Why Digital Branding Is Important for Small Business Owners

May 4

Photo by Eva Bronzini: https://www.pexels.com/photo/text-on-white-paper-7661590/

What is Digital Branding?

Digital branding is the process of creating and maintaining a strong online presence for your business. In short, it's about getting people to know who you are, what you do and why they should use your services or products.

As more people spend time online than ever before (according to Pew Research Center), having a strong digital presence can be essential for small businesses looking for new customers or clients. Your website should provide information about who you are and what services/products you offer--but it also needs to make visitors feel like there's something special about working with or buying from your business. For instance this feeling can come from the ease of finding the products and or services that you offer on your site; the customer concluding that your site is trustworthy; positive testimonials from other clients/customers; and much more.

Benefits of Digital Branding for Small Businesses

Increased visibility and reach: Digital branding can help you to increase the visibility of your business, as well as its reach. You can use social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram to get in touch with new customers, who might not otherwise have found out about your brand.
Enhanced customer engagement: When it comes to building relationships with customers, nothing beats digital branding. Social media platforms allow you to interact directly with potential buyers or clients by answering their questions and responding quickly when they post comments or reviews on your page. This helps build trust between them and also makes them more likely to buy from you again; because they know exactly what kind of service they will receive from your company.
Improved customer loyalty: A loyal customer base is essential for any small business owner looking at long-term success. However, many companies struggle when it comes to retaining these valuable individuals due to poor marketing strategies which leave people feeling ignored or forgotten after they’ve made a purchase. Poor marketing will also cause gawkers of your website to feel left out resulting in them NEVER making a purchase at all. By tweaking your marketing strategy to include sending coupons to lurkers, or the you left something in your cart function, you can increase sales and customer loyalty; and it’s as simple as just including these tweaks in your email marketing campaign.

How to Create a Digital Branding Strategy

A digital branding strategy is a plan to grow your business by leveraging technology. This includes everything from creating a professional website, to using social media, to optimizing for search engines.

The first step in creating a digital branding strategy is researching your target audience and defining your brand identity. You can then create a unified message that resonates with your target audience so that they know exactly who you are and what you do when they see or hear from you online. Once this has been established, it's time for the fun stuff: building out the rest of your online presence!

This could mean creating content like blog posts or videos that help educate potential customers about things relevant to your industry, showing them what makes your company unique and what level of service they can expect when purchasing from you, or why your company feels that it’s customers are the most unique. Or maybe it means setting up an email newsletter so people can sign up for company and product/services updates, staffing accomplishments for exemplary customer service, special promotions--or even better yet...free shipping! The possibilities really are endless here; but whatever route works best for YOUR company is surly will pay off big by increasing your bottom line; clicks and conversions.

Best Practices for Digital Branding

Be consistent.
Create a positive customer experience.
Use visuals to tell your brand's story, and make it easy for customers to find what they're looking for.
Tell stories that are relevant to your audience, whether they be about you or the people in your community who have been affected by what you do as a business.
Use calls-to-action (CTAs) at every step along the way: when someone lands on your website or social media page; when they sign up for email updates; when they come back after being away from the site for some time--and so on!
Make sure these CTAs lead them somewhere useful and valuable, like an offer or discount code that will give them something extra in exchange for their contact information (which is key). If possible, also include CTAs within blog posts so readers can easily share those posts with others via email or social media without having to leave their browser window open all day long just waiting around until someone clicks "send."

Conclusion

Digital branding is essential for small businesses to succeed in today's digital world. By following best practices and creating a strong digital presence, small businesses can increase visibility, reach, engagement, and sales.