Branding entails creating a positive perception of a company or person in the public eye. Effective branding tends to be consistent across all elements of a company, from the logo, mission statement, design, and marketing communication.
For most e-commerce entrepreneurs, branding ends with setting up a nice online store template. However, e-commerce brand management is among the most important marketing functions, intending to create customer closeness and encourage buyer loyalty. As an e-commerce business owner, developing a brand experience is one of the best ways to set your business apart from the ever-increasing competition.
As the #1 solution for e-commerce brand audits, we have evaluated brand efficiency for hundreds of online stores of all shapes and sizes.
Why does an e-commerce business need good branding?
According to Oberlo e-commerce statistics in 2021, the number of digital buyers is at 2.14 billion. The shift to online shopping and the increasing numbers of e-commerce businesses makes it necessary for e-commerce businesses to establish their distinctive identity that will draw in more customers. The ripple effect is more conversions and consequently more profit.
Now, branding should be an intentional effort for the success of any e-commerce. The brand strategies need to be in mind even before the launch of an e-commerce store. After all, you are more likely to make the best decisions for your business when you know the core values to abide by and the personality of your business.
Let us dive into some of the best ways to design a winner e-commerce Brand Identity:
Analyze what values your key customer segments are looking for
Branding involves communicating a specific message about your business to the target audience. You need to understand your target customers to ensure that you are communicating effectively. It is imperative to know what motivates them to make purchases, what makes them choose one business over another, and what fundamental values they consider to be most important for brands to have.
Your sales and marketing efforts need to be tailor-made to reach the exact audience for your products or services. In this case, you will need to know your target market to create a brand that they can resonate with. Your effort and money will be spent more efficiently when you have identified the primary market for your offerings. You will be better positioned to assess how well you meet their needs when you know the people you are targeting and their key characteristics.
Having product lines that appeal to everyone or one that tries to meet the needs of everyone is dangerous since it then becomes hard to define your market or laser target your marketing campaigns. It is necessary to ensure that you have a measurable, reachable, and sufficiently large target market.
If you are unsure of who your target market is, you could start by analyzing your product to ascertain what kind of people are likely to be interested in your products or services. Assess your product features and benefits to see the group of people that are more likely to benefit from the product.
Optimize your e-commerce brand and shopping experience for more conversions
Your e-commerce success largely depends on the brand and user experience of your online store. Regardless of prices and products, buyers will abandon your store if they feel uncomfortable. The ability to audit and optimize brand and customer experience is essential for long-term e-commerce success – but most e-commerce startups and online retailers do not have the skills or budget for such analysis.
If your e-commerce brand does not grow organically, or you feel that your marketing efforts are not getting positive engagements – or perhaps your e-commerce conversion rate is low then consider doing an e-commerce store brand audit.
Evaluate your e-commerce brand efficiency
Brand Auditor makes the brand experience and e-commerce focused market research fast and affordable. During the auditing procedure, thousands of people will visit your e-commerce website to leave score ratings and comments regarding what they like and dislike about your online store.
Our system lets you configure audits based on your preferences, targeting criteria, market research size and enables you to choose what aspects of your brand to audit. Prices and auditing timeframe are calculated in real-time, based on your audit configuration. Each selected scope of analysis will add a separate page to your report with the following information:
- Score ratings of 4 micro-aspects (1 to 10) by your respondents
- Score ratings of similar brands benchmarked with your scores
- Comments and feedback received from your respondents
You could go further and segment your target group into other characteristics such as geographical location, demographics such as age, income, profession, and education to know how best to align your values and products in a way that appeals more to the targeted customers. It helps that similar people tend to have similar interests. That means that the majority of the people within a certain demographic have similar values and appreciate similar things. It makes it easier to create a brand that resonates with them.
Create a marketing message that addresses customer expectations
The creation of a marketing message is one of the foundational steps of creating a unique brand. Your marketing message needs to communicate clearly how the product or service will meet the needs of your target audience.
Most businesses make the mistake of developing a marketing message that speaks volumes about who the company is, but not enough about how the products meet the customers’ needs. The customers are mostly keen on knowing what’s in it for them. Try to do your due diligence in researching your target market to understand the challenges they have that your products or services seek to solve. You are more likely to craft a message that resonates with them that way. Your marketing message should articulate the solution to the customers’ problems.
Another crucial step when creating a marketing message is looking at the competition. Analyzing the competition puts you in a better place to learn from your mistakes and create something different from anything else available in the market. Always be in the loop!
Craft positioning based on unique values and benefits for your e-commerce
Part of creating a memorable brand is knowing and communicating your unique values. Your e-commerce positioning will help you identify a niche for your products and establish you as a force within the said niche. It will help you in developing a sustainable and successful business that feels different from the competition.
You could form a Unique Value Proposition (UVP), which is a statement indicating the benefits your products are affording the customers that your competitor’s products do not. Having a UVP will help to set you apart from the competition.
Develop mood board, visuals, color templates, and marketing communication guidelines based on your positioning
Once you have defined what makes you different, the problems your products are solving, and the values that your company stands for, you need to ensure that the message shines through. The communication should be clear in other defining elements of the business, as the visual assets like the mood boards, logos, color templates, and marketing messages. Be consistent and create expectations with your customers since they will know what you stand for. You will create a strong bond with your customers that is likely to foster loyalty.
Wrapping up
There is a lot that goes to having a winner e-commerce brand identity and you need to ace it if you are to succeed! Ensure you have a unique value proposition craft personalized messages and have a consistent brand identity that your target audience can relate with always.