Here’s How Branding and Marketing Can Help Your Online Business Grow

“Brands are essentially patterns of familiarity, meaning, fondness and reassurance that exist in the minds of people”- Tom Goodwin.

Branding and Marketing, Two words you may have heard often from entrepreneurs and marketers. But there’s a lot more to branding and marketing than you think. Branding involves creating a lasting and positive image of your business. It is a way to promote your products and services by advertising your brand. In today’s world, the key to success is to build a strong brand using various marketing strategies that will help you grow your business.

What is a Brand?

Brands are intangible. The term brand refers to a business concept that helps people identify a particular company, product, or individual. It is an asset for a company. It’s the brand that has an impact on the audience’s mind. For example:

Brand                      Company Name

Lakme                            Hindustan Unilever

Lays, Pepsi                   Pepsico

Oral-B, Olay                Procter & Gamble

Cafe Coffee Day        Bean Coffee Trading Company

People here may not know about the company, but they are fully aware of these brands, which adds value to the brand and helps it reach a larger audience and achieve a big market.

Branding is essential because it makes a memorable impression on consumers, allowing customers to know what to expect from the company. It provides enormous value to the company or individual giving them a competitive edge over others in the same industry. A good brand can go a long way and from generation to generation, for example-Reliance, Group, TATA Group, Dabur, Parle, and many more.

What is Marketing?

Marketing refers to the tools you utilize to deliver the message of your business. Marketing will directly focus on the target audience, all supporting the key highlights of your brand. It is a vast and comprehensive process. It can be a mix of text, visuals, graphs, photos, keywords, etc.

 Marketing is performed by various online & offline methods like:

Content Marketing

Mobile Marketing

Print Campaigns

Television

Radio

Social Media Marketing

Branding and Marketing

Have you ever foreseen the difference between branding and marketing? If so, you are not alone. As a business owner, one should understand both branding and marketing in great detail to utilize them together. Branding and marketing go hand in hand. Branding is who you are, and marketing is how you build awareness about who you are. Branding is to tell the audience about your brand, what you do, and other details, and marketing is to reach your target audience using various communication channels.

Which Comes First – Marketing or Branding?

Branding is the core of marketing strategy, so branding comes first. Even if you are a startup, it is essential for you to define your brand, who you are, what service or product you offer, what USP’s your brand holds, etc. It is the foundation upon which you will build customer loyalty. For example, in your local area, you must have seen so many good dine-in places, out of which some have excellent ratings because of the food, service, and ambiance they have, which calls a brand image. The brand itself says everything about your service or product or its authenticity because customers only opt for trustworthy and loyal brands. It is the brand that keeps customers coming back generation after generation.

The marketing plans keep changing according to the time and need, but branding remains the same. People will always opt for a brand that will fulfill their needs. Once the brand is established, then you devise your marketing strategies. Also, keep in mind that branding is something you and your team must do daily, and with every transaction processed, with every phone call received, and email responded. However, your marketing is often partially or fully outsourced to marketing professionals. When speaking of branding vs. marketing, branding is who you are—while marketing is how you attract consumer attention. Also, think of branding as how you keep current clients and marketing to attract new clients.

Need For Branding:

Creating a brand provides numerous benefits; successful branding leads to many impressions. People are more inclined to buy goods and services from companies they know and trust. Good marketing of your brand builds trust and credibility among the target audience, allowing the consumers to develop unique relationships with the companies and their interest in investing in your brand.

Many existing customers are entirely willing to replace their existing electronics when they release new ones. Let’s take Apple as an example. The company has built a broad, loyal customer base willing to overlook the price tag associated with an iMac, MacBook, iPad, or iPhone because of their loyalty to the brand.

The One Area where Branding And Marketing Overlap

While branding and marketing are distinctly different, there is one area where they overlap. When selecting imagery to be utilized on an ongoing basis, branding and marketing become the same. As the saying goes, “A picture speaks a thousand words.” With that in mind, when you choose your company colors, graphics, and logo—remember that they must first represent your brand—but that they will also play a substantial role in your ongoing marketing campaign.

7 Strategies to Grow your Online Business

Today, as the world has become a significant global village, people have found new and creative ways to generate a steady income through digital marketing. In the past, many people opposed the rapid spread of technology because of the general notion that it would replace work. However, most people do not realize that technology and the Internet offer many online business opportunities. The Internet hides many career opportunities, and most people need little or no skills to access them and start their online business. Like any other business, everyone will need a basic knowledge of how the Internet works and a digital strategy to sell online.

Few tips and tricks that might help to grow your online business.

1. Specify Your Niche And Develop A Unique Brand

2. Know your audience well

3. Focus on content marketing

4. Invest in Video Marketing

5. Use paid Media to Increase Your Reach

6. Establish Partnerships

7. Count on Online Solutions To Increase Scalability

Wrapping up:

Being an entrepreneur and growing your business online or in-person requires a lot of hard work and dedication. In today’s age, the world has turned into a Global Village. Everything is active on digital platforms, so planning and growing your business online is easy. If you are not tech-savvy, but if you have in-depth knowledge of your product or service, target audience, and various marketing tools, it will help you draw audience attention. Then nobody can stop you from reaching high on the success ladder.