The Covid-19 pandemic changed many aspects of our lives. One of the most significant is how we live and work online. For many businesses, the transition to online marketing was just a matter of course. They already had websites and social media accounts created before the pandemic.

Now, as we look to the future, many of these businesses are realizing the significance of having a strong online brand. After all, without customers reaching out to them via the Internet, these businesses would be struggling to keep their doors open. In fact, according to HubSpot Blogs research, 73% of businesses consider customer experience their top priority, while 65% say brand loyalty is most important.

The importance of brands in today’s digital world was a significant topic of conversation at the recently concluded CMI Summit in Chicago. The conversations focused on how to strengthen brands and increase their profile online, and how to make customers aware of our products and services via online channels like websites and social media.

Considering the significant role that brands play in today’s digital world, it’s important for business leaders to know what makes successful brands and what can be done to emulate them.

Here, we’ll explore the essential steps to establishing and growing a successful brand on the Internet.

Step 1: Create the desired impression

The first step in building a successful brand is to create the desired impression. You want to make sure that when a customer reaches out to your brand, they have the best impression of your company, regardless of what it is that they learn about you. This is why branding and marketing mix strategy is so essential.

The good news is that given the right strategy, with the right approach, you can ensure that every touchpoint, from the products you offer, to the way you present yourself, to the way your customers experience your company, is consistent with the message you wish to portray.

According to the HubSpot Blogs research, 76% of businesses say that the customer experience is most important to them, followed by 73% who prioritized customer loyalty and 65% who said brand reputation is most important.

Consider this: when someone from GE Healthcare contacted me to ask about creating a blog for their brand, I’d never even heard of them. But after learning more about their company, I found out that they make diagnostic equipment used in hospitals. So, when a patient sees that a doctor is available via the Internet and can answer their questions, they might be more likely to choose that hospital.

Even more impressively, HubSpot Blogs found that 89% of customers think that a brand’s online persona speaks to their own, and 73% believe that a brand’s online persona influences their decisions about purchasing a product or service. This is why it’s so important to have a consistent digital presence for your brand. From a brand’s logo and typeface to the tone of their copy, everything should be designed to create the same positive impression.

Step 2: Distribute your identity online

Now that you have the desired impression, you can begin distributing your identity online. When a customer encounters your brand for the first time, whether it’s through a Google search, a social media post, or an email newsletter, they’ll want to know more about you. This is why building a brand identity across various networks is so important.

This step involves getting your name out there, becoming familiar to potential customers, and establishing yourself as a go-to source for information, products, or services that you offer. Your online identity should represent your brand and what you stand for, and it should be easy for customers to learn about your company and know what to expect when they contact you.

Step 3: Measure the success of your efforts

Finally, you’ll want to measure the success of your efforts to grow a successful brand. Just because you spent a lot of time and effort building a brand identity and distributing it online, that doesn’t mean that you can just sit back and expect customers to come pouring in. This would be akin to asking your customers to suddenly decide that they like your product or service just because they saw your company’s name in a headline or on Twitter.

You need to be persistent in your efforts to grow a successful brand. Once you’ve established yourself as a reliable source of information or a go-to contact for a product or service, you can begin to see the results of your efforts.

To be clear, this doesn’t mean that you need to advertise to achieve this. Instead, once you have a reliable audience, you can begin to grow your advertising efforts.

Why are brands important?

Whether you’re a CEO, a CMO, an EECE, or just an everyday employee, you likely have a strong opinion on the role of brands in business. But how strong is that opinion?

The truth is that in today’s digital world, brands have become significantly more important. But this doesn’t mean that they’re all that’s important. Customers and marketing mix strategy still matter, too. Just consider this fact: 89% of businesses agree that having a strong brand can attract and retain customers. This indicates that while brands play an important role in today’s digital world, it’s not the be-all-end-all.

The Importance of SEO

One significant factor influencing customers’ decisions about a product or service is online search engine optimization (SEO). In other words, given the right approach, SEO can help customers find your company, whether they’re searching for your product category or brand name. SEO can also help potential customers learn more about your company, what you offer, and whether or not it’s a good fit for them.

To be able to optimize your site for the various search engines, such as Google, Bing, and Yahoo, you’ll need to put in the time and effort to learn the ropes. Fortunately, with the right strategy, you can ensure that the effort is worth it. Let’s take a look at how.

First, you’ll want to create content that can be used for both SEO and marketing purposes. In an ideal scenario, you have a page on your website that can be used to compare various insurance products. For instance, you can discuss the differences between single-premium health insurance and HMOs, or you can include a guide to finding a travel insurance plan that fits your needs. Whatever content you create for your website, whether it’s a how-to guide, an explainer, or a listicle, you can use SEO best practices to make it as useful and engaging as possible.

Local SEO Is Critical

Additionally, we’ve found that many businesses fail to take advantage of Google My Business, or GMB for short. In other words, they don’t do enough to optimize their listing for local searches. This is unfortunate, because more and more people are relying on local searches to find what they need online. In fact, according to HubSpot Blogs research, 89% of customers use local searches to find products and services, while 77% use online directories and 65% turn to social media platforms.

To stand out in your local search results, you’ll want to optimize your GMB to appear more like traditional local listings, such as yellow pages, and less like mass-market clickbait designed to attract people away from the main Google page.

To attract business clients in your area, you can create a special offer or coupon code for local customers, or you can request that they call you directly to get the best price. Whichever you decide, make sure that it’s something that’s worth your customers’ time and that won’t put them off from finding the information they need online. If you decide to go the latter route, be sure to follow up with a call to make sure they got the information they need and that your company is still the best option for them.

Be Active On Different Social Media Platforms

In today’s world, customers can be found on all kinds of platforms. That being said, you’ll want to be active on as many as possible to ensure that you’re reaching as many potential customers as possible. Fortunately, this is much easier said than done. That’s why it’s so important to have a strategic approach when it comes to social media. Instead of just posting on one platform, whether it’s Twitter or Facebook, you can use various tools like Hootsuite to engage with your audience across various platforms. Having a single profile on various social media platforms is often times confusing and can even cause consumers to lose interest in your content.