The Importance of Branding Across Multiple Platforms.

Last month we chatted about branding and creating an unforgettable brand. Branding is the base for any business, but it is more than just your logo and look and feel. Good branding comes into play with how successful your brand is in portraying its message across all platforms. From the way your staff answer the phone, to your website, your social media presence and the overall customer experience of your brand.

Your brand identity should flow from one platform to another, which means that you need to be intentional and consistent in your branding, across various platforms. It also means that you need to be visible on various platforms and have a clear brand voice and identity across all channels.

There are a few things you can do to ensure your brand’s voice is heard and remains the same.

Keep it Consistent.

A person’s first sensory point of view is their sight. What they notice first about your brand are its design and overall theme. You want to ensure that you create a visual voice for your brand that is easily noticeable by your customers and potential customers the minute they see you, on any platform. One thing that should not change often is your profile picture on social media. This is usually the first thing that people notice, identifying who the post is from. If you are continuously changing this element, people will become confused and unable to recognise your brand.

Once you have a design style that you are happy with, you should try your best to stick to this style wherever possible, even if you use different variations of that style. You then need to decide on a brand tone as well – be it humorous or technical – whatever it is that best portrays your company ethics. This will create a consistent brand message – one that your customers become familiar with.

Keep it Relevant.

It’s one thing being active across multiple social media channels, such as Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, but is your content relevant to that channel? Each of these channels and others like YouTube, Snapchat or LinkedIn, were all created for very different reasons and functions in very different ways. When you create content for say Facebook, you would focus on a more informative approach to your message and images. Whereas on Instagram, you would go for a more image heavy, less designed look and feel. Twitter is completely different with the ability to only use 140 text characters – so your message would be short and sweet and to the point.

All of these things need to be taken into consideration when creating your content across various platforms, while still maintaining that brand voice and identity. For an efficient social media marketing strategy, contact us to help guide you.

Know your Brand.

Part of keeping things consistent is being fully in tune with your brand. If you don’t know your brand’s voice, how can you expect your customers to know your voice? You need to be confident in who you are as a brand, what you offer, what your vision is and what you want to achieve. Once you have this clearly outlined, you are on your way to success.

Know your Audience.

Once you know who you are as a brand, you will need to decide who your target market is and who you want to reach. Are they young, are they old, are they business people or are they stay at home moms? Knowing your audience takes research and planning – it’s realising what your audience want and need. It’s looking at your brand from an outsider’s perspective to understand how they would perceive your brand. Do your research before you even attempt to sell your brand, because, without research, you could quite possibly be wasting your time.

Once you have become in tune with your customer and your brand and its voice, you should have a better understanding of the path you need to take. Choose one or five social media platforms, have a website built up for you and create your company’s marketing elements. All of these things will set you on the right path for success and help you to bring in the business that you need.

For marketing assistance and brand guidance, get in touch with us, a Durban marketing agency, to set up a meeting. Have a look at our service offering here.