It has probably never been harder to compete in the world of e-commerce than it is now. The market is doing very well, and by 2023, it is expected that e-commerce sales will bring in a huge amount of money.
This is about $6.54 quadrillion. Your customers are now more likely to shop online than to go to a physical store because they want to save time, money, and energy for other things they think are more important.
But just putting your e-commerce on the Internet is not enough to make sure it will be successful. So, how do you make a website that does well in e-commerce?
You need a branding strategy to make your e-commerce business stand out and connect with your customers on an emotional level.
Here are the five steps you need to take to build a successful brand for your online business.
Pay attention to your customers
It takes a lot of hard work to get your branding efforts to work. To find the best way to sell your products, you need to dig a little deeper and find out more about your customers.
If you have data from the past, like how many shopping carts were left empty or which products were the most popular, use it to learn more about how your customers feel about your products and brand.
But if you want to make an impression on your customers, you need to make their interactions with your brand more personal.
This means you need to create your buyer persona based on the market research you’ve done and find out why they would rather do business with you than with any other e-shop out there.
Even if you work in B2B and sell very specialized niche products, you can do the same thing. For example, oilfield equipment suppliers can do well even in a small market if they brand their online stores well and make them easy to find through search engines. This increases their reach.
Know what makes you unique
You need to know more about your target audience so you can make your branding campaigns, but you also need to know what your unique value proposition is (UVP).
UVP is a clear statement of the benefits your e-commerce offers, or, to be more specific, what sets you apart from your competitors when it comes to solving your customers’ pain points and needs. Some of the things that set them apart may be:
- A focus on a certain area,
- Your clients all have the same traits, your staff all have the same qualifications,
- You offer a specific service, etc.
You can combine the differentiators, as long as they are important to your clients, to get better results and a better place in the market.
You need to get to the point where your customers connect your brand with the problems you’re trying to solve.
Give people good content
Think of everything you make for your e-commerce business as content. As such, it needs to make a good impression on your potential customers and show off your business in the best way possible.
Start with the visual elements you use for branding, like your logo, name, colors, and fonts, and work your way up to your brand’s personality and the way it talks. Then move on to your website, blog posts, and social media posts. It all comes down to giving your target audience top-notch content that fits their interests, wants, and needs.
Having a blog where you post relevant and useful content that educates your customers and solves their problems and pain points can be a great way to get leads that you can nurture through your sales funnel.
Make sure you have a strong presence on social media where you can interact with your customers and build relationships with them.
Give your customers what they want
Excellent customer service is one of the main reasons why people stick with a business, so do everything you can to make it great.
You need to make sure that every time a customer interacts with your brand, it is worth their time and will make them happier.
Think about what would make your customers happy with the service you’re giving, and when you can, try to go above and beyond what they expect. If they have a problem with the product they bought and want to solve it, don’t put them on hold and make them wait, or they may go to a competitor instead.
There are a lot of great solutions, like AI-powered chatbots, that you can use to give your customers fast, personalized support 24/7/365 and answer up to 80% of their questions.
Now, these chatbots can be taught to talk like people and keep the tone and voice of your brand, so they can also help with your branding efforts.
Be consistent
Any business, including e-commerce, that wants to build a brand needs to be consistent. Once you’ve made your brand message, you need to use it in everything you do to market your business.
If you use a professional and formal tone and then switch to a friendly and casual tone all of a sudden, it will confuse your customers and make them less likely to buy your products.
No matter what channel you use for a promotion—email, social media, your website, or print media—your brand identity needs to be the same.
The best way to make sure that your branding efforts are consistent is to make a brand style guide. This will cover all of the important branding topics, such as:
- the heart of a brand (mission, vision, and values),
- visual guidelines (logos, fonts, typography, colors)
- visual guidelines (logos, fonts, typography, colors)
Branding your e-commerce business will take some time. Still, if you use these steps as part of your branding strategy, you’ll have an edge over your competitors and see your business grow.