How Innovative Companies Create Lasting Brands Online (You Can Too!)

What do Coca-Cola, Google, and McDonald’s have in common? You instinctively know something about them. Indeed, you probably consume their products or use their services. While you could choose products from other companies, you default to these. But why?

Do they have such superior, unmatched products in the market? Probably not. It comes down to branding.

You may have the best product on the market, but if nobody knows, forget about sales. People buy Coke or iPhones because they know and trust these brands, not because there are no other alternatives. That’s the power of a lasting brand.

A brand takes on a life of its own. It becomes a marketing juggernaut that delivers results day in and out. You still have to work on maintaining it, but mostly, it runs without your constant input. Given the immense power of a strong, recognizable brand, shouldn’t you create one for your business? Of course.

Below, we’ll explore top companies’ strategies to create influential brands online and what you can learn from them.

How do intelligent businesses cement their brands online?

Big companies like Coca-Cola have substantial marketing budgets. They can afford to run massive advertising campaigns online and through other channels, such as television and sponsorships.

As a small or medium-sized business, you have a smaller budget. Therefore, you must get creative and leverage cheaper alternatives to create a resounding brand.

Luckily, the online space offers numerous avenues to create, promote, and benefit from your brand. Here are sure-fire ways to leverage the internet to your brand’s advantage.

1. Targeted social media presence

With more than 3.6 billion users worldwide, social media platforms provide the perfect avenue for smart entrepreneurs looking to grow their business. You pay nothing to establish a presence on social networking platforms, making them cost-effective channels for promoting your brand.

The most innovative companies use social media creatively and strategically. Instead of throwing stuff around and hoping something sticks, they target their audiences and woo potential customers through unique campaigns.

Fortunately, you can use the same strategies. For instance, utilize custom hashtags or piggybanks on trending tags to reach a wider audience. However, only use or join relevant hashtags; otherwise, the tactic might backfire and cost your business.

Other proven ways to use social media in promoting your brand include:

• Running creative contests that connect you to users while increasing brand awareness
• Posting and re-posting relevant content that helps users solve specific problems
• Highlighting your company’s journey and the ideals that guide and connect you to customers
• Partnering with reputable influencers to expand your reach
• Running targeted advertising campaigns to reach ideal customers

2. Blogging

Did you know that 77% of internet users read blogs? Given their popularity, blogs are a powerful way to connect with customers and reach an even broader base.

According to business blogging surveys, a blog increases your website’s indexing rate by more than 400%. Indexing refers to the number of pages a search engine visits, analyzes, and lists.

Indexing increases your chances of appearing in searches, improving your search traffic.

However, the benefits do not stop there. Innovative companies use blogs to:

• Attract and convert customers
• Engage and learn from current customers
• Boost demand for products and services through calls to action
• Grow their online traffic and brand awareness
• Demonstrate expertise as thought and industry leaders

To get the most from your blogging investment,

• Only post genuinely helpful and relevant content for your audience
• Engage with users and answer questions through email, the comment section on the blog, or social media
• Include calls to action, encouraging readers to connect more with your business or explore your products
• Remain consistent by posting regularly

3. Leverage Wikipedia

Wikipedia receives over 14 million unique visitors every day, making it a goldmine for anyone looking to boost their online presence or brand awareness.

However, getting on Wikipedia is not a walk in the park. For every company with a Wikipedia page, a thousand others come nowhere close.

So, what does it take to get on Wikipedia?

It comes down to three critical elements: Your page must be neutral, rely on verifiable and reliable sources, and finally, it must be notable. That sounds easy until you get to the execution. For example, how do you prove notability?

One workaround is to start with a short paragraph (stub) and build from there; instead of writing a 1000-word article that an admin deletes, start small while working on your sources. For example, this Asiaciti Trust Wikipedia page is just a few paragraphs but highlights all the significant points.

Despite the apparent challenges, a listing on Wikipedia can cement your presence and reputation online and help you reach a wider audience. At the same time, it’s a double-edged sword that can sink your business. Take negative press, for instance. The stories may appear as sources on your Wikipedia profile and remain there for good.

4. PPC and social advertising

Half of pay-per-click (PPC) visitors are likely to purchase compared to their organic counterparts. That number jumps on social media, and innovative companies have taken notice.

According to SpoutSocial, 89 percent of marketers use Facebook in their brand marketing efforts. Instagram alone has seen a sharp rise in usage among US marketers.

What can these top marketers teach you about PPC and social media advertising?

First, it works. Otherwise, marketers wouldn’t pour billions into these avenues.

Surprisingly, you can also follow the same playbook. You don’t need a huge budget to run an advertising campaign through display search or social networking platforms.

Indeed, advertising platforms allow you to target your audience at a granular level, resulting in better value for your money. Every dollar spent on PPC or social advertising generates substantial leads and boosts your brand awareness online.

Paid advertising works incredibly well in promoting your brand online because:

• You can test different messages to identify the most effective
• You can also test different market segments. If an ad doesn’t work with a particular audience, switch to another segment and gauge the results.
• It allows you to quickly reach a broader and more targeted audience or simply get your name out there if you’re just starting out.
• It’s cost-effective. You only pay when a user clicks on your advert and gets redirected to your landing page or website.

Additionally, you can retarget users who click on the ad but don’t make a purchase. Just because someone didn’t complete an action on your website doesn’t mean they lack interest. The internet is full of distractions; retargeting helps you tone down the noise and connect better with customers.

Innovative Branding

Innovative branding is something that every business wants to have, but not many of them actually have it. That’s just how it is, but what can your company do to change all that?

If your brand is starting to feel a little dull and mundane, there are some steps you can take to make its branding more innovative and exciting. Making significant changes to your business is never easy, but these steps will get you on the right path.

Put Your Customers at the Heart of Your Plan

Your customers should always be correct at the heart of the branding plan you put in place. If you can create a business with the right brand image, it will affect your ability to attract customers. But what’s even more important than that is keeping hold of customers. So, make sure that your brand reiterates its dedication to customers.

Come up with ways to make your customers feel valued. You could write a new brand mission statement and incorporate a promise of guarantee to customers. This kind of thing can make a real difference.

Create a Forward-Thinking Logo

Your business’s logo is one of the most important aspects of its branding.

If you get it wrong, people will get a bad first impression of your company, which is the last thing you want to happen. Ideally, it should say something about the brand and catch the eye. If it doesn’t grab people’s attention somehow, it’s falling short of what a good logo needs to do. It should also be well-designed and professional-looking. If it looks like it was made by an amateur, people will see your business as amateur, too.

Involve Your Whole Team

When creating a new branding strategy for the company, your whole team should be involved. By letting everyone have their say, you will open yourself up to more new ideas from every level of the business.

Even people who work near the bottom of the business can often develop great ideas relevant to the industry. This is something that many business owners ignore. You can also look outside the company for professional help from branding agencies. These people know what they’re doing and can offer some professionalism.

Create an Identity That’s Consistent for the Brand

Consistency is one of the most important aspects of branding. You can’t achieve success with your branding strategy if you don’t achieve consistency.

If your messaging is all over the place, you will simply confuse customers, and it will be impossible for them to formulate a precise image of your business. Instead, they won’t know what you’re trying to say or why they should buy from your company. So, create the kind of identity you can continually back up with actions, not just words. Customers will see and appreciate this.

To create a lasting brand, the message must be consistent across many offline and online mediums.

Use our four tips to propel your brand into one that remains first in the minds of your targeted audience.  Do you want to know how to create a professional logo for your brand? See this article.