As a marketer, you understand that your brand is always making an impact on someone. Even while you sleep, there is someone out there who is reading about your brand online, browsing your website or seeing a display ad. You can’t always manage these interactions, which can be scary at first. You want every interaction to be positive, but the greatest challenge we have as marketers is being able to create an image that is liked by all. Each person is unique, and that’s why you need to make your brand unique, too.
How to Manage Your Brand Online
There are effective ways to manage your brand online, such as by delivering your brand’s promise in each and every interaction. Think about what your company’s goals are and how you want customers to view your brand. When you have defined these goals, ensure that they are seamlessly integrated into each customer experience. It’s also important that your brand has an updated website as well as relevant social media pages and local profiles. Lastly, give your brand a personality, not just a name. By engaging in conversation, sharing exciting news and educating your readers, you’ll be attaching a personality to your label.
Is Your Brand Smashable?
Your ultimate goal in managing your brand online is creating an image that is “smashable,” meaning that you could throw your brand against the wall and watch it shatter into millions of pieces, yet still know that it was your brand by picking up a single piece. This is not easy to achieve, but it’s certainly possible. It requires a brand that looks great, acts great and IS great.
There are three ingredients that make up the recipe for smashability. These include your purpose, your values and the customer experience.
Purpose – You may make great products or offer a stellar service, but you need to have a purpose for why your products exist in order for them to be meaningful.
Values – Customers connect with brands that have clear values and morals. Your brand should be able to take a step away from the selling and marketing side of things and represent the values you care about, whether it’s donating to a particular cause or raising awareness.
Customer Experience – Each customer takes a unique journey when buying a product, and your brand should care about each and every journey. In fact, you should care about the five stages of the customer journey: awareness, familiarity, belief, adoption and loyalty.
There is so much focus on increasing your bottom line and boosting traffic that it’s easy to lose sight of the importance of managing your brand, which goes beyond traditional selling. Take the time to connect with your audience, share your values and create positive interactions. These steps go a long way in creating a smashable brand that can be successfully managed online anytime, anywhere.