Nowadays, the internet has become people’s primary source of information and entertainment. As of 2023, there are now a total of 5.18 billion internet users worldwide or essentially 64.6% of the global population. This is why digital marketing is more crucial than ever — if you want to reach your audience’s eye, you’ll need to do it in the channels that they are in, whether that’s social media or the websites that they visit.
But you may be wondering, how can you employ a successful digital marketing strategy? Especially when so many brands are doing the same thing, and you are all fighting for your audience’s attention in an already saturated digital space?
The answer to that is branding. A strong branding can not only elevate your brand and make you stand out from competitors, but also ensure that your digital marketing campaigns will be more successful.
In this article, let’s take a look at what branding is, and its important role in your digital marketing campaigns. Let’s start!
What Is Branding?
To know why branding is important, we need to first have a deep understanding of what branding actually is.
Branding is the process of creating a strong and distinctive identity or personality to a brand, through the use of different elements. These elements can be divided into visual and non-visual parts.
Let’s start with the visual, or visual branding. This includes your logo, colour palette, typography, art style, photography, and other creative elements that you’ll use for your business. Each of these elements needs to work together to form the overall “look” and feel of your brand. Your visual branding needs to be informative (meaning, it can accurately relay to your audience your brand’s personality) and cohesive (meaning, your design is consistent in all of your marketing materials).
Your visual branding encompasses all your marketing materials. It’s the font that you use for your email signatures, the colour scheme in your posters, down to the photographs you have on your brochures.
And perhaps the most important part of your visual branding is your logo. After all, it’s essentially your most used visual element. You’ll place it in your packaging, your flyers, your social media posts, your website, and other marketing collateral.
Create a suitable logo that fits your brand personality, while making sure that it’s eye-catching and memorable. To get started, check out logo maker tools online, or look for a graphic designer that can translate your ideas.
Let’s move on to non-visual branding. These are the characteristics of your brand that are not really tangible or can be physically seen. This includes your brand voice, brand tone, brand story, and your vision and mission. These elements can usually be seen in your written communications — how you “talk” on social media, how you write your blog articles, the language you use on your website, etc.
Just like with visual branding, all these non-visual elements can be used to portray to your audience your brand’s personality.
An example is Wendy’s. They use funny and snarky language in their marketing, particularly on their Twitter account. This gives off a more relatable and approachable vibe to them and makes them feel less of a corporate brand and more like a friend.
On the other hand, Apple uses direct and assertive language. This makes them look more confident and strong — that they are sure that their product is of the highest quality and you wouldn’t be needing other brands aside from them.
Making these visual and non-visual elements work together in harmony is key to having a strong branding.
The Importance of Branding for Digital Marketing
Now that you know what branding is, let’s discuss why it’s important for digital marketing. Some reasons are:
- Provides brand recognition and recall
Let’s do a quick experiment. How many local cafes can be found in your city? Let’s assume that there are around 100 and that all of those cafes are doing some digital marketing. In those 100, how many can you actually remember? Probably around just 5. One of the reasons these cafes stand out can be traced back to their branding. Perhaps one cafe uses a distinctly retro graphic style in their Facebook ads. Or maybe one uses a distinct green and white colour scheme in their marketing materials, as they are an eco-friendly and zero-waste cafe. In the sea of similar-looking cafes, having strong branding elements can help in making them more recognisable, and make it easier for you to remember them.
- Sets you apart from the competition
Did you know that we see around 5,000 ads daily? It sounds outrageously high, but just think about all the ads that pop up when you visit a website, the amount of ads that you see when you scroll through your Instagram feed, or the ads that you skip when you watch a YouTube video.
With this tremendous amount of competition, having a distinct branding is crucial. It will help you stand out in a sea of ads and make your audience have an easier time picking you out from a pack.
- Makes your audience more engaged and invested
Aside from giving your brand a memorable identity, great branding can also make you more relatable to your audience. By having a personality and story that your audience can relate to, it gives them a more personal connection with your brand. This connection will also inspire more loyalty and trust, and make them more invested in your brand. This means they are more likely to purchase your product over your competitors.
- Drive conversion and sales
People make a lot of snap judgments. According to studies, you only have 1/10th of a second to make an impression on people. This is why having a great visual appeal in your digital marketing is important. If you don’t catch their attention with a powerful and meaningful visual, your audience won’t bother with your brand. And as we discussed earlier, having cohesive branding is key to having a strong visual identity. If you don’t have strong branding, chances are you won’t be able to produce great visuals on your marketing materials.
This is also proven by studies. 42% of people are unlikely to make a purchase from websites they find unappealing. And 60% of people will avoid a brand with a logo that they find ugly. If you want to make sure your digital marketing campaign works, create a solid visual branding first.
- Builds your reputation
Branding can also reinforce your reputation. Having strong branding can help in making you more familiar and well-established among your target audience. People are more likely to purchase from a brand that they deem to be trustworthy, high-quality, dependable, familiar, and have a positive impression. This is why lots of people tend to buy from name brands, even though generic products work the same way — it’s all because of branding.
In the long run, with your audience having lots of positive experiences with your brand, it can build a very strong, positive reputation and image for your brand. People also tend to recommend brands they like to their friends and family, so if they trust your brand, you’ll essentially get free word-of-mouth marketing out of it.
Wrapping Up
The power of branding can’t be underestimated.
Through your branding, your audience can associate a specific personality and feel to your brand. For example, using vibrant poppy colours can give off a youthful feeling to your brand, while using sleek and muted shades can make your brand look more business-like.
The same goes for your voice and tone. Using casual slang and jargon can make your brand look friendlier while using formal language will make you look more professional and authoritative.
As you can see, your branding will dictate your audience’s perception of your brand. And in digital marketing, where you only have a few precious seconds to communicate with your audience, being able to create a positive perception is of the utmost importance. Make sure to consider your branding, and you’ll be able to create more impactful digital marketing campaigns in the future.
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