Corporate Internet Branding
Your Branding
Strategy:
Web Marketing is a "Must" for
Small Business Promotion
Branding dredges up thoughts of the Wild West, Cowboys and cattle lined
up to be seared with a red hot poker with a distinctive symbol.
So what does that have to do with building a website?
Well. . .
The reason cattle are branded is so they can be clearly distinguished
from the other gazillion cattle that roam the ranges.
So what do cattle and a branding strategy have to do with your small
business development plan and web marketing?
Everything!
- What makes your website different from the
score of
other websites in
your topic area?
- What will help your visitors visually
differentiate
your site from your competitor's?
- What makes your site unique?
Branding
delivers that message!
Corporate internet branding is an essential
component of small business promotion.
Imagine if you will, your lonely website wandering aimlessly around
cyber space. Your visitors promptly forget about what you can do for
them the minute they leave your site because they have nothing to hang
onto.
They don't have an image seared into their brains to help them
remember to come back to follow-up on that precious advice your site
offered them.
Your visitors don't have any way to distinguish your site
from any of the others they have visited. You want all your visitors to
remember you.
You want your website to
stand out from the crowd. (The World-Wide-Web
is becoming more crowded everyday you know!)
- It clearly delivers your message
- Provides a
unique and immediate connection
- Inspires visitor loyalty
- Cements
credibility
- Motivates buying decisions
The American
Marketing Association (AMA) defines a brand as a
". .
.name, term, sign, symbol or design, or a combination of them intended
to identify the goods and services of one seller or group of sellers
and to differentiate them from those of other sellers."
Branding is rather like searing your message into their subconscious!
Branding accomplishes a memorable impression.
Think of the Nike Swoosh symbol, a simple check mark. (It doesn't get
much simpler that that does it?) Combined with their internationally
renown tag line of "Just Do It", Nike has created a very powerful and
instantaneous marketing strategy that inspires immediate consumer
recognition and trust world wide.
Well, chances are your branding strategy may not become a universally
recognized phenomenon like Nike's but it will certainly help your
visitors remember and connect to your website on an emotional level.
You want your visitors to have something that they immediately
associate with your site so they remember it and come back often!
"Connected"
visitors become loyal visitors.
Loyal visitors will reward you by returning to purchase the
services or products you recommend.
That means a good
corporate internet branding strategy will put money
in your pocket.
Even though you may not be a Cowboy (or Cowgirl) from the Wild West
herding cattle, you are creating a small online ebusiness that needs
(and should) be clearly distinguished.
Create your mark in the virtual world by creating a logo that is different from all others by establishing a
branding strategy that inspires instant recognition right from the
point of initial contact with your visitors.
Yee Haw!
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