7 Steps to start Building Your Online Brand from Scratch
Introduction
Firstly, what is your brand? Well, for me, your brand is how people identify your business, whether you are a company or have a personal brand. It could be your logo, it could be the smell of your fragrance, perhaps the quality of how you install vibracrete or even how your service is superior to your competitors and so much more.
All these things individually and collectively make up your brand. Some people will know one part others will know more parts of your business. The more parts your customers know, the easier it is for them to do business with you. Your brand makes you stand out, it makes you different. For these reasons it would be a wise decision to start building your brand.
Step 1 : Create a logo
Create a simple yet memorable logo. Your logo allows you to put your mark on your products, invoices, letterheads, website, business cards, vehicles, building and just about anything that relates to your business.
Find a good logo designer to create your logo and make sure you have it in at least 4 formats :
PDF – This is good for printing applications
SVG – This is to extend your logo, like changing the colour to match an application where your original colour does not work well.
JPG – This is good for digital applications like posting on Facebook, Instagram, etc…
PNG – Also good for digital applications, but allows you to also have a transparent background so you are able to integrate it on other documents.
Step 2 : Build a website, create social media accounts and list on directories
Next you should start building your website. A good website design goes a long way to promoting and building your brand. You can do it yourself or get a freelance web designer or web design company to create it for you. In most cases a web designer will assist you to best put your vision and yourself in the website. Your logo will be an excellent guide to them in terms of colour, style, etc…
Now you will want to setup your social media accounts. Start with Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and Tik Tok. Let me pause here for a second to talk about Tik Tok. Tik Tok gives you the most organic (unpaid) reach amongst these platforms, so look past the dancing and other things that may be of no interest to you. It can be a huge driver of traffic to your website and an excellent brand builder. These 4 platforms are a great start.
Next search for business directories in your industry and list yourself, make sure they allow you to load your website link so if a customer comes across your business in a directory there is a quick way to come back to your website. This is where you want your customers to be, as everything about your business will be there. One note on directories, if you feel they are weird or just don’t feel comfortable listing yourself, then don’t do it. This is another great step in taking your brand building forward.
Tips:
It is a good idea to create or have your website created using WordPress as this will allow you to not only update your website, but also write blogs, which is a great free, yet powerful source to build your brand.
When posting on social media be sure to include your website link in some of the posts as Google loves this and it promotes your website, which in terms promotes your brand.
With directories the same applies and this will start influencing your website’s ranking on Google.
Create a Google Business Page as this will further promote your brand and give you a change to feature in the Google address listings in search.
Step 3 : Quality Product
Let me backtrack a little, you have to make sure you have a quality product or that your service offering solves the customers problem. This should technically be Step 1 on this list, nonetheless, it goes without saying that there must be a need for your service. Always try to be a little better than your competitors. Quality and good customer service can often be the difference between a deal or no deal.
Step 4: Produce Good Content
Up to this point you have a great product or service. You have a logo, a website, social media platforms and directory listings. Now you can use them to not only promote your business but also to give value to your audience, customers and potential customers.
Post about tips perhaps on product maintenance or how to get the best out of a product. What is equally important is to have a consistent schedule of uploading to all your social media channels and your blog. Facebook allows you to post to both Facebook and Instagram with one post using the Meta Business Suite. You can also schedule these posts in advance to be more efficient.
For Tik Tok, short little videos are perfect. You could show an installation, product unboxing, just using the product, tips are always a good idea, etc…
With LinkedIn being a more professional business centric platform, you can post company achievements, staff achievements and other big milestones for the business, even things like charity drives.
Don’t forget about your blog on your website and also share you blog on your social media platforms to drive more traffic to it.
Step 5 : Consistently put out content
We alluded to it earlier but consistency is the key to building your brand online. It is all good and well to have all these social media channels and blogs, but it is pointless if you don’t post anything. So only create the channels that you will be committed to post to, otherwise it’s better to rather leave it. Not having a Tik Tok account is better than having a 1 year old account with no posts. Create a posting calendar (more time, I know) and come up with ideas for 1 week, then bump it up to 2 weeks, 3 weeks and eventually a month. Make content that can be shared across multiple channels to be more efficient. Here is my recommended posting pattern :
Blogging – 2 times a month
Social media – 3 times a week – ideally daily
When using hashtags here is a pattern #businessname #industry # service #specificservice
Tips :
Make targeted LinkedIn connections, by using the platforms powerful search capabilities.
Don’t overthink what to post, share what you do, how you do it, how it helps the customer and how the customer can best use your product.
Step 6 : Give away free valuable stuff
Yes, I said it, give away valuable information. Who doesn’t love free things? If you are a plumber, give tips on basic plumbing issues that can be solved at home. If you install vibracrete, maybe have an infographic on the different types and let people download the info for free from your website in exchange for their email address.
Give away free templates that can be used eg. a Content Calendar or things useful to customers that will add value to them. This will set you well on your way to continue to building your brand.
Step 7 : Advertise your offering, but not exclusively
You should of course promote your offering and specials, but mix it up with customer value like in steps 4 & 6 above. This will make your posting complete and give a holistic picture of your brand. People will not only know who you are, but what you offer both paid and free. Ideally you want 3 types of posts :
- Promotion of products and services
- Value posts : Tips, Did you know? FAQs
- Entertainment or Inspiration posts : Unusual stories, Funny stories
I hope these 7 steps will add value to you and your business and hopefully make your branding journey a little smoother.
Please feel free to post any thoughts and comments.
Thank you for reading,
Graham Gilbert
G Web Design