Digital branding is how you design and build your brand online through websites, apps, social media, video and more. Digital branding consists of a combination of digital marketing and internet branding to develop a brand online.
Branding is the creative, strategic process of telling potential customers what your company is all about: who you are, what you care about, why they should work with you and what they can expect from you. After you’ve started a business or created your first product, building a brand identity should be one of your top priorities.
Branding distills everything about what you do and how you do it into a singular, memorable essence that people will remember and continuously associate with your company.
- Your brand is the way the outside world perceives your company.
- Your branding is the process of designing and building a unique, memorable brand.
- Your brand identity is the set of creative elements that feed into the branding process—like your website, social media and logo—that broadcast your message, values and purpose.
All 3 essential elements have to work together. You don’t have a real brand without a brand identity, and you’ll never have a brand until you start branding.
Start defining your brand by asking yourself these questions:
- Who are you as a company?
- What makes you unique from other brands?
- What is your brand’s mission statement? What gives it purpose?
- What are your values?
- Who is your ideal customer?
Knowing and defining exactly who you are is the first step in creating a meaningful brand.
Digital Branding Matters
Why does a digital brand presence matter? Well, look up from that phone you’re probably on… We’re all using our devices constantly. Most of us engage with the larger world through the lens of the internet, which makes it essential for brands to reach target customers and convert one-time users into long-term loyalists.
Digital branding enables any company to make its presence known anywhere—even in the palm of your hand. After all, if my mom has an Instagram, why shouldn’t my favorite shoe brand?
Digital branding vs. digital marketing
What’s the difference between digital branding and digital marketing? While digital branding focuses on providing value and inspiring loyalty and brand recognition, digital marketing is all about finding new customers and generating sales.
Advertisements are lobbed at you constantly online, even if you don’t notice it. That’s digital marketing at its best. Ads might come in the form of an Instagram celeb touting their favorite makeup or a pop-up coupon on a website.
Unlike traditional ads, digital branding doesn’t talk at you; it seeks to engage with you. It’s more about establishing an online identity and positive feelings, rather than inspiring people to make a one-time purchase. Learn all about the different types of digital marketing here.
The benefits of digital branding
A robust digital presence makes customers feel personally involved with a company or product. Well-crafted branding fosters relationships with users and allows you to speak directly with consumers through day-to-day interactions on the platforms they’re already using.
Target your audience
Your company’s online presence is the premiere mode by which most potential customers will learn about and interact with your brand. Digital branding let’s you zero-in on your audience by targeting specific customer groups through the online platforms they use most frequently: Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and more.
Take a company like Outdoor Voices, a workout clothing brand. In a matter of years, it’s developed its own social media hashtag, #DoingThings, which customers tag when they’re wearing its clothing and embodying its lifestyle. Currently, more than 155,000 posts are tagged with #DoingThings on Instagram alone.
#DoingThings is the difference between blind consumption of a product and feeling like you’re a part of a group or lifestyle. When you buy leggings or a sports bra from them, you’re purchasing admission into a massive digital club. That’s much more compelling to customers than simply buying any ol’ exercise clothes.
Connect with customers
Successful digital branding makes customers feel like you’re speaking directly to them, especially because you’re engaging on the same platforms they use to interact with friends and family members. Be personal and meaningful: that’s how you convert one-time customers into lifelong brand followers.
At its core, digital branding facilitates communication between a company and its customers. This can be as simple as making it easy for customers to find information about your company on your website, or helping them quickly get great customer service. Ultimately, a brand that isn’t searchable online practically doesn’t exist in the contemporary consumer’s mind.
