Reputation always matters, and that rings true especially in
the world of business.
It doesn’t really matter how good of a product or service a specific company
offers if the targeted consumers want nothing to do with their toxic brand.
Disregarding branding is also not an option since it’s difficult to establish a
solid base if consumers haven’t heard of your company.
The goal should always be to establish positive branding for your business.
In this article, we’ll go in-depth on why having a positive digital brand is a
must for any company and we’ll also highlight some of the reasons why
neglecting your digital brand can be a costly mistake.
What Is Digital Branding?
Prior to discussing the importance of having a positive digital brand, it’s worth taking the time to pin down the definition of digital branding. At its core, digital branding is still a method of marketing, and just like traditional branding, it focuses on building up the reputation of a certain individual or business.
It’s about crafting an identity that consumers will want to associate themselves with.
The only reason why digital branding has this veneer of seeming new is because it takes place entirely online. Now, that bit of difference can actually be a huge deal for one particular reason.
Before we get to that though, let’s continue talking about how conventional branding and digital branding are similar to one another.
Digital Branding Allows You to Clearly Define Your Company’s Identity
Among the many advantages of working with manufacturing companies such as Fazt Tech is that they enable you to focus on your strengths. They can handle many of the tasks connected to running a company while you concentrate on perfecting your products and/or services as well as other tasks that only you can handle.
Another one of those tasks that only the people within the company can handle is defining their identity.
In today’s business landscape, it’s no longer enough to just bring a quality product or service offering to the marketplace. You also have to stand out from the rest of the field and having a clearly defined identity and message will help in that regard.
The beauty of digital branding is that you have full control over what you want that identity and message to be.
If you want to be a family-friendly company that provides good food, you can go down that route. If you want to be a niche business catering to lovers of high-quality alcoholic beverages, you have that option as well.
You don’t even have to stay married to that first identity you select for your company. Should you feel that the identity you settled on is not specific enough or fails to get to the heart of what you really bring to the market, you can switch gears quickly and try out a different plan.
Your Digital Brand Can Be Highly Visible
As mentioned above, there’s a key difference between conventional and digital branding and that relates to reach. You can try putting up numerous billboards, distributing numerous flyers, and running ads constantly on local radio and TV stations, but at the end of the day, you are still marketing to a limited audience.
Conventional branding can do a lot to boost your company’s reputation, but you would have to pour a tremendous amount of resources into it if you want to become visible on a national, let alone an international stage.
Because digital branding takes place online, the physical limitations that can hold back conventional branding efforts no longer apply.
For instance, many companies today now have social media accounts and they should absolutely take advantage of them. Opening a social media account is usually free and if you run it the right way, you can gain access to a massive audience.
Here are some numbers for you to digest: According to BrandWatch, there are 3.499 billion active users of social networking sites and the average person spends about 142 minutes on those sites per day.
Expecting that your business will be seen by nearly 3.5 billion people is obviously a bit much, but it’s not unrealistic to assume that you could cultivate a social media following of 10,000, 100,000, or perhaps even 1,000,000 people if you really take the time to come up with an effective branding strategy.
By the way, companies have also realized long ago how important it is to establish their brands with the help of social media. BrandWatch also notes that 91 percent of retail brands have at least 2 social media channels and 81 percent of smaller to medium-sized businesses make use of at least one type of social networking site.
What all that means is that you need to pay close attention to your digital brand not just because it gives you access to a large audience, but also because failing to do so will lead to you falling behind your competitors.
The Potential Downside to Digital Branding
Now that the benefits of investing in digital branding have been established, let’s acknowledge the risk that also comes with this practice.
The thing about digital branding is that it’s easy to lose control of it. If you’re just constantly churning out video and written content, you may not always be aware of where those end up.
Should your content ever make its way to controversial sites, or be linked to controversial individuals and companies, then you will be linked to those toxic brands. Fear of that happening has caused companies to take action. As Forbes notes, there are companies that have invested in a brand safety strategy in order to ensure that their brands never become associated with problematic entities.
Sure, there may be small pockets of consumers that develop a higher opinion of your company if you are connected to something controversial, but that will come at the cost of having a larger audience.
Work with companies such as Fazt Tech if you also want to avoid dealing with issues that could stem from being linked to a controversial brand. Even the components of your supply chain need to be above board.
Conclusion
Digital branding is no longer optional for businesses in this day and age – it’s now a must. With no positive digital brand to leverage, you may find it difficult to catch the attention of consumers, let alone actually grow your business.
Invest in your digital brand now because it is crucial to your success.
