Importance of Digital Marketing in Building Brands

 The internet has given brands the exposure that they seek. The social media platforms have proved to be the best for consumers at large as they are able to find and select the products and services of their choice.  

Also, if we go by wearsocial.com, about 86% of internet users in the UK have searched online for the products and services to purchase, and almost 81% of them have purchased them online.  

This percentage also highlights the importance of building a brand in the digital space.  

Before we get into the benefits of building a brand in digital space, we just need to understand the way brands are defined.  

Difference Between a Strong and a Weak Brand 

Let us understand it in simple words.  

A strong brand is the one that stands out in the mind of customers; both current and potential. It means that a strong brand is one which has a clear USP. This brand will know their competition well. Also, they will have a strong sense of how their presence contributes in the competitive marketplace.   

A major contribution to the brand’s strength will be by its vision, mission, and values. When all of the attributes are well communicated and also understood properly, the chances for business growth rise.   

To build a strong brand, one must build a solid brand identity just by creating a visual synergy that appeals and connects with the audience. Visual synergy is created by using taglines, colours, logos, and icons in such a way that it is relevant to the industry.    

A strong brand will use the above elements consistently across different touchpoints, both in the online and offline mediums. This is the one way by which brands can stay in the minds of consumers, i.e., through repetition and recognition. This in turn also leads your brand to be easily recognized.

  

Another important aspect is that the strong brands do not view brand strategy and brand development as a business function that the marketing function. 

 

Benefits of Online Marketing for Building Brands 

Visibility, Reach, and Recognition 

The internet has a global reach. This is the reason your brand is seen by a larger audience than your sales and marketing team could see.  

Because a large number of people are able to access your brand, awareness of your products and services builds multiple times if it is compared to using traditional brand awareness methods.    

The number of times a brand is noticed is directly related to brand recognition. The presence of your brand across different social media platforms channels gives it higher recognition.    

The stronger the brand recognition, the bigger will be the opportunity to be the brand that is chosen by potential customers. Irrespective of the type of brand, all brand strategists aspire to create brands that are on the top of the mind of the consumers.  

Nurture Your Contacts Through Full Customer Journey  

This customer journey has phases from awareness to becoming a brand ambassador. Consumers choose only those brands which are easily recognizable to them. The presence of your brand digitally allows you to nurture the potential of consumers from being in the first phase and that is brand awareness. After this phase, the consumer enters the consideration phase where they are educated about the products and services. Once they decide to choose your product and service, they become your customers. And if all the boxes are ticked in all the stages of the funnel (i.e., awareness, consideration, and decision making), your consumers are most likely to become your marketers. Yes, a good product and service attracts a customer but it also lets them speak about it and market it to others.      

When we look into the customer journey, marketing departments consider a lot of digital marketing elements. Digital marketing includes services such as email marketing, mobile marketing, social media, inbound marketing, content marketing, and Search Engine Optimization (SEO).  

Trust and Credibility  

A brand that is trustworthy can be recognized easily because it will be there for a long time, will have a loyal following and a strong customer base, and will also deliver on its promises.  

When a business is recognized by customers as a well-reputed brand, its credibility increases within the industry as well as among its customers. As credibility and trust build so do loyalty and community.   

The spin-off is that with word-of-mouth, marketing increases and so does the ease of purchase.   

In the digital medium, the results come up in the form of web traffic, engagement with blogs, conversion rates, and also higher rates of media interest. All these factors also directly impact the competitive advantage of the business.   

Build Community  

Building community was seen as a traditional role only of social media marketers but now it can be argued that it is not just limited to one genre. It is everyone’s job.  

The reason is quite simple. The nature of the task needs input and engagement for multiple people and who can be better than the brand ambassadors than the staff. 

 

The second reason can be the massive benefits gained by focusing on building community. Having brand champions, brand ambassadors, and a loyal brand community means one can make the introduction of new products and services not only easier but also affordable. You will even work less on building awareness about the brand. This is because on the online platforms, the audience is large and more engaged. There is less need for paid advertising and PR to promote products and services.  

Because of advancements in digital platforms and marketing automation tools, community building has become less labour intensive. It is now much easier than the traditional methods of building social networks and communities.     

 

Another benefit is related to the word-of-mouth marketing. As consumers, recommendations by family and friends weigh more than any advert. When your brand community begins to anticipate and talk about upcoming products, the reach gets higher. Also, the organic reach increases heavily towards to credibility of brand.   

An additional benefit of building a brand community is the access it offers to the business stakeholders. They get to know their target audience and the content is framed accordingly. When a community is built, your business embarks on an amazing journey of understanding the customers, their pains and the things they love about your products and services.  

Increase Brand Equity  

Brand equity is the commercial value gained from how consumers feel about a brand. Also, it tells how well a brand commands the market share and profits within the industry.   

High brand equity means your business is going to experience a reduction in the paid advertising cost associated with awareness and gaining traffic.   

High brand equity is also linked to high market share because consumers favour strong brands over their competitor brands. Just because of this reason, there is an opportunity to move towards the premium price structure.   

A strong brand does not require active recruitment because people are naturally interested in working with brands that have a good reputation.   

Digital marketing is just like oxygen to the brands – both young as well as established. Without digital marketing, it might get difficult to reach potential customers, increase revenue, and even grow. To know anything more about digital marketing, contact the Big Unit, the best digital marketing company in Melbourne.