per-click

PPC is pay-per-click, an element of internet marketing in which advertisers will be paying a certain amount of fee each time one of their ads is being clicked. Necessarily, it is a way of purchasing visits to your site, instead of attempting to “earn” those visits organically.
Search engine advertising is one of the necessary forms of PPC. It renders advertisers to bid for ad placement in a search engine’s sponsored links where searches on a keyword is associated to their business offerings.

Example: If we bid on the keyword “PPC software,” then ad will show up in the top spot on the Google results page.

Conclusion:

No brand can avoid being on online medium, in coming days 2020 in order to gain competitive advantage and to sustain the creative fight; one has to make brand digital foundation very strong. Digital marketing is all about developing and reaching out closer to brand audiences to make sure things are transparent and authentic. Real and true efforts can never go waste; in fact, they are nurtured and matured day by day with effective results. A digital marketing agency is a perfect body that can help your brand to grow and touch the sky!

Author: Megha Malik

As a passionate entrepreneur and creative brand consultant with experience of 14 years in digital, branding and packaging industry, it is my honest effort to put my experiences and knowledge of industry towards readers. A chartered accountant by degree but a marketing personality in blood has motivated her to take in designing industry as a career. With her fun-loving personality and sharp branding skills, she is a great motivational speaker on her YouTube channel, an active member in various business channels offline as well as online. Do connect me personally via my LinkedIn and I love to share my expertise with you.