Building your brand sets the foundation of your business. After all, it’s hard to be the talk of the trough if no one has ever heard of you, right? Your brand shows folks who you are, what you do, and what they can expect when they interact with you.
The good news is, you don’t have to hoof it alone. We’re here to set you on the right path with tips for how to build your brand online. Let’s get started!
Building Your Brand Online
Starting a new business and learning how to build your brand doesn’t have to be intimidating. It should be a fun and exciting new venture, instead. If you want to hog all the attention from potential customers and build your following, make sure you get off on the right hoof.
A few steps to build your brand online are:
- Choosing a business name
- Creating a memorable brand logo design
- Registering a domain name that stands out
- Building a user-friendly website
- Crafting content strategy
- Establishing a social media presence
Choosing a Business Name
The first step for how to build your brand online is to choose a business name that grabs your audience’s attention, represents your brand, and is unique. You don’t want to choose a name already in use, or you’re going to have an uphill battle with everything from branding to social media handles. Even worse, if your business name is already in use elsewhere, you could be opening yourself up to copyright infringement or other repercussions.
Lots of sites will tell you to pick a business name that describes exactly what you do. Sure, there’s merit to that and it keeps it simple, but we at Porkbun enjoy a different approach, too. If you aren’t choosing a business name that is descriptive of what you do, then strive for something that makes you memorable and stand out! Porkbun is so obviously a domain name registrar, right? Okay, maybe not at first thought. But you’ve heard of us now and we’re a brand you won’t forget!
Creating a Memorable Brand Logo Design
As you jump in to build your brand online, you need a memorable brand logo design that’s going to become recognizable. Your logo is one of the first things your audience sees when interacting with your brand. It should be iconic to you and become synonymous with your brand name, voice, and stance. In a recent survey, 75% of consumers polled said they consider logos to be the most recognizable brand identifiers. Another study showed 50% of consumers are more likely to patronize a brand with a logo that they recognize.
Starting to see how important a logo is to building your brand?
Our friends over at Logo.com offer a free logo design tool to build your brand in style. Their all-in-one branding platform lets you browse through hundreds of logo designs then edit and customize what you like until you’ve got the perfect logo to build your brand online. Get creative and start building your brand the right way from the beginning!
Registering a Domain Name That Stands Out
Next up as we explore how to build your brand online is registering a domain name that stands out. It’s not just your logo that needs to be memorable. Your domain name is how people find you online. It’s an opportunity to creatively build your brand online in a unique way.
Your first instinct may be to run out and register a .com domain name for your business. While a .com can be a great domain to own, too, there are tons of different domain extensions to choose from that have greater name availability and give you a chance to build your brand online wisely.
Take a .beauty domain name, for example. Perfect for salons, makeup artists, skincare brands, and many other types of businesses, a .beauty domain lets your audience know what you’re about and what they can expect from your brand.
Alternative domain extensions to .com(mon) ones include almost anything you can imagine for any brand, business or person. Choose from .photography, .tattoo, .dev, .finance, and hundreds of others. Looking to build a community? Join the .club. What about creating a safe space for LGBTQ+ persons? A .gay domain name is perfect.
Your domain name is the gateway to building your brand online. Make it memorable. Make it count.
Building a User-Friendly Website
The best domain name and logo in the world isn’t enough to build your brand online if you don’t have a user-friendly website to accompany it! A positive brand website user experience makes a lasting impression that will have your customers oinking about how great you are. Not only does this build brand loyalty, but word-of-mouth marketing is invaluable to your overall reputation.
A user-friendly website should let visitors easily navigate throughout the site, answering questions they may have, showing them content that is relevant to them, and providing solutions they may not have even known they needed. Aside from the loyalty you’re developing as you build your brand online, it’s also essential for SEO strategy. Google puts a high priority on user experience, meaning the better your website is, the more likely you are to rank higher in the search engine results pages (SERPs).
Bonus Oink: The Porkbun Site Builder lets you create mobile-friendly, responsive sites with easy to use drag & drop tools! 🐷
Crafting a Content Strategy
Part of learning how to build your brand online is cementing yourself as a resource for folks. You might be surprised at just how much it may increase sales conversions if site visitors feel you’re more knowledgeable and providing accurate info. Beyond just information, crafting a content strategy as part of building your brand online gives you the opportunity to inspire and show off new ways of thinking your audience will resonate with.
Say you’re a photographer and you’ve come up with an awesome logo and chosen a cool .photography domain name that fit perfectly with your business. How are clients supposed to know you’re the best? It’s simple – show them with some incredible content! Content comes in all kinds of forms. For some, it’s long-form written content like blogs, recipes, or lists. For others, it may be video content or photo slideshows.
No matter what kind of content you determine is best for you and your audience, create it with a strategy in mind. Crafting content for the sake of having content will yield poor results. It’ll be thin, unhelpful content that could actually have the opposite of your intended effect, turning site visitors against your brand if they think you’re no expert in your field.
Create content with your audience in mind. Answer their most common questions. Show creative ways they can use your products or services they may not have known. Let them know you’re a leader in your industry.
Establishing a Social Media Presence
Last up on our list of ways for how to build your brand online is establishing a social media presence. It can’t come as any surprise we’d be squealing about social media, since it’s absolutely essential for any new business. Numbers don’t lie. You want to reach folks? One of your biggest platforms is social media.
You don’t need to be on every social media platform to build your brand, though. Pick the ones that make the most sense for your target audience. Where do your peeps hang out? Are they on TikTok and Instagram? Are they professionals on LinkedIn? Knowing your target demographic and where they are tells you which social media platforms to put your efforts into.
Once you’ve claimed your handles across those platforms, keep them all in one place with an effective link-in-bio tool like l.ink. A centralized link management tool directs your followers exactly where they need to go to find all the latest news, offers, and hot goss as you build your brand.
Starting to build your brand online is exciting! Follow this guide and you’ll be on your way to being the top hog in no time. Remember to engage with folks authentically. Be honest and approachable. Learning how to build your brand is a journey; enjoy it along the way!