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Brand building
Your brand is how your are perceived by your target audience. It incorporates every aspect of the "external" view of your company. Every business has a brand, no matter how large or small.
Every time anyone comes into contact with your business, it impacts on your brand. You, your office, the way you deal with people, the way you answer your phone all impact on your brand. As does the way you are seen on the Internet.
Consumer brands
The consumer face of branding is everywhere we look nowadays. Adverts are everywhere you go and increasingly they are online. Internet advertising spend is growing rapidly in the face of declining ad revenues in other media. This is down to the growing acceptance by the marketing industry that brand development is a legitimate online marketing objective, in addition to the more traditional online activities of generating sale.
The ubiquitous Internet
It is a fact of life that for all but the smallest or most regular purchases, people use the Internet as a source of information. This is as true of consumers as it is of business purchasers. How is your business seen online, if it is seen at all? It is essential to manage your online image, otherwise someone else will do it for you! If you search for your company name on Google, what comes up? Is it what you want your customers, both potential and current, to see?
Defensive minimum
As a defensive minimum you need to ensure that someone looking for you online finds something that is credible. That means something that will, as a very minimum, not actually harm your brand or discourage them from doing business with you. A website that doesn't exist, or doesn't work says something about you.
Pro-active opportunity
It also gives you a great opportunity to do something positive. If someone is looking for you online, then they usually already do business with you, or want to do business with you. You must ensure, therefore, that they can do, as far as practical, what they want to do. By looking for you online, they are showing you that it is their chosen medium for furthering their relationship with you. If you can meet their needs, you are well on the way to moving that relationship forward.
Brand building online
As with most things online, you must have a good website. This is of primary importance. Your website is where you will direct people who are looking for you. It must be effective; it should allow your customers to do what they want to do online. This is the starting point.
The next thing is about getting people to your site. If they are looking for you, you want to ensure that they find you where you want to be found. Your site must appear on the search engines above any other links about your business that you do not fully control. Basic search engine optimisation is a must.
The third tier of your online brand is about content that is on the WWW, which is not on your website. This may be things within your control (adverts, directory entries, case studies) and things that are outside your control (3rd party websites, social networks). You should know what people find when they are looking for your company.
The top tier is Internet advertising. This is the bit that most people think of when you talk about online branding, but really it's the icing on the cake.
Client list
The Chartered Institute of Taxation
CPI
Royal National Lifeboat Institute (Crew Training Game)
Toyota
Powergen
Granada
