Branding in itself is a constantly evolving field. Digital branding is, for the most part, your classic branding but designed specifically for digital channels to catch the attention of always-online customers and adapt to new ways of working. While this might seem scary (because it is), there are plenty of ways to succeed in digital branding.
Though digital branding and marketing should go hand-in-hand to enable success, they are not the same. Digital marketing helps your brand reach customers (and to sell your products or services), while digital branding is about building a brand identity that is recognisable to your customers. Branding is one of the most crucial factors in determining customer loyalty.
Digital marketing focuses on promoting your brand, products or services, while digital branding helps establish brand value and identity. So, let’s get right to it! Here are five key ways to master digital branding.
Suggested reading: Brand consistency can feel like an uphill struggle, staring down an endless approval list! Please take a look at our brand consistency toolkit to give you a helping hand.
1. Prioritise brand consistency
Maintaining complete brand consistency on both an internal and external level is more important than you might think. According to the latest studies, the consistent brand presentation can help to increase revenue. However, maintaining brand consistency in a digital world is easier said than done.1
With an increasing number of brand assets, e.g. images, documents, videos and multiple social media platforms that often require different exclusive formats for publishing and distribution, it can be a significant challenge to ensure brand consistency.
If your business covers multiple regions across the globe, you will need to create localised branding material, which can make tasks even more tricky. After all, sometimes it’s a big enough challenge just getting your branding consistent in ONE region. Disparate teams working on different aspects of branding are another common reason for the brand inconsistency. So, how do we fix that?
- Digital asset management (DAM): Tech is the only solution to the challenges we’re facing with branding going digital — and an advanced DAM platform can be the solution to the most common inconsistency issues you’ll face. DAM offers a robust, centralised, on-the-cloud platform for seamlessly storing, managing, and distributing all of your approved, on-brand content.
- Brand management software (BMS): A handy BMS platform essentially includes digital asset management (DAM) platform along with a host of other management features — approval workflows and Digital and Print templates, to name a couple — that will not only help you to maintain brand consistency to a T but also to streamline the process as a whole.
2. Focus on longevity
Consider longevity to ensure you create a timeless, recognisable brand image when it comes to digital branding. While it’s good to stay current as the world of digital branding evolves, your brand should present an unwavering experience for your customers AND teams, creating a sense of consistency and confidence.
Lack of originality and concentrating too much on fads — rather than long-term impact — can quickly pull your brand away from its core values. While trends might bring you short-term results, they will not help your brand to withstand the test of time. If you’re confident in your branding (which you should be, especially when using a good BMS), then you shouldn’t have to change it to suit short-lived design trends.
Your digital branding strategy should focus on creating a unique identity that appeals to customers and aligns with your core values and future goals. Customisation might be needed for holidays or regions, but if you keep switching up your branding, YOU’LL stop being able to keep track, let alone your customers!
- Digital and Print templates: Let’s face it: not everyone can be a natural designer, but that doesn’t change the reality that many people in your team might have to access or edit branding material. Using templates to create your branding material is a quick and effective solution to ensure better brand consistency and a solid starting point for your team.
- Brand guidelines: Clear brand guidelines focused on brand vision can work as the cornerstone for developing branding content. It is the easiest way to ensure that all content is up-to-date and consistent. It helps all the team members to be on the same page and better understand what you are looking for.
3. Consider integrations
A well-integrated system is vital for achieving your digital marketing goals. Suppose your marketing tools cannot be integrated seamlessly with other platforms you’re using for content development or distribution. In that case, you will navigate through a complex web of applications, making your task more tedious. We’ve all been there, and let’s be honest: no one wants to deal with the tangled mess of manually managing all your brand material. Having a fully integrated brand management system at your beck and call is how you can ensure better digital branding without the stress.
- BMS as a comprehensive platform: Using multiple separate tools in your MarTech stack only complicates operations. To simplify digital branding, opt for a brand management solution like Brandworkz that covers it all. From a mighty DAM to innovative features like easy grouping and share options to thorough reporting and analytics, a single window for all of your brand asset management is vital.
Pro tip: You can learn more about how to re-evaluate your MarTech stack through this blog!
Complete integration with BMS: A fully integrated BMS system can deliver all the benefits technology offers to make digital branding seamless. The BMS should seamlessly integrate with your other MarTech apps like Microsoft Office and CI-Hub. The Brandworkz API, for example, is built as a service-oriented architecture that allows easy interaction and integration with other applications.
4. Think about flexibility and creativity
Creativity is an excellent tool to stand out in the digital space and create authentic brand awareness. When you want to create a brand with a core message but still enough flexibility for region or culture-specific customisations, you need to partner with a solution that supports creativity AND consistency.
A simple way to track and control all the processes from the same platform can make branding much more flexible and easy. It empowers your team to efficiently develop and manage existing brand assets without sacrificing their creative flair.
- Approval workflows: Approval for every piece of content is an integral step to ensure quality and consistency. However, in a disparate team, regular approvals can become a tedious task. An advanced BMS should help to streamline all brand and marketing approval processes, simplifying workflows.
- Logo finder: A simple yet beneficial feature to make digital branding content creation easier. A quick decision tree to get you to the right logo in the correct format can considerably reduce search time while minimising the risk of using the wrong logo or missing out on one completely.
Reporting and analytics: The ability to easily track how your team interacts with your digital assets can give you complete clarity and control over your processes, irrespective of your team’s physical location.
5. Know how effective your branding really is
Evaluating your branding efforts can help you better understand how effective it is, and an integrated BMS can help you quickly review all of your branding content through just a quick search. Even better, the platform will also help you create functional templates to see how your designs will work when they come to life. It’s unfair to expect your whole team to have a perfect eye for design. Still, this can help show your team what good design looks like while ensuring every piece of work that comes back meets the right expectations.
- Brand showcase: Promoting the best practices within the brand management system is an intelligent way to stop your team from reinventing what has already been done and settled. Showcasing the best work and ideas from your global team within the platform will ensure that all team members are on the same page. An extra perk? This’ll reduce wastage AND production costs by minimising duplication!
- Brand insights: This feature employs AI-powered bots to scour the total digital space and find all your brand content with a single click. It can be beneficial to ensure brand consistency across all digital platforms.
Become a branding master with brand management software
Branding will continue to evolve to keep up with the new challenges posed by the changing market, and you need technology by your side to take these on and come out as a winner. The five critical branding practices that can make you a master in digital branding can be best achieved with a powerful and comprehensive Brand Management Solution — which will help you to create a core brand image that you can market effectively.
Brandworkz is a Brand Management Platform that covers a complete suite of software designed to streamline digital branding. Along with a mighty DAM that takes care of all your digital asset storage, management and sharing needs, it also bundles in advanced features like Digital and Print templates, approval workflows, brand guidelines, logo finder support, integrations and more, all to help you feel confident in your digital branding.
If your digital branding efforts are not driving remarkable results or if you feel there’s still scope for improvement, it’s time to give a sophisticated platform like Brandworkz a try. To experience how Brandworkz can take your digital branding to the next level, book a demo today.
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