The point of view of customers towards us is more important than what we are saying about ourselves. Since our digital branding efforts say a great deal about who we are and what value we provide to our prospective customers, clients, partners, members, or consumers.
A regular individual may believe that digital branding is focused on our logo or website design and how it may impact a consumer’s perception of our brand.
But, it’s much more complicated.
There is a need to understand how your digital brand is impacting the likelihood of your audience purchasing your products or services, joining your organization, or becoming a partner or sponsor.
What is Digital Branding?
Your audience is being bombarded with advertising and marketing messages that inhibit your ability to foster a special connection. The same talent or expertise is offered all over the Internet but what separates you from the competition is your story and how it’s presented in the digital space.
It’s time to break each component down to familiar marketing terms.
Your Digital Identity
Generally there is a huge difference between digital branding and our traditional ideas of branding. A brand can’t just tell us what it represents and then expect us to believe it. A responsible and genuine brand needs to live its values and then communicate them via digital branding.
The very Two most powerful mediums used to build your digital identity are content marketing and social media.
Content Marketing
- When you are asked about your upbringing, what motivates you, or how you’ve achieved certain goals, you may find yourself telling a story. A story about the challenges faced and obstacles you’ve overcome. More importantly, how those challenges impact the offerings you provide, or product or services you’ve developed.
In essence, this is your identity.
- Understanding how the challenges you’ve faced relate to the wants and needs of your target audience is important. Content Marketing is best used for providing relevant content suited for the various stages of a user’s journey that convey how, through a strategic series of content, your product or service is a solution.
Social Media
- The regular activities performed in social media act as voice of your brand. From your status updates to the way in which you respond to comments convey your brand’s voice. The greatest awareness builder which can be used to shape your identity are your social media activities.
Digital Branding Benefits for Professionals
Being a skilled/ professional, understanding the difference between digital branding and personal branding is critical to your digital branding efforts.Digital branding is not personal branding. Progress/force of personal branding is being known while for digital branding, it is conversions.
In the following you will find a list of how digital branding affects various industries and occupations.
- Authors – A digital brand will help you find a literary agent that’s looking for new talent. That agent is going to look at your digital brand to see how many books you may sell.
- Real Estate Agents – If you’re a real estate agent, you’re going to get more leads, have more reviews, work with new homeowners or people who are trying to buy investment properties and so on and so forth.
- Consultants – If you are an expert in your field and you do not have a digital brand, you are not an expert (at least in the eyes of most consumers). Take control of your digital brand and make it easy for people to interact with you and to build more credibility.
- Pastors & Spiritual Leaders – If you’re a pastor and you want to build a congregation or more followers, your Digital Brand is going to help grow that congregation.
- Public Officials – We all know the importance of the digital platform and the role it played in the recent elections. So if you have this lackluster Digital Brand it will be more difficult to garner donations or galvanized this base that you’re trying to develop.
- Business Executives – As a business executive, it’s best to separate yourself from other executives. With use of your digital brand to display the value that you are going to bring to an organization.
Digital Branding Benefits for Organizations
As an organization, digital branding puts you ahead of the curve.
Understanding how today’s technology comes together to develop remarkable experiences for your customers, clients, leads, patients, and consumers is the first step to building a robust digital brand. Pulling these technologies together to build relationships with your target audience is critical to your digital branding execution.
Establishing a robust digital brand will increase your customer acquisition, lead generation, content consumption, and brand awareness. This is the reason why digital branding is so important for your business.
Corporations
- For Corporations – Today’s consumers expect for corporations to be more transparent—actually, they demand it. When corporations focus on building a robust digital brand, they will have a deeper understanding of how consumers interact with their brand in the digital space. This understanding will not only affect its marketing but its business operations as well.
- For Non-Profits – As a non-profit organization, your digital brand is critical to your funding, donations, and increased awareness of your cause. One way donors validate your efforts is reviewing your digital efforts. Conveying the innovation, competency, and business acumen of the organization is also a important thing to consider.
- Small Scale Businesses – Being a small business, much of your digital brand will be based on the efforts of your owner or CEO. To differentiate your business and convey why you are unique. In a crowded marketplace a strong digital brand is needed, you must do everything you can to put your businesses in the best position to win.
- Most small businesses do not have the marketing budgets to compete with Fortune 100 companies. Focusing on digital channels is significantly cheaper than traditional marketing channels. As a result, there is a greater need for small businesses to establish a stronger digital brand so they can effectively reach more customers.
