Branding is one of the most crucial aspects linked to the success of any organization, whether big or small, retail or B2B. There have been many confusions surrounding the definition of branding, decades ago it was defined as the name, logo, slogan, symbol or design or a combination of all these elements put together to identify products or services in a company. But branding is so much more than that now, a modern way of describing branding is- your promise to your customer. This tells them what to expect from your products or services, and this makes you stand out from your competitors.

The world has gone digital and many organizations have evolved their branding strategies to include digital in their brand campaigns. Digital Branding is basically brand management using digital channels. This involves using digital marketing to tell a brand story over a range of digital avenues, building and sustaining relationships between the brand and its customers. One of the most important parts of branding is that it creates connections between consumers and the products or services being consumed, this way brand recognition is established and digital helps to package and spread that across the entire web space. Digital Branding has some key areas that better explains it.

• Brand Story: Your brand is much more than the logo, the slogan or the products and services, your brand has a story behind it and you need to tell it. Google has a story behind it that it proudly shared, how two PhD students founded the company at Stanford University, how they came up with the name, and many interesting things. Your company also has that kind of story. Thinks about your brand roots, what you do and why you do it and how your brand experience is unique and better. Creating a brand story will help you stand out from the noise in the digital space and more importantly, help build affinity and customer advocacy.

• Creativity in Digital Media: This has a lot to do with the content your brand puts out. There’s a lot of thought and work that goes into this which is done carefully and deliberately to pass on your brand message to your customers. Content is of utmost importance here, be it colourful and catchy images that display your products or services, or videos that show your brand in a CSR project or a learning topic that shows thought leadership in your industry or better still text content within a blog that talks about your business and its staff. This builds followership, trust, and loyalty on the part of your customers.

• Creating Digital Relationships: This is probably the most crucial point; digital branding should build and sustain relationships with customers. Engagement is key here, the information you provide about your brand should be insightful and engaging enough so as to get your customers talking to you and each other. Creating better and timely user experience for customers. Setting up a customer relationship management centre is also advisable, it will improve customer service and also get feedback on how your customers view your brand. A CRM is very effective in handling customer complaints. A well-managed CRM system will have a significant effect on your brand if managed well.