Nov 22, 2021

Learn the fundamentals for building and establishing your brand in the e-commerce market space.

One of the most important aspects of any successful business is the strength of its branding. When people know your story and what makes you unique within your market, they’re able to form a stronger connection with your business and partake in a more engaging customer experience while shopping with you.

Of course, this isn’t something that happens overnight. Brands, like products, need to be built and sold to consumers.

This is more important than ever in the e-commerce space. Dozens, hundreds, maybe even thousands, of businesses that offer products and services much like yours are available to the discerning shopper with a Google search and a few clicks. Selling your company’s brand is what will ensure that those shoppers are chosing your storefront over your competitors.

At Avensia, our e-commerce consulting services are a full-spectrum support for success in the digital market space. While helping people create and manage online storefronts is an aspect of what we do, we also utilize our expertise to help shape those storefronts to better sell their brands and enhance the customer journey while maximizing retention.

Below, we’ll lay out some of the key concepts of how to sell your brand online and create a connection with current and future customers that works across all channels.

Understand Your Brand Identity

This may seem very obvious, but it’s surprising how many businesses fail to truly understand their own identity.

Ask yourself the basic questions. Who are you and what do you stand for? What is your company’s mission and purpose? What do you offer?

A deep understanding of those things is what helps to craft a lasting brand. Knowing what it is you’re offering the customer, for example, will help you understand why what you offer is desirable over your competitors, and from there you can craft a brand message that emphasizes that.

As an example, Geico’s car insurance branding is built around a thorough understanding of the company’s identity. Because they’ve put thorough research and time into knowing exactly what they offer and how their company brings value, they were able to pull a key message out of that understanding.

While Geico offers car insurance that is largely comparable to many of the other car insurance companies out there, they understood that there is a lot of value in how easy it is to apply for their policies and the savings those policies generally bring. The process takes less than 15 minutes, and their research has found that they are often cheaper than the competition.

From that, we get the line “15 minutes could save you 15% or more on car insurance.”

First, become familiar with your business’s identity, and then you can understand what it is you’re bringing to the table for customers.

First, become familiar with your business’s identity, and then you can understand what it is you’re bringing to the table for customers.

Understand Who Your Customers Are

Before you can craft a brand image and deliver it successfully, you have to understand who the audience will be.

For instance, if you’re selling nutritional supplements that aid with daily health and boost the results of exercise, you’re probably talking to health conscious adults. Understanding that allows you to craft a branding message that speaks directly to people who spend a lot of time considering their health and fitness. That means the things you highlight about what makes your store unique will be directly related to those interests.

On the flip side, if you’re selling baking goods like cookie cutters, cupcake trays, etc., your audience will be a mix when it comes to health consciousness. So making health enhancements a part of your branding wouldn’t do you any favors.

Understanding your customers is how you craft a brand that will resonate with them.

Use Consistent Omnichannel Marketing

If your branding isn’t consistent, it’s not going to be successful. In the case of online branding, consistency means your brand identity spans across every channel that your customers use to interact with your business. Or, in other words, it uses an omnichannel approach.

Think of a brand like Apple. Their entire identity is present in everything they do and in every space they operate in. Not just their marketing messaging, but the aesthetic and the identity that they’re selling is present across all channels. If you walk into a physical Apple retail location, everything inside is completely and 100% unmistakably Apple. The same brand recognition is found in their marketing emails, their video content on other platforms like YouTube, their social media, and, of course, their website.

Many companies ignore this. They think that, because different subsections of their customer base are more prone to interacting via different media, that different branding should be applied to different channels. That’s a huge mistake.

Show your mobile app customers the same brand that they see on your website. Use your brand’s message both in social media and in Google Ads. Wherever the customer goes where there is an opportunity to interact with your business’s brand, it should be the same brand.

Brands are things that exist in the minds of the customers, and the more customers are exposed to and sold on a singular consistent brand idea, the more powerful it will become.

It Starts With Your Website

Of course, since this is e-commerce we’re talking about, your website is perhaps the most important part of the omnichannel branding effort.

That means your site needs to be designed in a way that reflects your brand in every possible way. The aesthetic, the color scheme, the messaging, everything needs to be presented in a way that communicates the core of your company’s store and message while guiding the customer journey.

Your website is perhaps the most important part of the omnichannel branding effort.

Tying back to the concept of omnichannel branding, it also means that any changes to the branding on your site needs to be reflected across all channels utilized by your business. Customers should find a familiarity when coming to your website from other mediums like social media or even physical advertising.

Avensia Knows Omnichannel Branding for E-Commerce

At Avensia, we’re experts in all things e-commerce. Whether you’re looking to convert your brand into an omnichannel effort, or you’re just looking to redesign your site to better communicate your story and engage the customer, we know just how to help.

We use real data to back up our solutions so that we know our consulting will lead to a higher level of success. In fact, a lot of the time the data is already there within your own analytics. We might just have to locate and extract it to expose the wonderland of user intentions and behaviors that will guide you to better engagement.

We’ve helped big names achieve international success in the digital space, and we’re certain that we can help you, too.

If you’re ready to take your online brand to the next level, contact us today and let’s find out how to turn you into the online powerhouse you were meant to be.