A business without a digital presence is similar to a car without tires. It is not going to get anywhere fast. An effective digital branding strategy provides fantastic opportunities to power past the competition. I’ll discuss different ways to improve a business’s digital branding strategy.

Let’s first understand what a digital branding strategy is and how it works.

What is digital branding?

A digital branding strategy is a plan to maximise the business benefits of data assets and technology-focused initiatives. It focuses on all the online elements that help drive business growth by increasing leads and sales flow. Digital branding includes website branding, SEO, content marketing, social media marketing, email marketing, and paid advertising.

5 ways to upgrade your digital branding strategy

A Forbes report says consistent branding across all channels increases revenue by 23%.  Here’s how to set up a solid digital branding strategy.

1. A user-focused website

If you want to create a successful digital branding presence, then you need a website. Your website should epitomise your brand. A website not aligned with your branding efforts feels disconnected from the business image you want to portray.

Streamline your design and maintain brand consistency with a limited colour scheme that complements your logo design. Make your brand name stand out with bold, legible fonts, and keep pages concise and to the point.

Your website is also the hub of the brand message portrayed via content. Customers want to believe that you are knowledgeable and trustworthy. Therefore, create market-relevant content to build your brand.

Here are a few steps to follow:

• Focus on offering a great user experience and sharing content related to the needs of your target audience.
• You can add articles, videos, podcasts, and infographics.
• Your website should have a crawlable link structure, to make it easier for the audience and search engines to navigate all the information easily.
• Use an interactive design that regularly upgrades according to the latest industry trends and user needs.
• Make your site accessible to all.

2. Social media

Your social media presence makes it way easier for your customers to find and connect with your business. A business’s social marketing efforts increase its brand visibility and improve user experience.

As per a report by Buzzstream, 50% of consumers follow at least one brand on social media. Here are a few ways to promote your presence on social media:

• Post pictures, videos, and links to valuable content on your website.
• Tailor posts as per the platform on which it appears. For example, Instagram posts are image-driven.
• Plan and schedule your posts for specific dates and times.
• Engage with your audience through comments, and respond to direct messages.
• Track your progress using a tool like Hootsuite that helps streamline all your marketing efforts across different platforms.
• Use Google Analytics to check pages that are driving customer action and which ones are falling behind.

Your social media presence should be interactive. Audience liking, retweeting, sharing, and replying to your posts is an indication that you are connecting directly with your prospects.

3. Online advertising

Online paid advertising uses the power of the web to market your products. It is suitable when you need faster results. Paid advertisements come in a variety of forms, such as text-based, image-based, and video-based advertisements.

You can write a specific copy to advertise your product or service and even use extensions to personalise your advertisements. Some of the most preferred ways to advertise digitally are:

• Search engine ads: These ads appear above, below, or next to the organic search results on different search engines. Search engine advertising operates through an auction-based system. Advertisers bid on niche keywords to reach more customers. These keywords determine which searches display your ads. Therefore, choose the right keyword that targets your audience.
• Display ads: These ads are clickable banners present on web pages across the internet. Display ads are generally in the form of text, images, or videos. These ads encourage users to click through to a landing page and take action.
• Social media ads: Social media platforms offer a variety of ways to sponsor content. You can pay-to-play, or you can hire an influencer to post about your product.
• Mobile and desktop feed ads: These ads are integrated directly into a feed and appear as “suggested content” on users’ mobile and desktop feeds.
• Retargeted ads: These ads reach customers who have already shown interest in your brand, whether by Googling it, visiting your website, or liking your Facebook page.

4. Content marketing

It is not enough to advertise your product before the Gen Z audiences. Engagement is crucial to creating a loyal customer base. This can be achieved through content marketing.

Successful content marketing stimulates interest in your brand, helps build trust, and seeks to establish lasting relationships. Here is a list of content marketing tips that will make your content more effective.

• Search for questions that your customers might have and create content around them. You can use Google Keyword Planner to get the right keyword to get you in front of the right customers.
• Optimise your content to improve your content’s ability to rank for specific keywords and phrases. Semrush is a useful tool to optimise your content.
• Check which content drives the most conversions, leads, and sales to understand what is working for your brand. You can create more content around the already working areas and avoid content that is not working.
• Use content marketing tools to streamline processes, improve efficiency, and increase reach.

5. Email marketing

Email marketing is an easy and great way to reach out to customers, especially those who do not use social media. According to Optinmonster, at least 99% of consumers check their email daily.

Here are a few techniques for developing brand awareness in email marketing campaigns:

• Segment your email list and target your emails to specific mico segments.
• Write them in a lively and engaged tone that represents your brand.
• Ensure the fonts, colours, call to action, and layout match those of the business. Check if the logo, company details, and signature are used correctly.
• Include photos, videos, and user-centric information to engage with customers actively.
• Remain consistent with sending emails. But do not bombard your subscribers with emails. One email a week is enough to keep them interested.

Summing up

A traditional branding strategy is no longer enough to drive growth and profitability. Your current and future clients are looking at you online. The world has gone digital, and if you are not prepared to keep pace, you will be left in the dust. Therefore, digital branding is not only necessary but is preferred.

Understanding the keys to digital branding is a starting point to create any digital branding strategy. Ensure that you know your audience and have a buyer persona. Determine what makes your business unique, and maintain a cohesive brand voice across all platforms.