Ecommerce branding is a crucial part of online business development. If you want an online business that will stand the test of time rather than a short-time solution, then one of the things you need to take care of is establishing an ecommerce brand.
Your brand is the essence of you as a form of your outward vision. It’s a set of rules and principles that your business follows. These same principles will attract potential customers who’ll share and follow your ideas.
Ecommerce branding isn’t just about a nice looking logo and a great brand name.
Your brand is, first and foremost, about YOU. However, its main intent is to connect with other people who will share your ideas and beliefs. It’s not unusual for beginner ecommerce entrepreneurs to have no understanding of how to build a brand that attracts people.
So, let’s go step by step through the process of creating your own brand a way that resonates with your target audience and keeps people coming back for more purchases.
What is a brand
First of all, what is a brand?
A brand is the grand total of all things you use to differentiate your business and attract the attention of your specific audience. This includes all the visuals, like your website design, logo, colors, and also your brand’s voice, your business’ mission statement, values, etc.
As you can see from this Google Trends graph, many people wonder about this question, and it’s no wonder as branding is very important for any business.
Thus, we will show you how to build a brand that you’ll be proud of that will help your business to succeed!
A brand defines who you are, what you stand for, what your strengths are, and how you use these strengths to bring value to your community.
Developing a solid brand early will benefit your business and help you meet your goals faster. Effective branding provides the following benefits:
- Builds credibility and trust, which can be helpful in building relationships with your audience or landing business opportunities
- Sets your business apart from others in your industry
- Puts a relatable image and a story to your business or product, building trust in customers who see something extra behind the brand
Nevertheless, now that you somewhat understand what benefits your business gets with having a brand and ecommerce branding in general, it’s time to create one.
So, let’s get started!
Ecommerce branding step 1: Understand yourself
Like we said previously, your brand is the representation of yourself. So, first and foremost, you have to have a great understanding of your own self. How can you do that?
There are many questions that you may have never asked yourself. However, some answers to these questions hold the key to understanding yourself and your brand concept. This is a crucial step to building your brand and telling your story.
Ask yourself the following questions and you will be a step closer to creating your own ecommerce brand.
What are your interests or hobbies? And in reverse, what do you not like? Do you have any values do you stand by? What characteristics describe you best? Think about your short-term and long-term goals. What are your strengths? Maybe there’s something you do exceptionally well. What kind of impact do you want to make on the world?
Answering these questions, you will come to a better understanding of your brand’s concept.
Ecommerce branding step 2: Research and define your target audience
When it comes to ecommerce branding, it’s important to know who you’re trying to reach. So, the next step is to research and find your potential audience.
Consider what kind of products you’ll be selling and what audience of consumers they can help. Try to be as specific as possible with your choice of the audience. After all, choosing a specific niche will mean you’ll have less competition to worry about.
Finding your target audience will help with establishing a brand image, voice, and even the right marketing strategy to connect with potential customers.
Nevertheless, you can collect information about your potential customers by understanding their age, gender, where they come from, and other characteristics.
To do this you have to go on the outskirts of the internet and dive into the searching and purchasing process.
Simply Google your product or niche category and analyze the customer journey from start to finish.
Research various forums and groups that relate to your niche and discover what your potential customers are discussing. In addition to, look at some relevant social media accounts or pages your target audience follows and interacts with. You can learn a lot more from your competitors.
As you begin to build your ecommerce brand, you’ll have new opportunities to learn more about your audience from analytics tools and customer surveys.
Ecommerce branding step 3: Pick the focus of your brand
Researching your potential target audience will provide you with an insight into your brand position. It’s simply impossible to be a high-end luxury brand and a budget friendly business all at once.
You have to choose where you’re going to enter the market. The easiest way to do this is to build a positioning statement.
This is one or two lines you can use to help establish who you are and what you’re doing. When establishing your brand position, think about how you will differentiate your business from others. When you know your position and selling points, you can begin creating marketing campaigns and branded content that speaks to your target audience in the right voice.
Ecommerce branding step 4: Defining your business name
You know your target audience and how you want to position your brand. Now it’s time to pick that all-important brand name.
This is one of the most important defining features of your brand. The right name should distill everything your customer needs to know about you into a single word.
Here are a few ways you can create a business name:
- Combine words
- Describe your business
- Consider an emotion that will connect with the brand Emotive names: Names that inspire emotional responses
- Shorten it down to initials or acronyms, for an esy to remember version of a longer name
- Think of a name that will associate with where the business began or who made it
- Make up a totally new word
- Use a completely unrelated word
- Alter a word by removing/adding letters
Your brand name will also define the URL/domain of your online store, be sure to do some research to see what’s available before deciding on a name.
Ecommerce branding step 5: Tell your brand’s story
All businesses need to have a purpose beyond simply making money. Think about why you set up a business and how your products can positively impact other people’s lives.
A good story can prompt customers to fall in love with your business and generate respect for your brand.
As a result, this will allow you to create a community of people who will happily stand by your story and follow your business’ journey.
Ecommerce branding step 6: Choose the look of your brand
When you have a full understanding of how to name your brand and the story behind it, it’s time to choose the looks of your brand.
You’ll need to think about your brand design – how you’ll visually represent your brand – namely your colors and typography.
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The colors
Colors don’t just define the look of your brand, they also convey the feeling you want to communicate and help you make it consistent across everything you do. You’ll want to choose colors that differentiate you from direct competitors to avoid confusing consumers.
Color psychology isn’t an exact science, but it does help to inform the choices you make, especially when it comes to the color you pick for your brand logo.
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The fonts
At this point, it’s also good to look at fonts you might want to use on your website.
The best way to build a brand when it comes to fonts is by keeping it simple. Pick two fonts at most to avoid confusing visitors: one for headings and one for body text (this doesn’t include the font you might use in your brand logo).
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Imagery
What kind of images, illustrations, and pictures do you use on your products, website, and advertisements? Or even social media? All of this plays a major role in ecommerce branding.
Conveying a consistent message through all the channels will make your brand a brand. It’s as simple as that.
Ecommerce branding step 7: Create a logo
Your logo is another major element in learning how to start your own brand. Alongside your name, your logo will be one of the first things your customers recognize in your brand.
An excellent logo should be meaningful and easy to understand. Ideally, you’ll want to create your brand with a logo that’s unique, identifiable, and scalable to work at all sizes (something often overlooked).
Consider all the places where your brand’s logo needs to exist: from your website, your Facebook page’s profile picture, YouTube channel banner, to even the little “favicons” you see in your current browser tab.
Ecommerce branding step 8: Integrate your brand everywhere
Businesses need to show their brand in everything they do to make them memorable.
Think about how you can draw attention to your brand on various channels. For instance, your brand should be evident on your:
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Ecommerce store
Choose a store theme that’s perfect for your brand identity and implement your company colors. Remember to showcase your logo on every page and highlight your brand voice in your website content.
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Social media
Social media is an excellent tool for building awareness for your brand. You can share posts that highlight your personality, post pictures and graphics representing your brand, and even encourage people to share your brand with their friends and colleagues.
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Marketing campaigns
Your brand should be clearly visible in every marketing campaign, whether you’re sending out email newsletters or connecting with customers through other channels. Make sure every advertising effort demonstrates your brand image and voice consistently.
Consistency is crucial when developing a strong brand. The more consistent you can be with your brand identity online and offline, the more familiar your company will feel to your audience. Consistency also helps your brand appear more stable and reliable.
Ecommerce branding with Sellvia
Of course, even when you manage to establish a strong brand, you can’t go far without selling great products.
And that’s where Sellvia’s Premium Products come in!
What are these Premium Products you might be wondering? Well, it’s simple! It’s a service you can use to sell your own unique products, where all you have to do is specify your interests and the professionals will create signature products tailored to your potential customers’ needs. Choose the appropriate Premium Product package and our team will create an account for you and upload your unique products.
So, basically, you just need to tell us what you like, and we’ll handle the technical processes for you! You’ll be selling one-of-a-kind items that are not available anywhere else, so you won’t have to worry about any competition.
As a result, you can sell these items in your own store or marketplaces, under your own brand! Thus, millions of potential customers will get to see your brand and its products up close.
Moreover, your brand will be all about top quality products created with our modern digital printing technology. This is not only a bonus for you, but for your customers as well!
Conclusion
A strong brand is a must-have for any business in today’s world.
Without the right ecommerce branding, you can’t connect with your customers on an emotional level. This means that any customer will abandon your business as soon as they find another ecommerce store they can resonate with.
Building your brand identity gives your customers something to truly connect with. It’s what keeps people coming back for more, sets you apart from the competition, and turns one-time clients into dedicated brand followers.
Never underestimate the importance of building a brand.
So, are you ready to conquer the market and some millions? With the right ecommerce branding approach, you’ll be able to build your brand and attract tons of people while you’re at it. And with Premium Products, you’ll be able to sell your own unique branded products wherever and however you want! Book a free consultation call with our business advisors and they’ll tell you all you need to know about ecommerce branding, how to start an online business and how to grow it.
