How to Strengthen Your Unique Online Brand
Besides the dynamics associated with search engine optimization, search engine marketing, pay-per-click, cost-per-click, backlinks, blogs, meta tags, and a website backend whose design is accommodating to search engine crawls, one of the most important aspects of creating an online business is distinguishing yours from its competitors by creating your own unique brand.
So, you may be asking yourself, “Yeah, how do I make my online business stand out from the competition?” Well, for starters, your website should have a clean, consistent layout that makes it easy for visitors to navigate and search for products. Otherwise, branding becomes an exercise in futility, which if executed improperly, will definitely deter first-time visitors from visiting your site again, making a purchase, recommending it to friends, co-workers, or family members.
Once you have defined the fundamental structural framework and functionality of your online store, you should then invest the necessary time to produce high-quality images and a solid product description for each product you want to sell online. Product descriptions should always paint a clear picture that helps prospective customers understand what makes your products special, unique, or different than others.
Another important item your online store should consider is to include its logo and tag line on all invoices, a business card, and/or a discount offer on their next purchase, if they refer another buyer to your site — who also receives a discount if they buy one of your products within a specified period of time. You may also want to consider incorporating, obtaining a sales mark for your tag line and a trademark for your logo, which will afford your online business certain legal protections.
Of course, these recommendations are only the tip of the ice berg in terms of positioning your business for success amongst the sea of online competitors. Regardless of what you decide to be the most logical approach methodology for your online business, this venture should occur only after ample research has taken place. Sure, you can pay web designers, copy writers, and SEO/SEM firms ten of thousands of dollars to do all of this for you. However, at the end of the day, its your business, not theirs. It’s ultimately up to you to be an expert at your own game, business model, product line, and brand!
