Driving Growth for Sustainable Brands
A successful brand thrives on creating strong engagement.
In a world of uncertainty and oversaturation, brands must connect with their customers and maintain their relevance. Over the past decade, more consumers have decided to shop online rather than in traditional brick-and-mortar stores.
A Saleslion survey revealed that 85% of consumers research products online before purchasing. Websites account for 74% of that research, while social media accounts for just over 38%. Developing a strong online presence to boost awareness, drive growth, and expand your reach is more important than ever.
When you establish a strong digital presence, you open up limitless opportunities for engaging with consumers. It allows you to shape the story of what your brand represents and how you’re different from the competition.
Your digital presence includes every point of contact consumers have with your brand online, from your website to various social media accounts to third-party online review platforms.
While there’s a fair portion of your digital presence that you cannot control, as with everything online, there are still facets of your online brand presence that you can optimize to make the best impression on potential customers.
You likely understand just how important having a digital presence can be when building a brand. After all, brands with the greatest followings see the most success, right?
The true question is, “How do we get there?”
Let’s explore this concept of “building an online presence” further and see how you can implement these practical strategies to drive long-term growth.
A strong online presence can help you connect with a wider audience. The larger the audience, the greater your visibility and brand awareness.
This increase in visibility can drive more traffic to your website, which often translates into higher sales. Research shows that 36% of Millennial global internet users rely on online reviews when researching brands to purchase products and services. 38% consider reviews to be “very important” in their decision-making process.
The greater your visibility, the more opportunities potential customers have to learn about your brand, which can mean increasing the bottom line in the long run.
Another key to building a strong online presence is building a positive reputation.
Does your brand consistently appear on important platforms? Are you making meaningful contributions both in your industry and your community?
When your audience regularly encounters you brand online, it helps instill trust and encourage engagement. A business that’s seen as legitimate, credible, and, most importantly, trustworthy has a better chance of achieving long-term success.
It’s important to note that building a reputation takes time. This is not something you’ll be able to do overnight.
Marketing expert Jeffrey Lant suggests that a potential customer needs to encounter your brand seven times within 18 months before even considering a purchase. This means consistently making an effort to engage with your audience and establish trust.
Start by identifying the platforms or sites where your target audience frequents and establish your reputation there. The goal should be to garner positive reviews, regardless of the platform.
Over 88% of consumers trust online reviews as much as they’d trust a personal recommendation from a friend. Additionally, 75% of people are more likely to trust a company with positive reviews and engagement.
If you’re reading this, you’re likely a consumer yourself. Think about how you approach reviews and reputation during the purchasing process. If you’re like most people, you probably perform some general brand research and check out product reviews online before you make a decision. The same might even be true at a physical store.
The key takeaway is that managing your brand’s online reputation is one of the most important parts of your marketing strategy. Your marketing team should make these activities a regular practice:
Your brand is your identity.
Each time a customer interacts with it, they form a deeper understanding of what your company represents and the principles behind your brand. This is where maintaining brand consistency comes into play.
You need to ensure that each interaction is familiar and recognizable to the customer. Familiarity makes things easier to remember, and when your brand’s values and promises are clear and align with those of your audience, it establishes a deeper connection.
When developing a consistent strategy, consider your choice of channels, the frequency of your presence across those channels, and the style of CTAs and messaging in your copy and multimedia.
Of course, consistency won’t do you any good if you’re not targeting the right audience.
Make sure that your brand’s message resonates with the specific interests and needs of your average consumer. Prioritize the relevance of your audience to create more impactful messaging and increase your chances of successfully reaching your marketing objectives.
But how can you determine if your content is relevant?
From a data standpoint, you can assess content relevance by examining audience engagement metrics. Google Analytics is a wonderful customer relationship management (CRM) tool for gaining an overview of customer behavior regarding your content.
Look for content that is receiving positive responses or high engagement rates. Consumer actions like sharing, liking, or commenting can suggest that the content is connecting well with your audience.
Beyond data, monitor actual consumer feedback for a more holistic approach to your growth strategy. Whether good or bad, you can consider it as you continue refining your marketing.
A key element of building your online presence, which goes hand in hand with the above tip, is establishing a strong connection with your target audience.
Doing so allows you to gain insight into their interests, preferences, and needs, enabling you to better meet their expectations. People’s perceptions of your brand are often shaped by their experiences with it. If you don’t engage regularly and have meaningful interactions with your audience, you lose control over that perception.
Today’s consumers seek authenticity and genuine conversation. While there’s always a space for traditional customer support, as a modern brand, you must also be able to provide exceptional experiences across each customer touchpoint, social media being the most important.
The greater your interactivity and engagement, the more naturally you’ll be able to build a community surrounding your brand.
Here are a few tips to get you started:
Effectively managing your online presence requires a carefully researched and executed strategy, which is where having the right team comes into play.
A marketing team’s primary goal is to help your business thrive by attracting more customers and boosting sales. However, their role extends a bit further, depending on the brand’s structure and goals. In fact, a marketing team’s responsibilities can be quite diverse.
Growing an online presence involves several key digital marketing activities, including competitor research, SEO, web design, copywriting, advertising, and analyzing performance metrics.
Gary Vaynerchuk, CEO of VaynerMedia, suggests that a successful marketing department truly only needs four key roles:
If you’re building your marketing team for the first time, this approach should give you a solid foundation. However, as your business grows, you may want to expand beyond this core group or collaborate with an agency.
Recruiting and training an in-house marketing team requires considerable investment. However, the primary advantage of having an in-house team is their deep understanding of your brand’s values and culture.
As an employee, they know what the company stands for.
On the other hand, outsourcing to a third-party digital marketing agency can be more cost-effective in the long run, as you get more access to premium services and industry expertise.
Every brand, at one point or another, must evaluate its needs and consider the long-term implications when choosing between the two.
While you might think you have a team of sharp and savvy employees who can quickly learn new marketing skills, most small brands simply lack the time or bandwidth to do so.
Today’s marketing is more intricate than it’s ever been. To master it, you’d need a wide range of skills and knowledge that could take years of cultivation. You don’t want your business to sit idle while you become a digital marketing expert.
Plus, you’ll want to be able to concentrate your time and energy on more important tasks as your business grows. Marketing is a key part of any business’s long-term success, but as we’ve said time and time again, it’s a full-time job. Your full-time job should be running your company.
Social media alone can take up quite a bit of time and resources.
We all know how important it is for small businesses to establish a social media presence. Social media marketing is one of the most powerful ways to build brand awareness, engage with your audience, and tell your story to drive trust, reputation, and product sales.
However, social media marketing is constantly changing, making it challenging for those who cannot give it their full attention. To make matters worse, it’s becoming more competitive by the day.
Consumers are consistently bombarded with ads and marketing campaigns. To stand out, it’s important to be innovative and have a dedicated social media manager who can craft and promote high-quality, eye-capturing content.
Digital marketing experts bring both social and analytical skills to the table, allowing them to quickly identify your target audience and gain a deeper understanding of your customers’ needs. With these things in mind, they’ll be able to use your social channels as tools to motivate your customers to take action. Everything else is in your hands.
Glossier has built its brand through a community-driven, direct-to-consumer strategy. In short, its audience is at the center of everything it does.
By actively engaging with customers and seeking feedback for product development, the brand has created a strong community.
Glossier’s unique selling proposition is its skincare-first philosophy, which resonates with consumers who prefer a more authentic, minimalistic approach to makeup. The company’s Instagram account reflects this philosophy quite well, featuring real-world people instead of solely relying on models.
The effectiveness of Glossier’s approach is evident in the trust and loyalty they’ve built with their audience, who feel like they are part of a community rather than just consumers.
Innisfree is another beauty brand that has built itself up by focusing on natural ingredients and eco-friendliness. The brand has positioned itself as one that genuinely cares about the environment.
With consistency in their messaging, Innisfree has been able to appeal to environmentally conscious consumers. They source ingredients directly from Korea’s Jeju Island, which is renowned for its natural environment. You’ll see many prominent features of this island on Innisfree’s Instagram, where they showcase its beauty alongside their products.
With clear, eco-friendly positioning, the brand has paved a path that aligns with the growing worldwide focus on sustainability.
Lastly, we have Sezane, who has made strides in the world of ethical fashion. Over 75% of the materials in their current collections are eco-friendly. The brand gained quite a bit of traction on TikTok, with a combination of style advice, fashion inspiration, and videos on “giving back.”
What makes their content particularly effective is its authenticity.
Sezane features real people in street interviews. In many cases, they’ll even gift items to people they encounter. It’s this genuine, uplifting vibe that tugs at the heartstrings of the brand’s TikTok followers that’s sustained their winning formula.
In modern times, brands with a strong online presence have a clear advantage.
They can adapt to shifting circumstances in their given industry and maintain customer engagement.
At Ombre Digital, we leverage advanced technologies and digital marketing strategies to drive growth for purposeful fashion and beauty brands. With our deep expertise, we’re well-positioned to guide you on your path to digital success.
Get in touch with us today to learn more!