The following is a guest blog from Vineet Kothari. Vineet is the CEO at MyCorporateLogo.com, which provides custom logo design and website designs and offers affordable business logo design prices. Vineet graduated from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business and has worked in the digital design industry since 2005.
Branding your business is all about telling people who you are and what you do. A business doesn’t become successful unless it is noticed by others. You need to stand out from the crowd and leave your competitors behind. For this you have to develop a unique and original online brand. A brand should reflect the reliability, professionalism and quality of the company and its products or services.
These days there are a multitude of ways in which companies can practice Online Branding – Corporate Websites, Banner Advertisements, Articles, Blogs, Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, YouTube etc. have all been used at one time or other to further the awareness of brands on the web.
Here are a few tips for online branding to make your business successful.
Define Your Objectives
Your website should actually spell out what your brand stands for. When a visitor views your website he should get to know what your business is all about. Many companies crowd their web pages with unnecessary graphics and taglines without defining the objectives of the business.
Write about the history of your business and its purpose. Provide a detailed account of your products on the web to give visitors a virtual feel for the products or services on offer.
Make It Visually Appealing
Your website should have a design scheme that suits your business. Images, graphics and colors are appealing to the clients. Which visitor would like to browse a web page that is devoid of color or design? Your business website shouldn’t appear dull. It has to attract the viewers and keep them interested in you.
As the old saying goes, a picture speaks a thousand words, so use appropriate images wherever possible to highlight services or products. Research has found that graphics/images with a human element (picture of a person) are more likely to attract visitors to the products on display.
Make Good Use of Words
Your web page is a combination of images and words. So, be sure to balance the graphics and imagery used with textual content. As a designer one tends to focus on the graphics as much as possible and the content gets neglected. While the imagery may get a visitor’s attention, it is the content that will keep the visitor coming back for more.
A conversational tone works best and personalizes the content, keeping interest alive. Regular updates of content and articles to your website leads visitors to believe that you pay attention to the website and this perhaps translates to the services and products produced. Try to be witty and crisp, so that the readers don’t get bored. Your purpose is not putting them off to sleep but making them crave for more.
One-Stop Destination
Go beyond just your products and services. A good web page should contain articles about every thing that is related to your business. You can discuss in detail the type of products that your business produces – their utility and origin. Link out to other resources with more detail on similar products. Create photo galleries, message boards and try to come up with other interesting concepts to keep the visitors glued to your website.
Search Engine Optimization
If you have not included Search Engine Optimization (SEO) in your marketing strategy, you have made a big mistake. SEO will optimize your site such that it appears higher in internet search results. People who search the internet by your business name are already aware of your presence. What about the ones who search by the products or services you supply? Specialist SEO consultant firms can help increase the visibility of your website on the internet through various online strategies.
Collaborate with other Websites
You can contact other websites to promote your products. This will help you reach out to a wider circle of viewers. Advertising your website is a good idea for online branding. Post articles, submit press releases and write blogs on your behalf to make online branding successful. You need to keep track of the sites that your customers visit and engage with them at a regular basis. Including banners on these sites keeps you visible and links visitors back to your site.
Your Logo
Your business logo embodies the vision of your company, the reason you do what you do and where you are headed. The message should be clear and unambiguous. Often designers get caught up in the aesthetic appeal and forget the message of the company.
Fonts and colors can be bold or mellow to go with the nature of business. Logos with a mix of graphic and textual elements work best.
The logo should be prominently displayed on all your online branding efforts from your corporate website to the advertisements and even the articles/blogs you write. It should be prominent but not overbearing and should always link back to your website.
The points mentioned above are only some of the ways in which you can enhance your online brand and the overall awareness of the products and services that your business supplies.
Recently businesses have started using social networking sites like Facebook, MySpace and Twitter to further their online brand strategy. Innovation in advertising and branding is constant and one must keep pace with all the avenues available to increase ones business presence online.
Do not underestimate the power of online branding as it can reach far beyond the boundaries of traditional advertising and marketing to people and places you may not have even considered.