Oh, Internet… You’ve done so much good for us, made our lives so much easier, and you’ve opened up the floodgates for companies and brands to get recognized in a matter of seconds. This was not possible only 20 years ago. So what are we to do about becoming a well-recognized and remembered brand in a vast sea of similar companies and competition?

Modern society is still new, and the internet is still a baby, but we are finally reaching a point where society is settling into this new digital age and growing accustomed to using the internet for just about everything.

That being said, here are the top 3 secrets to harnessing the internet to optimize branding in 2017 that will remain relevant for a long time.

 

Add Your Personality and Value to Your Marketing Plan
Use Social Media and Email to Showcase Your Personality and Give People a Taste of Your Brand

One of the most effective ways to stand out when there is an incredible amount of competition is to showcase your personality. There are tons of people and businesses all over offering the same service as you, giving the same advice, and selling the same products. Since marketing for the top of the funnel is how you interact with new, potential customers, that’s exactly where you need to start giving away free demos and highlighting your personal touch to grab and keep their attention.

Create email marketing campaigns that tell your story using GMass to mass email your list and make it look personal. People would much rather read about how you got into your field than another promotional email with a coupon that’s flooding their inbox.

Be creative with your social media posts and find fun ways to give away free advice on a consistent basis. A great example is Gary Vaynerchuck’s Wine Library TV, a YouTube channel where he tastes wine and gives advice to support his father’s wine business.

When you combine free value with personality for your marketing plan, the synergy from that duo will increase your results tenfold and make your brand a household name in no time.

 

Focus on User Experience
Businesses No Longer Have the Power

With the internet at our fingertips, the power has shifted to the consumer. Consumers have the freedom to research and understand everything they need to know about a company and brand right from the comfort of their phones. This means that every little detail regarding your customers’ interactions with your business should be your number one priority.

It’s smart to assume that people have short attention spans and short tempers, even though we know that not every person is that way. With this assumption, every detail matters, including the color schemes on your website and decreasing the load time when someone clicks your call to action button.

The number one priority for your website should be usability, NOT information. Sure, it’s important to have all of the details that your customers need to know, but if they can’t find the information they need easily, then the information is essentially useless.

Want to learn more? Check out this udemy course on UX design.

 

Utilize Creativity Over Competition
Competition is Short Term and Creativity is Long Term

In Peter Thiel’s Zero to One, he makes the point that the only way a business succeeds in the long term is by offering something that no one else can offer. Focus on creating a monopoly instead of a competitor.

This shift doesn’t have to be that dramatic. Starting the next Facebook isn’t the only way to create a successful business. It could simply be the fact that you are offering your unique perspective towards solving a problem for a client. Study your competition to see what they are and are not doing, and think of ways to be different, even if it’s only a couple ways.

When you shift your thinking from “how can we compete with them?” to “what can we uniquely offer that no one else can?”, the power is now in your hands.

Competition is great for short term gains like getting the competitive edge now to make more sales, but creativity is great for long term gains because your brand won’t last if you’re only focused on your competition.

 

This is the Future of Branding

Any time someone says something is “the future” that means you better start doing it NOW. Technology moves incredibly fast, while people’s changing habits moves very slowly. These are the branding secrets you need to implement to get ahead of everyone else. Change isn’t always easy or comfortable, but when you take the time to be creative in your business, have amazing UX on your website, and add your personality across the board, everyone will start looking to you and asking you how your brand grew so fast.

 

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Drew Klebine: Content Marketer, Tech Writer, Philosopher, Musician

Drew Klebine is a Content Marketer, Tech Writer, Philosopher, and Musician from Pittsburgh, PA. His writings focus on modern marketing practices, software reviews, upcoming technologies, brand and product promotion, health, self-actualization, religion, and existential philosophy.

Lead writer and co-owner of uxax.org, where we help you understand the integration of user experience and analytics to power an amazing product.