How to Optimize Your Brand Online
Thanks to the 2020 pandemic, business owners have been forced into the online world. Having an online presence is crucial to maintaining your brand’s awareness, without networking events, trade shows, or group gatherings, you need to keep up revenue, by pivoting to offer new or virtual services.
How you put your brand out there can make or break your business, so here are 3 common mistakes business owners make when putting their brand online.
1- Your website doesn’t say who you are, what you do, or the problem you solve for your audience.
Now that your website is your home base, it’s important that it communicates the right message. Within a few seconds of landing on your website, a person should be able to tell what your brand does and how it can help them. This should all happen before they even have to scroll down – so having a great one – two sentences near your header is crucial.
For example, we recently worked with a math tutor whose website’s copy started with “Deepen your interest and enjoyment of math.” What we suggested would be more powerful is to add in who they are and how they solve their client’s problem. We advised them to change the copy to “We are friendly math tutors that make math easy for your student so they can excel in their classes.”
This also holds true for the first visual they see as well. If you run a massage and wellness center, and you have a photo of a forest on your website, that creates confusion.
Replace this instead with a photo or video of yourself or team member giving a massage or a treatment in your space. This will help your audience imagine what it’s like to be a client in your space, but also reinforce the messaging.
Most people are guilty of having a ton of tabs on their browser open, so by addressing the problem you solve and who you solve it for right away, the people that come across your website that need your help will want to read on how you can help them.
As your website scrolls on, you can dive into your services, share messaging and visuals about the process of what it’s like to work with your brand or how to use your product, but right away is your best chance to capture their attention. Be sure to make it count otherwise they may move on to one of your competitors.
2- Consistency –
Whether it’s social media, blogging, podcasting, or running ads, putting your brand online needs to be consistent.
Consistency establishes trust, and people buy from brands they trust. To build trust, you have to commit to showing up online and to be patient.
It’s kind of like a friendship. If you start out interested, commit to hanging out, and give good conversation, your audience will want to be friends too. But if you flake out all of the sudden, or only come around once in a while to ask for money, it won’t be much of a relationship.
We often see brands who start to put themselves out there, then when there isn’t an instance response to a post, they give up. Some experts say it takes 7-15 times before your audience will really hear your message, so it’s ok to repeat messages about what your brand does and how it can help your audience.
Instead of trying to be consistent on every platform, pick 1-2 that feel right for your brand and focus on them. If your brand is very visual and you like creating visuals, Instagram is a great place to focus your energy. If you love talking to an audience and give demos, Youtube is a great tool.
Focus your energy on being consistent in one area and keep showing up to build trust.
3– They never put a face to the brand –
One of our peers mentioned, “backstage syndrome” the other day – the idea that they like to create the show, but they don’t want to step into the spotlight.
Putting your own face or your team out there can be scary, but people will connect with another person more than they ever will with a brand.
Put a face to your brand out there at least once a month, or once every 9 posts on Instagram so your audience will see that you are more than just a business. And isn’t that true? You have worked so hard to create your brand, it’s time (especially in this day and age) to connect with your audience by showing yourself and/or your team
To make it more powerful, share a personal story like why you started your brand, how you started your brand, what does your brand stand for, or what lessons have you learned during this transition.
Your audience will see a real person with a story to tell, and that will make your brand stand out and feel authentic.
With the right messaging, consistency, and personality, your brand will thrive online. Take a moment to look at your website and content strategy to ensure you avoid these common mistakes.
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Written by Angela Divine of The Divine Group.
The Divine Group is a full service agency that pairs captivating visuals with authentic messaging to help brand and business thrive. Angela founded the group after seeing a disconnect in how businesses present themselves online. As a brand photographer, she was creating images to enhance business websites and social media accounts. But she noticed that many of her clients didn’t have a plan for how to use the photos, so they collected digital dust on their hard drives. This was understandable. Most of her clients just had too much on their plates.They needed someone to help with the strategy, messaging, and implementation of their digital assets. So she pulled together experts from different fields to come together on branding projects. She lives in Minneapolis, MN with her nature-loving husband and fluffy husky mix, Zelda.
