Advice From Entrepreneurs on How to Brand Your Business Online ...

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The internet seems endless. Each day there are sites popping up, reviews being given, items sold, things designed and the list goes on. Making a footprint on the internet can be an overwhelming task to a new business owner. For this reason, branding your business online can be a tough thing to manage. What sites should you promote on and how should your website look? The questions for how you should brand online are as varied as branding your business in the first place. Entrepreneurs and business owners were asked for their advice on the best way to brand your business online.

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Photo Credit: Tomasz Smykowski

Using a unique website header and footer

We at Websoul use a vivid logo that we use on our website header and in the footer. It is also visible in e-mails we send and in newsletters. Our presentations and papers published online also have this logo. Moreover in situations when the logo is not required we use characteristic background that is also visible on our website. It has colors like the logo and is very unique, so everyone knowing our company can easily see something is prepared by us. We use this for infographics and, for example, video-tutorials we publish on YouTube. In social media we use our logo and background, for example, on Facebook. When I comment something online i use my personal brand Tomasz Smykowski, and write also the name of the company. I run also my personal account on Twitter and other social media, there I use also my personal brand that is connected to the company brand.

Thanks to Tomasz Smykowski, Websoul

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Photo Credit: Ed Roach

Blogging to brand

The number one strategy for branding myself online has been blogging. It absolutely establishes my expert profile. Blogging gives me a chance to express my views within my category. To support my articles I market them to my audience in Twitter, Facebook and Linkedin. I also use Linkedin to give my opinion in groups, which is much like blogging. Another strategy I use is email marketing with an opt-in list. Every Wednesday morning I send out my ?Ed Roach?s Two Cents Worth ? weekly branding tips.? This keeps my name in front of a few thousand businesses across North America. My website contains lots of free resources for readers to take advantage of. Everything is geared to providing value to prospects. It?s all configured in establishing ?Ed Roach ? The Branding Experts? as a leadership brand.

Thanks to Ed Roach, The Branding Experts

Related Post: Why Blogging for Your Business is Important

Photo Credit: Adam Grunwerg

Using every marketing vehicle

We?ve used every marketing vertical to help brand our site online. This includes a unique logo and header on our website and co-branded Twitter, Facebook and G+ pages. We also use our staff and resources effectively, for example when we produce content or videos we make sure it gets syndicated in the right places for maximum exposure and we personally email journalists, reporters and bloggers in the same industry to help it get viewed. If we produce videos, we add a watermark; if we write content, we add an author byline; if we produce a Press Release, we always link back to our main datasource. When we launched an eBook for our users, we also made sure it had the appropriate co-branding in both the header and footer of the pages along with our Twitter hashtag and a custom designed frontcover.. In order to keep users coming back to our site, we?ve hired a social community manager to engage with our client base on Twitter and answer questions left on our Facebook Page ? this has been really successful for us so far. Finally, we?ve ran cross-promotions with some of our partners which brought a huge amount of traffic and conversions. I think people really underestimate the value of cross-promotions with competitors or partners.

Thanks to Adam Grunwerg, BinaryOptions

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Photo Credit: Elle Kaplan

Building an online tribe

At Lexion Capital, we have built an online ?tribe? with our social media presence including Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook and Google+ as well as our websites and blogs. A key part of our mission to empower all individuals to take control of their financial lives, so we focus on providing educational and inspirational content that breaks down business and finance concepts in relatable terms. We have found that our positive approach resonates strongly with people, making a strong connection with a wide audience. To brand your business online, head to social media, create a unique video, or start blogging ? all free or low-cost options that can be priceless in terms of marketing impact.

Thanks to Elle Kaplan, Lexion Capital Management LLC

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Photo Credit: Jayme Pretzloff

Consistency is important

Branding your business is extremely important for consistency for your consumer and it doesn?t stop with traditional offline media, but rather must be extended to your online presence. By having a consistent brand you are able to leverage your marketing within your market. It is crucial to have consistent branding elements? logo, colors, font, imagery style and tagline?because it lifts your brand awareness and if you change your branding, you would lose a great asset to the organization.

Thanks to Jayme Pretzloff, Wixon Jewelers

Related Post: 6 Different Ways to Promote Your Business

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Photo Credit: Colin Grussing

Each product should have a logo printed on it

With my first business, RootSuit.com, I made a terrible mistake of not focusing on branding. We were the first business in this hemisphere to sell these costumes that became wildly popular. At first, business was great. We have sold nearly 50,000 of these costumes. However, not having strong brand recognition has really hurt us as countless competitors have entered the market. There were several very easy things we could have done to help brand ourselves. First, each product needs to have a logo printed on it. If you can?t put a logo, at least put a hanging tag that can be removed or include a few branded gifts like kazoos or keychains. Next, be active on Facebook etc. Make sure that you ask each customer to follow you and post often. I find that its easiest to sit down once a month and find / create plenty of content so that posting several times a week is easy. With my new businesses, I will not be making the same mistake. Take NOLAsidecars.com for example. We sell sidecars for motorcycles and scooters. We are going to invest in a nice logo from the beginning and make emblems to go on each sidecar. We?ll also include a free (surprise) gift bag with lots of cool branded stuff. When someone asks one of our customers where they got their sidecar, we want them to say NOLA sidecars with pride. We will also be giving away a free motorcycle and sidecar rig valued over $5k through a facebook giveaway. Also, keep your eye out for our YouTube videos we will be posting atleast once a month that will show some INSANE and novel uses for sidecars.

Thanks to Colin Grussing, NolaSidecars

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Photo Credit: Aprille Franks-Hunt

Starting a fan page on Facebook

When I started my business, I had limited funds or knowledge of how I would build an audience. What I did know was that Facebook had millions of people on it all over the world ? so I started a fan page and that was the hub for my business communications. I have leverage social media as a whole to build relationships with clients and potential j/v partnerships. My consistent, non-salesy approach has enabled my company, Women Recharged, LLC to launch programs, speak to thousands of people, promote/sell my products and even get celebrity interviews. Since I?ve started I now incorporate YouTube and Linkedin into my social media marketing wheel. It?s works, when you have a strategy in place.

Thanks to Aprille Franks-Hunt, Women Recharged, LLC

Related Post: How to Create a Facebook Fan Page for Your Business

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Photo Credit: Lars Helgeson

Consistent messages across many outlets

Branding your business in a virtual world is can be challenging with all the competition out there. However, that being said, it is one the most cost-effective and efficient way of branding your small business. The key to branding online is consistent messaging across as many different outlets that are appropriate for your business. This refers both to design, content, keywords, etc. For example, we make sure that all of our social networks look the same and link back to one another. Some may be on Facebook, others on Google+, and we want to make sure that whatever your social preference, our audience is receiving the same message throughout. That way, when they come across our website, newsletter, etc they automatically recognize the logo, colors, tagline, etc. We also make sure that all of our ?About? section, Products offered, etc are consistent for the same reason.

Thanks to Lars Helgeson, GreenRope

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Photo Credit: Kalianna Dean

Getting someone with followers to endorse you in their own words

Managing our brand online consists of the usual social media activity, visitor engagement, responding to comments and queries with timely, accurate and helpful responses and building guest blogger relationships with other like-minded websites and the media. Getting someone with a following to endorse your website in their own words, though relating it to their own story has been a powerful and effective branding tool for our website. We also look for forums where we can be perceived as a resource for helping solve a common problem people face (credit card debt) which is what we in fact are.Often it?s a matter of getting your site in front o f the right audience and people start to engage. Given that we?re in the personal finance space we?ve found that facebook and twitter users aren?t really on there to engage with that sort of material (though competitions can work there). We also have more plans to change this, and are developing a series of Gnome characters to give people something to relate to their own lives and their own experience. In terms of reaching a wider audience we also rely on the Google Display Network (GDN) with banner and text ads to convey key messages around our brand and products. Other than that, the most effective branding tool we?ve been using is adding our site name to the end of article titles, so that it appears in the URL in Google search results and people know where they?re getting their information from. This is a simple, effective tool which even a lot of online businesses don?t use enough.

Thanks to Kalianna Dean, Credit World Pty Ltd

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Reaching a mature demographic

I choose to brand my business online through many different outlets such as joining websites like Angie?s List to reach a mature demographic within the suburban communities of New York City and New Jersey as well. I post special packages I know are very much relaxing and soothing to the mind, body, and spirit of the mature crowd but also give the the opportunity to try out my services to get a feel as to who I am spiritually as well as a comfort. I blog a lot so if I have a following or two I am confident that many more will read and follow my articles through the ups and downs of what I am going through which will hopefully intrigue and inspire a journey of their own to jump into the pool of passion for sustainability in their own lives. Maybe they?ll find a balance of some sort as I am.

Thanks to Bakka Karriem, Cloud 9 Therapy Spa

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Source: http://hear.ceoblognation.com/2013/06/04/advice-from-entrepreneurs-on-how-to-brand-your-business-online/

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