Website Series – Post #3 (The Long One)

March 3rd, 2010 |

Author: NCP

There’s going to be a lot of hard information in this post, and it’s going to be a long read, but it’s worth your time, I promise. This is continuing from Part 1 and Part 2 of the Website Series.

Build A Brand, Build An Empire

Think of your brand as the leader that distinguishes your name from the majority of online marketers and developers in your niche.

Your product line must be of equal quality, but your brand is the driving force behind every campaign you create, and every product you launch.

Your website can’t be entirely focused on your character of course, however it helps introduce your products, lower the defenses of those that visit your website, and helps you develop a reputation and relationship with your target audience.

Think of the situations you’ve personally been involved in where story telling combined with a strong character or personality were responsible for motivating you to purchase their product or service.

Not only can a brand be the single component in your success, but also it can help you position yourself within your market faster and easier than anything else.

Branding also influences longevity.

A visitor to your site might purchase a single product, only to never return, but if you have developed a strong brand based around originality, trust and quality, that customer is likely to remember you and return to your website time and time again.

In many ways, building an online brand is the most control you will ever have in regards to your customer base. With a solid brand, you can cover more ground in less time than even the most widespread marketing campaign.

People need to trust you, and in order to set the wheels in motion; you need to develop a unique brand on a solid platform.

It’s likely that you already have a product or service in mind, and undoubtedly, you are excited about introducing it to the world.

By creating a brand of your own, you will be able to gain a greater level of exposure for your product line, by becoming memorable in the mind of your target customer base.

But it needs to go deeper than just an online personality. You need to combine your online brand with a cohesive business plan that includes prompt customer support, quality products, a solid sales system and a clear message.

You want people to associate your brand with positive influences, and if you do that, your brand will become one of your most valuable assets.

There are a number of ways to start building your online brand, including:

Domain Names

Your domain name will become your central point headquarters, and you want to choose one that truly reflects your overall business focus.

By incorporating keywords that describe your brand or company, you will be able to establish an online presence quickly, while protecting your brand in the process.

When registering your domain name that will directly tie into your online brand, consider the extended possibilities of other domains that could be perceived as associated to your own, and register those as well.

If you take a serious approach to building your online brand, you will want to do all that you can to protect it, such as registering similar domain names and those with alternative extensions (.org, .net, etc)

Many marketers who start to develop their online brand overlook this believing that as long as they have the top-level domain that focuses on their brand, they are protected. This is anything but true.

Think about companies like Apple or Amazon. They both started off focusing on branding as a way of entering into the market.

They both had existing competitors and had to wedge themselves into the market by taking a different approach. Branding was in all sense, the major focal point of their campaigns and the one thing that essentially helped them get their foot into the door.

You’re aware of cyber squatters, people who intentionally register domain names that could potentially infringe on someone’s brand.

Many times, these cyber squatters are actually able to win their day in court, and go on to retain the domain names despite that someone created a brand around it.

Throughout the years, cyber squatters with no real association or direct involvement with celebrities including TomCruise.com and BruceSpringsteen.com were able to retain the domain names that they registered despite the apparent association with brands belonging to public figures.

You want to do your part to protect a brand that you intend to spend the time and effort building. It doesn’t cost a lot of money to register multiple domain names that carry your brand’s keywords and it will give you far more control over your brand in the future.

Of course, it’s impossible to register all variations of your brand’s association (keywords, etc) but you should at the very least consider registering all popular extensions that people may assume you control.

Logo or Mascot

Depending on your overall focus, you should consider hiring out the creation of a unique logo or mascot to represent your brand and company. You want to choose one that is original and includes elements that will be both memorable and professional.

Outsource the design to an experienced graphic artist, and be a large part of the development process. Send over your own concepts and ideas, and work with them to create an original design that will symbolize your company and brand.

This is by far, one of the easiest ways to create an ever-lasting impression on your target audience.

Think of all the company mascots and logos that resonate with you personally.

You instantly identify a company by its logo and if they’ve done their job at incorporating quality within their brand, you’ll also associate every future product or service they release as being just as good as their flagship product.

Colors can also become a part of a brand awareness campaign. From Coca Cola’s red to Pepsi’s blue, colors are often a simple way of attaching an extremely memorable element to your brand.

Apple is yet again, another prime example of exceptional branding.

People will gladly plunk down money to reserve a future release of an Apple product even before it’s public release simply because they’ve done their job at associating quality with the Apple brand.

You want to do the same thing with your brand, even if on a smaller scale. You want people to consciously associate high quality, exceptional value and phenomenal customer service to your brand and therefore, every product or service you release in the future will be included under your brand’s umbrella.

Copy & Campaign Promotions

Your sales copy will directly represent your brand, and the tone, voice and overall direction you take should work towards further building brand recognition and awareness as well as brand recall.

With brand awareness, your target audience will simply recognize the brand as yours. It doesn’t mean that your market will prefer your brand, see your brand as positive or associate value to your brand, simply that they will recognize it.

With brand recall, your target audience will be able to associate your brand instantly, to specific components (industry, keywords, product or service type, etc).

You need to build both brand awareness and brand recall into every campaign you create, and your sales page copy and promotions will play a large part in developing this recognition.

This means that you want to be careful to introduce your brand in a positive way. You want to avoid hype filled sales pages, or not being able to fulfill your promises or offers to your customer base.

This should go without saying, but it’s one of the leading causes of a brand becoming associated with either positive or negative associations, and it’s often one of the most overlooked elements to brand building.

Think about how you want your message to be carried and how you want your overall brand to be perceived, then create your promotional campaigns so that they represent your brand in the best way possible.

Avoid competing with ridiculous offers, or feeling as though the only way to garner attention is by going over the top with your campaign messages and advertisements.

Instead, utilize story telling, build positive brand awareness, and back your product’s offer on a solid foundation so that your brand is consistently working to benefit you in the long run.

Remember, building a brand is all about longevity, and being able to tap into your target market so that you are able to consistently build your online empire simply with positive reinforcement and a reputation for quality and value.

Keywords

Keywords play a major part in building a unique brand. Think of the different keywords that provoke instant association to specific brands.

These could be invented words, coined phrases or simply memorable keywords. They could involve product titles, a product series or simply your company slogan.

In the online business world, this is exceptionally important. The product title you choose could ultimately be the primary factor as to whether it’s successful or not.

Consider using keywords and phrases that provoke curiosity, are rarely used and will give you the advantage of developing a brand around a phrase or keyword that could be repeatedly used in future products you release.

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