Start your brand communication strategy on a firm foundation.

Discover How to Create a Brand That Bonds You to Customers

Eleven questions you should get answered before you begin Internet brand building

From search engine optimization to landing page design to monitoring online rumors, building customer loyalty for a brand requires careful planning.

Dear Business Builder,

If you’re a bit confused about building customer loyalty for a brand using your Web site, you’re not alone.

The advent of the commercial Internet changed everything about developing a brand communication strategy. Branding is no longer a slow build.

And Web 2.0 — the second generation of Web sites that emphasizes customer interactivity — has made Internet brand building even more challenging.

The good news is that the opportunity for achieving brand-building success virtually “overnight” is greater than ever.

The bad news is, if you get your brand communication strategy wrong, your product and company reputation can disintegrate at the speed of light … along with your career.

Fortunately, success leaves clues.

So, when we examined the brand positioning strategies of some of the world’s best-known companies and most-respected brands, we discovered they share some common values.

Perhaps first and foremost, the most admired companies and products don’t leave anything about their brand positioning strategies to chance.

Their Internet brand building is strategized, deliberated, controlled, and measured. And in every instance, the most successful brand positioning strategies begin with asking and answering the following 11 questions:

1. What are our strengths, what are our competitors’ weaknesses, and how are we going to outpace them with the resources we have?
2. How can we leverage the messages, reputation, and brand equity that we’ve developed offline?
3. What is the online experience we want our Web site visitors to have?
4. What is our search engine marketing strategy for building and enhancing our brand online?
5. How can we leave visitors with a great impression, regardless of where they enter our Web site?
6. How do we prove the credibility of our promises and claims about our products and services?
7. What is our policy regarding when and how to react to online criticism of our company or products?
8. How can we facilitate a two-way conversation with our customers?
9. How can we make our Web site “sticky”?
10. Whose job is this? Is Internet brand building a do-it-yourself project, or do we need to hire outside help?
11. How can we measure and monitor the results of our brand positioning strategies?

The difference between having an online presence and having an online brand

When it comes to business, the Internet has become the great equalizer, a place where even a small retailer can successfully compete with large multinational corporations half a world away. Nothing, it seems, is impossible on the Web, which is what makes the medium so appealing.

With the right online brand-building strategy in place, a company can not only build its business quickly but also instantly transform its brand image from staid and outdated to cool and cutting-edge.

But there’s a big difference between having an online presence and having an online brand. The former requires only a URL and someone with programming experience; the latter calls for a full-fledged blueprint that begins with a thorough understanding of your company’s offerings and then leverages the latest online tools to amplify and enhance those assets.

There is no one-size-fits-all strategy for online branding

Some companies have found success by simply launching an attractive Web site and letting customers find them; others use myriad online advertising techniques – such as search engine optimization, blogs, and email marketing, to drive traffic to their site.

“I always recommend that every company do a thorough analysis of what they have before they embark on any online branding effort,” says Aaron Kahlow, managing partner at BusinessOnLine, a San Diego–based Web services company.

“Look at your strengths, look at your competitors’ weaknesses, and figure out how you’re going to outpace them with the resources you have.”

The Internet is not a platform that rewards wallflowers, points out Mary van de Wiel, a New York–based brand consultant and the founder of A New Brand Landscape & Co. To get noticed, you have to be aggressive in your brand-building strategy.

“Brands that excel tend to be vital and meaningful,” van de Wiel says. “So you can’t be afraid of the Internet. You have to want to get on people’s radar screen in a big way.”

But building a successful online brand doesn’t have to break the bank. While most growing companies assume their Web site has to be bold and vibrant and serve multiple functions to keep pace, Kahlow says the focus should be on creating a positive customer experience.

“It doesn’t matter what kind of cool, flashy banners your Web site has,” Kahlow notes. “If someone doesn’t have a good experience in finding what they want, they’re going to have a negative impression of your brand.”

The most important lesson in online brand building is that the Internet should never be used to position a company as something it isn’t.

“You always want to make sure that your online brand actually reflects who you say you are,” advises van de Wiel. “I’ve seen far too many brands go overboard when they design a Web site. They fill it up with bells and whistles, or they use different language while forgetting that the real key to any brand message is authenticity.”

In Creating a Brand That Bonds You to Customers, we offer specific, comprehensive advice for building an online brand.

The easy-to-understand, actionable tips, tools, and advice from industry experts will not only help you increase traffic to your Web site and boost your brand’s credibility, but also give you a leg up on the competition.

Effective brand building that focuses on customers’ needs

Along with knowing and understanding your own products and messages, great online branding also requires that you keep your customers’ needs top of mind when designing a Web site or launching an online advertising campaign.

These days, it’s far too easy to get carried away by the latest graphics and online tools, while forgetting that not everybody has the most powerful computer or high-speed Internet access.

Whatever you do, be sure your site’s design and content are aimed at enhancing the customer experience.

Give visitors really simple navigation, where they can follow things around, and they’ll just love your simple Web site. A complicated Web site is one that they will quickly click away from.

Grant Johnson, president of Brookfield, Wis.–based Johnson Direct, says the best companies view their online brand from a customer’s vantage point.

“Companies like Amazon.com, eBay, Victoria’s Secret, and Harry & David are successful online because they understand that Internet branding is more about the user experience than the message,” he points out.

“They all put a lot of focus on making their sites easy to navigate, easy to buy products from, and easy to return things to, which are the major components for making sure your customers have a good experience.”

Although Johnson concedes that the companies cited above are all big brands with deep pockets, the lessons they offer are universal. “You don’t have to spend like the big boys, but you do have to remove barriers to the consumer,” he says.

“Remember, if someone has a frustrating experience at a brick-and-mortar retailer, they may tell a few people, but someone who has a crappy experience at your Web site can easily tell the whole world.”

Discover the new rules for building customer loyalty

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With my sincere best wishes for your continued success,

Bill Dugan
Vice President/General Manager
FuelNet

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