One of the most effective things you can do to your ecommerce store right now is create a cohesive, recognizable brand. Think about the staggering amounts of huge companies that work their way into your life every day simply because their branding is so powerful.
You could be out about your day and catch a logo out of the corner of your eye and then, without you even noticing, that company and their products are in your head.
You can do this same exact thing to your customers with your smaller ecommerce store, and if you haven’t created a brand for yourself, eCommerce store branding should be high on your priority list.
So, what exactly are the benefits of creating a brand for your store and products? There’s quite a few benefits, actually.
Enhancing Your Brand Recognition
First of all, recognition. This means that over time, more and more people will begin to recognize your brand, and you'll establish a solid place in their brain.
As an example, if you have solid branding across your advertisements and your social media pages, customers will eventually start to recognize your brand.
In most cases, it can only help to be more present in people's lives as a brand. Really break away from the thousands of forgettable brands out there.
Eventually, after seeing and remembering your brand for a while, there’s a very good chance they’ll purchase from you simply because they’ve been made aware of your brand many times over.
Good Branding Is Marketing Made Easier
Secondly, the marketing process is a lot easier once you’ve established a good brand, because your brand speaks for itself after a while.
Once people start to know what your brand is, they’ll be a lot more receptive to any new items or promotions that you release, because they’ll have the mindset of “Oh! I’ve seen this company. They’re doing something new and interesting now, let me look at what they’ve been up to.”
You see this with Coke releasing a new flavor or Ford releasing a new car - it happens all the time and is marketing on easy mode.
It isn't easy to get to this point, though. An unknown company can't come in and immediately demolish the competition through these means.
This is more of a long-term strategy. However, once such a level of recognition is achieved, you're rewarded for your efforts 100 times over.
Customer Loyalty Through Branding
Customer loyalty is a big one as well. If someone buys an item from a general store with no branding, they may enjoy the item, but there’s no real gain for you there other than short-term monetary gain.
However, if you brand your website and products well and the customer enjoys the product they just bought, they’re a lot more likely to purchase from you again because they now affiliate your brand with said product.
Customer loyalty is something that every single business should strive to have, and this is because of the fact that it is very expensive to acquire new customers.
Once you have a customer, you want them to stick around. Offer amazing service with equally amazing branding, and your company will stick in their heads as the main representative for your niche.
This will eliminate unnecessary spending to acquire new customers because of the fact that you're just keeping the same ones around!
Successfully Branding Your Own Ecommerce Store
First of all, make sure you have a very clean, easily recognizable logo. This is crucial as you’ll be plastering this logo all over social media, your advertisements, your emails, and if you’re very involved, your products as well.
Definitely look up some videos on logo design, as there’s quite a science behind it.
Next, you’re going to want your website, emails, and social media to all be cohesive. If all of these different media outlets don’t have a cohesiveness to them, your brand as a whole will feel very convoluted and people will not recognize it as easily.
Keep themes, colors, and the way that your content is presented consistent.
You will also want a general niche that your store follows with all items presented in a similar way.
If you’re selling a lot of fishing gear, don’t throw dresses in your store. Sell fish hooks, lures, fishing poles, and then present every product in a similar fashion so they all look like they fit under one singular brand.
Finally, make sure people know where they’re getting their products from. On your order confirmation emails, make sure your brand name and logo are loudly presented.
Additionally, and I do this myself, ship some items from your own home and make the packaging very branded. I am sure to customize my product packaging and provide a “Thank you for ordering” card inside every order along with a discount code.
This has produced a lot of brand trust and returning customers.
Companies With Successful Branding
Like I said, there are a plethora of brands that are extremely successfully at creating a cohesive brand.
Take McDonalds for example. You see their logo, the golden arches, and instantly think of their food. Maybe it’s not your style, but I love cheap food, especially their McChickens. Makes me a bit hungry just seeing it.
Nike is phenomenal at this as well.
They've done such a great job at defining themselves as the performance clothing brand that when I see their simple logo, I immediately think about which shoes of theirs I want to buy next.
Their website also gives off the feel of performance, and I can easily find myself browsing their website looking for new gym clothes for a long period of time.
Finally, the Target logo gets me thinking about going there to pick up my weekly supplies of groceries and maybe some odds and ends along the way.
Their shopping experience is extremely unique, despite them not doing many things differently from their competition. It's all in the way they present themselves.
All of these thoughts are unconscious and simply occur because of the strong branding that I’ve been accustomed to.
Creating a strong brand won't solve all of your problems, but it'll give you a much much much (did I say much?) more credible looking website which will in turn lead to more conversions.
