In today’s highly competitive marketplace, there are two key things your brand needs to be if it’s to make the cut – compelling and online. It may sound simple, but you’d be surprised how many brands in the digital age do not fully understand the importance of having a dynamic and unique online presence that engages with their audience and compels them to act.
Sherri Nourse is the founder of Ambition Media and @MoitivationMafia, and is well versed in the power of the internet and social media. She explained, “Some time ago I had the realization that when it comes to researching, reviewing, recommending, and purchasing products, social media is integral to the process. If it doesn’t happen there, it doesn’t happen anywhere”.
Nourse is someone whose company has helped brands skyrocket their growth and attract millions of authentic and engaged followers through a simple but potent formula that combines unique posts, meaningful content, and user interaction. With all the knowledge she has gleaned over the years, she shares five tips on building a compelling brand online.
Keep It Real
A dynamic brand is worth its weight in gold. For example, when you put water, caffeine sugar, caramel, and cinnamon together, you have a cola product. When you sell that product under the brand name of Coca-Cola, you have a lifestyle choice and an instantly recognizable commodity which engages and invokes an emotive response with billions across the globe. In other words, ‘It’s the real thing.’ Keep your brand authentic, and stay true to its original message and goals, and you’re pretty much future-proofing its survival.
Visualize and Realize
A brand’s primary purpose is to propel growth but to do that, you should have a crystal clear vision of what your brand is and should mean to others. To succeed, you need to establish an identity and one which should give your target audience a reason to care and buy into your product. Clarity and brevity work well online, so sell your brand with a simple logo and strapline. Think of Nike’s symbolic swish and world-famous ‘Just Do It’ logo. Your brand should stand for something and mean something; otherwise it will simply get lost in all the noise.
An Amazing Journey
Anything meaningful in life must have a compelling narrative, and your brand should be no different. People enjoy following an enthralling journey, so make sure you give them a positive and encouraging reason to tag, share, and interact with yours. Talk about your brand’s origins, anything interesting that has happened along the way, and your plans to evolve and develop. Brands such as Lego and Google have narratives that have seeped into the broader culture to take on almost mythical proportions.
A Communal Experience
Like big sports clubs that rely on their support base, brands need a community to reinforce and celebrate their identity. Think of Apple and you think of mavericks thinking outside of the box, think of Harley Davidson and you think of outlaws and free-spirits living on the edge. Such themes are integral to the success of big brands. People should identify with your brand as one connecting them with like-minded souls and a place where they can feel at home in a shared community.
A brand isn’t just about product or profit, to succeed and establish itself in the public awareness, it needs to have a core set of beliefs and ideals which it acts upon, lives up to, and which its audience can relate to. If your brand is seen as responsible, ethical, committed to sustainable practices and giving something back to create a fairer world, then it will invoke a fierce loyalty in people. Customer trust and brand loyalty don’t happen overnight, but when it does, it is a sign that your brand is on its way to making a serious mark in the world.
