It has never been more difficult to compete in the world of eCommerce than now. Brands go viral overnight, new brands flourish each day and everyone is giving their best to stand out from the crowd. To make things even harder, consumers have no issues with shifting their loyalty from one brand to another, depending on how much they are taking over the industry.
That all sounds alarmingly scary and hard, but there are ways to build your ecommerce brand to be as strong as the competition. If not even stronger. For the start, you need a good branding strategy that will create an emotional connection with your buyers. There are visuals, messaging and other things you can use to engage with your audience and show them that you’re there for them. So, here are a few of the things you can do in order to build a strong ecommerce brand that your customers are going to be loyal to.
Start with a unique product
Saying that your product should be unique in order to create a strong brand, may sound obvious, but that’s your take off. Think about what you want to do for your audience and what you can offer them that one else can. It is a competitive market, so make sure to research it thoroughly and figure out what can make your brand and your product unique in order to stand out from the crowd. Your product is the heart and soul of your brand and nothing can replace it, so be careful and give it some thought.
Start with a unique product
Have your own style
Besides having a good product that everyone will want to buy, you should develop your own style. It needs to be more than just trendy, and it should be driven by your purpose and users’ shopping experience. In order for your brand to matter, you will have to show some authenticity in your brand content, and the audience will appreciate that immensely.
In order to meet your buyers’ expectations, you should create a style that reflects the focus of your brand and make sure those two are always associated with each other. This authenticity will draw your customers to you, and they will appreciate that your authentic style reflects what they love about your brand and products.
However, if you find this difficult, you should devote some time to experimenting. You should combine design guidelines, such as color palettes, iconography rules, font and size, and find what works best for your brand. You can easily play with Photoshop and resources such as Sleek Lens which allows you to create your own images.
Build relationships with your customers
In order to have a brand that matters, you need to build trust among your users. This is critical for eCommerce brands since your customers cannot visit you physically, so you have to up your digital game.
What you need to do is create online buzz around your products and secure a nice position in the industry in order to provide authenticity and build trust. This can be done by generating your own content that is specific to your industry. This content needs to provide value to your buyers which will later encourage their trust.
So, you should start creating blog posts that will be published on your site and social media. These posts should be able to educate your buyers and give them valuable information about your industry, brand and products.
Also, you can participate in online forums in your industry and provide valuable information through those platforms. Reddit, Quora, LinkedIn and Facebook groups are excellent for such engagement where you can speak to your customers directly, or provide them with links to your blog posts.
Create video content
Creating video content for your site is another great way to be different from your competitors and attract more customers. Besides your site, you can insert “https://www.web.com/ecomdash”video content in your emails and on your social media accounts.
However, you can’t rely on bland product-demo videos or simple informational ones. Rather, you have to reflect your brand’s personality and values in those videos. Also, you have to show the human side of your business in order to better connect with your buyers. If you present your business in a personal light through a simple video, the buyers will be able to see who’s behind that eCommerce store and feel connected to you.
Speak the language of your audience
In order to properly target your eCommerce brand towards the customers whose loyalty you wish to have, you have to speak their language. The more you familiarize yourself with messaging and the customer themselves, the more trust you’re going to build.
There are a few ways you can pick up on your customers’ language and improve your approach to them. Assess their persona from interviews if you conducted any. Look at their product preferences and simply borrow the language they used to communicate with you about your brand.
Also, you can analyze the messaging of your competition. If your competitors are strong and successful, they are probably using messaging that resonates with their audience. So, compare your language to theirs and see if anything overlaps.
Share your own story
Since they’re never going to meet you in person, you need to show the customers who you are and that you want them to meet you. This is best done through a short but informative origin story. However, don’t just state some facts about your brand and call it a day. Rather, engage in it and give it a personal touch. Also, state your purpose and explain how you wish to help your buyers and how you want to improve their lives with your product.
Once you come up with your origin story it is time to share it with your consumers and build your brand around it. Create an “About Us” page on your site and post your story there. Besides text, you can use photos and videos to get your story and message across, and help your buyers connect with you.
Having a business is more than just making money. However, in order to build a successful eCommerce brand and business, you need to know how to appeal to your buyers. They are never going to see you face to face, so a strong and personal website is essential. Follow these steps in the making of your brand, and you can be sure that you’re going to get plenty of loyal customers.
Meet the author
Ian Lewis is a father, writer, and a marketing expert. His favourite quote: There are three ways to ultimate success: The first way is to be kind. The second way is to be kind. The third way is to be kind. You can find him on Twitter.
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