Branding in Business

Are you giving your profits away? Is your business online - Do you realize how valuable an online presence is? It is 24/7 * inexpensive* advertising for your business. Thousands of buyers could be overlooking your business shopping cart if you are missing important information on your website.

Effective Branding

Don’t be shy about adding personal stories about your company. The more personal stories that are connected with your brand, the more reality your brand becomes. Brands are almost like life: They offer a point of view, hand on hand relation with your customers, statement of truth and carry a tune. Personal ties with your brand reflect an opinion about you company. So if you are doing something nice for the public – let them know about it.

Branding Your Website Business Can Make You or Break You

Branding is psychological. Look what would happen if your the favorite chewing gum changed its label. Probably won't taste the same right?

Branding your business should not be expensive or hard to do. You want to make a clear statement about your brand with images, slogans, packaging or otherwise. You want to use your mark whenever possible.
Letterheads, on your website, outgoing emails, advertising and invoices. Use your image in the left hand corner when ever possible.

Two kinds of branding: Direct experience and indirect messaging. Example: Direct experience is emotions directly aim to remind you to buy their a car. Indirect messaging is remind you to buy their car and remind you to buy a their brand of tires. When designing your website it is recommended to choose one or the other type of branding.

"By the way. Our brand slogan is "Trust In Business". Our Motto is: Invest in your business and let it be seen.

The amount of people shopping online is growing and fifty percent of credit card spending is spent online. Research shows that 75% online buyers do not know who to trust.

If you are selling online then tell your visitor up front what it is you are selling. Sell to them the same way you want to be sold to. Make it clear that you are going to charge a price for a service or product. Make it clear on your home page.

• Your customers need to trust you to buy your products or services
• You need to realized that YES they do check your return policies. If you have a money back guarantee on your service or product explain it to them up front.
• What about the payments' Remember the best Internet sites provide the most secure purchase programs available online.
• Explain what are you doing with their private information or code of ethics.
• Provide them with your contact information and customer service number.
• Try to respond back to your clients in a reasonable amount of time. Companies with good customer service are rewarded with returning customers and new customers by word of mouth
• Try to get most of this information to your customer on your home page. Trust sells and trust is just as important to you as it is to your customers.
• Tell them straight out that you are going to reply back to their customer service questions
• Apply for a few business related website awards.

Other important issues to apply to your site:

Purchase an appropriate domain name Paying for your own domain name and domain name email addresses build trust and is professional looking. It is easier to trust someone who has evidently made an investment in his or her business. This also may help you in some search engine ranking.

Include contact information

Provide phone numbers, hours of operation (including time zone), and a business mailing address, your web-masters email address and your business email address.

Keep your content updated

To be current; the content of your site must be no more than 3 months old. Add the date you last worked the site on your home page.

Include a family or personal touch

Provide an "About Me/Us" page. Provide the names of the owner, president and provide the reason why you started your business.

Avoid password or flash screens

If you want to use the option of flash pages, fancy music, etc., give visitors the option of viewing them. Don't force them to download any programs.

Limited your affiliate programs

Remember visitors are at your site to find out about your service or buy your products.

Cater to everyone

Don’t forget to include tags with your images to assist those with sight disabilities.

Comply with local laws regarding business practices or state taxes

Comply with all regulations prohibiting discrimination based on race, sex, religion, nationality, disability, sexual orientation, or age.

Make it quick

Most visitors will not have the patience to wait around much longer than the reasonable load time and will gladly move on. A site that loads quickly and is neatly designed, will show that you are a professional business. You can lose up to 1/3 of your traffic with slow loading pages. How many times did you leave the Fast Food lane when the wait was over 1 minute? Link it

Make sure your links are working. Test them at least once a month.

Spell it right

If you want your site to be as professional as it can be. Use Spell check.

Don’t be afraid to ask your customers for testimonials.

Testimonials provide a way for your customers to learn about your credibility and trustiness.