From the very inception of a company, there is a constant need to develop ways of standing out among its competitors. For this purpose, their only tool is to build a brand around their offered products and services.
But the question is, how can this be done, especially in an age wherein most branding activities are based on a digital marketing strategy.
What is Branding?
Often confused with brand and brand identity, branding is a term that refers to the process of building a brand. A very foundational part of this process is to decide the mission statement, values and culture, vision, and the company’s target market.
Besides these intangible concepts, branding also includes the creation of tangible assets, such as logos, slogans, and jingles, for building a unique brand identity.
Moreover, the art of making people think of your brand the way you wish them to, as opposed to how they perceive it, is also a part of the branding process. Some of the top international brands made billions of sales just because they succeeded in building a good reputation around their brand.
Nike, Rolex, and other such reputable companies have an abundance of counterfeit products in the market because their logos and names printed on these products provide as much value as there is in the original products.
Evidently, the products of these companies bear a price that no amount of labour and material that goes into their manufacturing can justify; what they charge for their products, then, is based on the brand reputation.
How to Leverage Digital Marketing Trends for Branding?
Digital marketing trends keep changing, providing different ways for brands to be among the first ones to make the most out of new marketing opportunities.
It’s important to be up-to-date with new trends before they are too saturated, making it difficult for you to avail maximum benefit from them amid high competition.
Embrace New Technologies
The field of digital marketing is continuously expanding and evolving, making it difficult for marketers to manage the field’s growing complexities. Thankfully, new tools and advancements in older technologies are helping marketers keep up with these changes. Tools such as Buffer allow social media marketers to schedule their posts so that once these are ready, the tool can publish them according to the scheduled time.
Moreover, it also shows analytics on how frequent posting has affected the engagement rate. This is very helpful because it saves marketers from the trouble of missing peak activity hours of a social media platform or forgetting to post altogether in a worst-case scenario.
Another tool becoming increasingly popular among digital marketers is an AI-based content writing solution. The increasing demand to consistently produce engaging content can be a nightmare for most writers facing writer’s block. Although these tools do not replace a writer, they help produce AI-based content that inspires you with new ideas to help keep the flow going.
Coming to another solution, Canva has reinvented the way companies design. Undoubtedly, Adobe Illustrator and Adobe Photoshop are the most well-reputed software for designing enterprise-level digital content such as movie posters or NHL logos. But many digital marketers who are not designers by profession need a tool that does not require the intricacies of professional design software. Canva has enabled digital marketers in this regard with its easy-to-use features and readymade templates.
Look Out for New Social Media Features:
Whenever platforms launch new features, they provide brands with an excellent opportunity to increase their visibility. For instance, as relatively newer platforms, YouTube Shorts and Facebook Reels have garnered a large audience that prefers to engage with short-form videos.
On top of that, the algorithm of these platforms focuses on boosting the reach of new content; this means that both the trending platforms/features and the popularity of short-form content can help businesses attract these new audiences if they follow these digital marketing trends for branding.
While YouTube shorts and Facebook Reels are major updates, other less advanced features, such as carousel ads, can also massively help businesses benefit from these updates. Thus, brand marketers should analyze social trends and data to launch successful marketing campaigns.
Give your Brand a Face
Influencer marketing is estimated to be among one of the most popular digital marketing trends in 2022. As discussed earlier, brands have always cashed in on the name of their famous brand ambassadors. Similarly, more and more brands are inclining towards making large investments in the influencer marketing domain for its higher ROI.
Research has shown that B2B marketing and advertising are not as effective as consumer-to-consumer marketing based on word of mouth. The latter can generate twice as many sales compared to B2B marketing.
That is also because audiences are more likely to stop and listen to a brand endorsement by their favourite artist or social media personality instead of engaging with an advertisement. Moreover, influencer marketing not only effectively attracts new customers but has also proven to increase customer retention massively.
Maintain an Up-To-Date Marketing Strategy
With time digital marketing trends can remain the same, but the way these trends operate can undergo multiple changes. It’s essential to be up-to-date with these changes. For instance, SEO is still relevant in 2022; however, Google’s updated algorithm changes how it finds and ranks pages. Using the same SEO strategy without learning the new trends and guidelines can hinder your content’s ability to rank.
Similarly, while pop-up and banner ads were widely popular a few years back, they no longer work as effectively because users see them less like advertisements and more like a nuisance. At times, digital marketing trends can help us learn what not to do.
Fake reviews have become a marketing trend today, with companies fraudulently projecting a positive image of themselves. While this may seem like an effective way to gain a positive rating, it can badly damage a company’s reputation in the long run. Believe it or not, it doesn’t take long for customers to learn about the truth. This would mean that a company has not only failed to satisfy customers but has also prevented them from voicing their concerns.
In this scenario, the best marketing practice for a brand is to focus on standing out from the crowd by genuinely resolving these issues. In doing so, they can build positive relationships with clients and customers, ensuring a strong support service to potential ones.
Conclusion
A significant part of branding is researching and following digital marketing trends and best practices.
To begin with, you can also conduct a competitor analysis, which can help you get an idea about how your competitors are branding themselves and whether their approach seems to be working for them or not.
Nevertheless, being an early adapter of new trends always motivates a brand to be innovative and improve itself in the process.
The post How to Mould Your Brand According to Digital Marketing Trends appeared first on The Online Advertising Guide.
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