Building a brand – a decalogue for effective online activity
The first months of this year have shown how many activities we can perform remotely, both as authors of generated content, but also as recipients. The Internet is a relatively new, but at the same time undeniably important platform for all sorts of multidirectional activities. The need to build a brand and its awareness in the Internet space seems obvious. Many entrepreneurs, for whom online activity is limited to having an email and a business card site, may feel exclusion and simultaneous resistance to the unknown world of brand building. What is it anyway? What is it for? Does even a small business need to exist online? Such and many other questions may be cluttering the head of a person facing the seemingly difficult task of entering a space that offers incomparably more opportunities than difficulties.
What is branding?
A brand (branding) is the sum of the factors that influence the perception of an entity; it’s like a portrait of a company – that is, everything that others think about us and how we function in their minds.
Building a brand (branding), on the other hand, is the process of creating this image; it is a system of signs and content aimed at disseminating and consolidating brand awareness (brand awarness) among the public. It is worth emphasizing here that every branding activity is at the same time building a relationship with the customer-viewer, it is an interaction with the man on the other side of the screen.
First of all, it should be noted that building a brand (including in the Internet space, because that’s what we’re talking about here) is a process. And it is a process of a long-term and complex nature.
It could be compared to plant breeding, where every stage is important – starting with preparing the ground, sowing, flowering period, harvesting the crop, and ending with the care that makes the next cycle possible. According to the biblical principle “by their fruits you shall know them.” So what? Get to work?
Decalogue of effective brand building on the Internet
We will guide you step by step through the entire process. Come.
Yes, ideally, the results of our efforts would be visible immediately and on a grand scale… but this is rather impossible. Let’s keep in mind that we are starting to build. And it’s a process.
From the very beginning, our goal was to achieve measurable results and measurable growth, as well as very good customer service and transparency within the cooperation. Adopting an estimating frame of reference – 100% increase in sales in the online store in 3 months, as well as a precise report defining the scope of the work done along with the time spent on it and any external costs. All accompanied by an extended commentary.
In order to start working with effective results, we should answer some basic questions, which will allow us to better understand the essence of our enterprise or organize our knowledge about it. It is worth realizing what makes us different, why is it worth using our services in particular? What is the identity and character of our company? Who are its customers, who are the recipients of our communications, and to whom do we direct our communications (all information and promotional content)? It is important to answer the question what are we like? And how do we want to be perceived?
It’s worth using our services because the results are measurable with many tools, and the reports are factual and transparent. We focus from the beginning on a job well done (Latin: Re Bena Gesta). Our clients are primarily small, medium and large companies that want to better navigate the Internet and take advantage of the possibilities of the Web. We are open, transparent, committed and try to convey as much value as possible. We want to be seen as open-minded professionals.
Our actions should be conscious and planned at every stage, that is, created by us. Building a reputation, a reputation can get out of control if it is carried out intuitively, as improvisation. That’s why it’s necessary to keep one’s hand on the pulse. But creating here is not the same as …the act of creating. Let’s remember that when presenting our business, product or service, it is worth betting on the truth (according to the thought “The truth will set you free”). Every message we send will be verified, evaluated. Honesty is therefore necessary to build credibility, and credibility – trust – a value we are after all concerned about.
Related to credibility, truthfulness and authenticity is also the issue of timeliness. It is about a specific vigilance, a research-like observation of the course of the brand-building process – each of the stages of branding. Freshness of form and content is as important as we want to “be up to date” for our audience. It may also be important to be honest with ourselves – the branded logo and logos of the 1990s bravely served their purpose, but do they still do? Styles and trends change, and we should take this into account, whether we are talking about refreshing a company’s image or building it from scratch (rebranding).
We are open, presenting the company as it is. The content of the About Us subpage is an example of text written straight from the heart.
The branding process will be much more efficient if we determine what is the object of our activities, what or who is to constitute our brand, so to speak. We should make the components of brand building dependent on what we base it on. In other words: the content of a personal brand, i.e. based on a specific character (e.g. the founder), will be different from a brand that is represented not by a personality, but by a product. In the same way, different goals may guide the promotion of a company’s brand, and others of an organization’s brand.
The foundation of the brand is to give value through education, rich feedback and proactivity in ongoing projects. The goal is the development of the project, but also of all their participants, including the internal team that is on the client’s side.
How about a slogan? The matter is not easy, but there are many possibilities. And it is not at all about, for example, part of the owner’s name with the ending “-pol”. Although there are many such names, it is worth betting on something more peculiar. Uniqueness is at a premium, as it is easier for us to remember an original (but nevertheless Polish), short and preferably related to the nature of the company name. But if our name already has a tradition and we don’t want to give it up for a new one – it’s worth thinking about an accompanying slogan. It should be a short, complementary, or describing our business, or the ideas guiding it – a sentence. It may be interesting here to recall a slogan by the Polish lyricist Agnieszka Osiecka, with which she won an international slogan contest. Perhaps not many people remember which text it is about and which brand, but surely everyone knows the slogan “Coca-cola – that’s it!”. There is strength in simplicity – isn’t there?
We wanted the name to speak for itself… Re Bena Gesta, from Latin, means a job well done, and this is supposed to define us unambiguously.
That is, a broad and extremely important concept. It is not without reason that sociologists use the term “pictorial (or iconographic) culture” to describe the reality in which we live. Undoubtedly, the graphic sign is one of the basic things memorable to us and our audience. Among other things, corporate identity consists of a logo, or graphic mark, with which our company or product is to be associated. The logo should be simple and characteristic, easy to remember – according to the principle “by simplicity know the master”. Other components are: logotype, which is a graphic record of the full name of our company, color scheme (it is worth, in addition to the color version of the signs, to prepare a black and white variant!), the visual layer of the website, but also the design of the office, or the clothes of our employees (this is also our representation, which we can photograph and post on the Internet). Extremely important in terms of visual identity is the consistency of all its components. This concept deserves a separate subsection.
Minimalism, simplicity and professionalism permeating in all elements of the brand’s visual identity.
Both graphic and verbal content. That is, aesthetics; the impression left by the appearance of our online representations. It is worth keeping an eye on each material, whether textual or graphical (from the logo and website design, to the color scheme, to the label of products or their packaging), to relate to each other in style – creating a coherent system of content. Another dimension of consistency is its ideological side – if we are a company, creating ourselves as ecological, supporting and caring for the environment, it is worth at least rethinking the issue of packaging our products in plastic bags… Let’s remember that sometimes the devil is in the details.
We try to tie everything we do with a consistent message.
It consists of several issues. The aforementioned pictorial nature of the culture in which we live may inspire us to present text messages using infographics. Various forms of presentation is another feature of the message that is important in terms of attractiveness. An attractive message should also often be concise and short. Keep in mind that the average viewer only needs about 10 seconds to judge whether he or she will find what he or she needs on our site. It is worth remembering that attractive content is that which has content value, i.e. often more extensive descriptions – nothing simpler – let’s set up a blog. To sum up point 8 – it should be nice and clear, clear and to the point. On point.
Since the beginning, we have tried to reliably transmit knowledge through primarily a blog and Facebook.
Our bottom line. It is not enough to simply have a website or a profile on a social network. It is necessary to be active. Each of our online activities is an interaction with the viewer/customer, a brick in real brand building. Social media activity (Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter) should be the standard, expanded gradually, for example, with promotional campaigns, freebies, or trial periods. As far as possible, every review issued by a customer should not go unanswered by us, or at least responded to. It is also worth bearing in mind other forms of communication with the community, such as participation in discussion forums, or contributions to expert industry websites. Huge opportunities for promotion are also provided by online advertising, allowing us to quickly reach a specific target group, sponsored links, or positioning of the site. Each of the mentioned forms is a topic, deserving a separate article.
Here we could improve and convey even more value through more frequent social media presence, stories, live shows, and more blog posts.
The abundance and availability of all sorts of content can be somewhat overwhelming. It is worth considering, requiring courage as much as creativity, non-standard solutions. In other words, it’s worth adding a pinch of craziness and character to our branding efforts. Or, at least, it’s worth trying, and always set yourself up for growth – be open to different solutions (but also to their consequences). An example here is the use of specific humor in branding by AS Bytom Funeral Home – a local company, but known nationwide.
Many of the things that constitute a company’s value are unusual. A name derived from Latin, a simple black and white logo, a wall of rules in the office, or a specific website layout.
Remember, however – not all at once!
The decalogue presented above, could be expanded almost endlessly. You may be surprised by its universality – after all, most of the issues raised, apply to functioning both in the Internet space and the “real” one. Well. These principles are universal, or at least more universal than you might think. Our reality is one – whether we are talking about online activities or not – we are talking all the time about our reality, in which we function, develop, exist.
All the time, it is important to remember that we do not have to stay alone with everything. After all, we can use professional help in effective branding on the Internet, using, for example, a very popular brand strategy.
