A brand that is not available on a digital platform is just like a bird without wings. In other words, we can say that without the digital presence any brand or business is incomplete and it reduces the chances of getting the attention that is required. You must have seen people talking about digital marketing and emphasizing on its effective implementation. If we are not wrong, then digital branding is often confused with digital marketing and most of us might not know the actual difference.
Before we move further, let us clear the core difference between digital marketing and digital branding.
What is digital marketing?
Digital marketing focuses on promoting a particular product or service that you provide. It aims at targeting potential customers who can buy your product or service and ensuring your presence on digital platforms like social media.
What is digital branding?
As opposed to digital marketing, digital branding is a process of improving your company’s image globally or locally. It does not focus on one product or service that you offer to your customers, rather it brings values and beliefs of your company forward in front of your audience. Digital marketing might be a temporary strategy but digital branding is for long-term results. But it won’t be wrong to say that both the strategies have their own importance and running both campaigns are necessary.
Digital branding is becoming popular among businesses and it is regarded as one of their essential parts. With changing time, digital branding trends are also changing and it is important to stay updated about the latest trends to get success.
Current trends of digital branding
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Make sure your mobile presence
Mobile is a part of everyone’s lives and a large percentage of smartphone users access websites on their phones only as it is convenient and quick. Thus, to create a good reputation for your brand it is necessary to have a presence not only online but also on mobile platforms. If a user finds it difficult to open your website on his/her phone, he/she will quickly move to your competitor’s website.
We recommend you to optimize your website according to the mobile interface so that mobile users can easily access it and get the information they are looking for.
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Genuineness
As the times have changed so does people and just like technology, they have also become much smarter. People nowadays know with whom they are dealing what they should do if not satisfied. Even one unhappy customer can cause serious harm to your reputation. Thus, it is important for you to be authentic and deliver what you promise. It is strongly recommended to avoid any fake or out of the box commitments that you cannot fulfill. During the digital branding campaign, you are not talking about the product or service you provide, rather your whole company’s reputation is on stake. So, consider twice what you want to say and commit.
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Easy brick and mortar presence
People want to find you easily, especially the local customers and for that, you need to have a permanent physical presence. Many start-ups and even established businesses have rented land thus when you change the address your existing customers will have difficulty in finding you, even some of them might choose your competitor.
Having a permanent location especially for businesses that only rely on customer visits for generating sales is necessary. This will create a trust for your brand and ensure people that you are an established business.
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Social media presence
Social media is a must when it comes to digital branding and even digital marketing. The social media platform is huge which makes it most important. Millions of users are there on social media and having an account here means huge exposure to your brand. Thus, showing what you can do and how you can do effectively on social media will not only make your brand trustworthy but also fetch new customers. It is advised to choose a social media platform according to your business’s niche to get the attention of targeted customers.
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Communication is the key
People want engagement, they want replies, or we can say that they want to get heard. There is no doubt that we are living in the digital era but still, one to one communication holds the key. To make your brand a trustworthy and reputable one, it is important for you to listen to what your customers are saying and answer their queries as quickly as possible. Communicating in person is not only about dealing with queries but it is also a way of promoting your brand indirectly.
Communication also includes staying in touch with your existing customers even when they don’t have any queries. This is a strategy of retaining customers and maintaining good relationships with them.
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Graphical content
Reading long paragraphs is boring for people and not many want to read the whole of what you want to say. To curb that situation, graphical content like images and videos in between your written matter is highly important. Creating images and videos that deliver a strong and useful message to your audience along with your brand’s promotion. Posting a relevant video will make visitors spend more time on your site and that will create a good image of your website for search engine bots.
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24/7 presence
Having customers from all around the globe makes it necessary for you to be available round the clock for your clients. Now, you must be thinking that for this, you have to hire a whole new team. But this is not always the case as we are living in a technologically advanced world and this has given us the power of chatbots. Yes, you can employ chatbots on your website that will ensure your presence 24/7 for your customers. Chatbots will give automated answers to the common queries raised by your clients any time and for complicated ones, they’ll seek your help.
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Rankings
Another important digital branding trend is high SERP ranking and it is a must to build trust. Where your website is positioned on the search engine results page when someone makes a relevant query says a lot about your brand. High your position, higher will be the trust of visitors. This is because Google only gives higher ranking to a website when it is trustworthy and has relevant content, thus it automatically grabs the attention & trust of the audience. To get a high position, effective SEO of your website is a must.
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User-interface
When a brand becomes popular people start to directly visit the website for any service or product they want. Thus, it is important to have a simple yet interactive website design so that anyone can use it easily. A user-friendly website is also a sign of a good brand and you must take this seriously. If visitors of your website whether they are customers or not, find it difficult to navigate then they will waste no time in selecting one of your competitors.
The bottom line
Just like we follow fashion trends, it is also necessary to follow the latest trends of digital branding because only staying up to date will give you success. These above-mentioned are current trends that can help your website rank high on search engine result pages and improve the brand’s reputation. Using these practices to show genuine values and beliefs of your brand to target customers will improve your brand’s image and enhance the reputation.
A brand means the company’s reputation and it covers all the products or services it provides. Thus, it becomes essential to take it seriously and create an image with no ifs and buts. Doing this will surely have a positive impact on other brand-building strategies of your business.