Does anybody really care if the tagline on your company’s Facebook page matches your email signature?
The short answer is no, probably not. Unless you have a customer who spends a weird amount of time reviewing all of your marketing materials and is set on finding minor flaws. Although it’s unlikely that consumers will notice minor brand inconsistencies in your marketing mix, you should (this is actually a big part of your job).
In fact, ensuring brand consistency on all channels and platforms – both digital and not will benefit your business in more ways than you think. Using a principles-based approach to strategy that places an emphasis on consistency, quality and feedback will serve as a catalyst to a successful digital marketing plan that supports the overarching business goals of your company.
How can you benefit from digital alignment through consistent branding?
Increased Brand Awareness
Have you ever had an “oh yeah I’ve heard of those guys!” moment? Improving your brand awareness can help you become ‘one of those guys’. There are obvious benefits that come from being more widely recognized for any business and should be a priority regardless of your company’s growth stage or size. Staying “top of mind” for potential customers makes a massive difference when they’re considering your product or service. According to the rule of 7, it takes a customer 7 impressions of your brand before they recognize and remember it. If you have inconsistencies in your branding, this already high number becomes even higher.
An increase in brand awareness will also lead to an increase in the lifetime value of your customers (aka repeat purchases). A general rule of thumb is that repeat customers are nine times as likely to convert as first time shoppers. Once a customer or client has a relationship with your brand, they’re far more likely to buy from you again and to recommend your products or services to other people in their network. Since acquiring new customers is far more costly than repeat customers, customer retention is crucial to any business’s long-term success. Brand loyalty creates a higher level of security for businesses and improves company credibility (we’ll get to that soon.)
But before we get to that, let’s dive into SEO (search engine optimization) for a second.
Optimize your SEO (Search Engine Optimization)
SEO stands for search engine optimization and is the process of improving both the quality and quantity of your website traffic. Although consistent branding and messaging likely isn’t the first thing to come to mind when you think of improving your website’s SEO, it plays a considerable role in the algorithm.
Brand recognition is critical in generating clicks – and if consumers don’t recognize your brand, it’s likely that search engines won’t either. So while we may not normally think of SEO as an important reason for consistent branding, it’s actually one of the biggest factors. For newer brands, it can be hard to just tell people to trust them. It’s the double-edged sword that you can’t get a job without experience, and to build experience you need a job. SEO or value-driven content can help to share value downstream and create alignment with those topics to increase and improve trust.
Improve Company Credibility
If a consumer sees your brand when searching for a product or service, and recognizes it, that familiarity creates a sense of security for your customer. When a company you’ve never interacted with before reaches out to you, do you immediately feel secure in talking with that company? Probably not. Well, unless you just enjoy living on the edge.
We trust certain brands because they effectively communicate why they exist, and all their branding and actions that follow are consistent with the why. Therefore building and maintaining brand trust and credibility should remain a top priority for any business. Omnipresence can help increase the touch-point frequency and help businesses to be the big fish in a small pond.
To Wraps Things Up
So yes, it’s detrimental to your business to have an old logo or tagline on one of your social pages. Remember that if you want people to consistently recognize your brand, you yourself need to exercise branding consistency across your marketing mix. While it may seem insignificant on a small scale, ensuring brand alignment across all digital platforms will give your brand the foundation it needs to grow.
Do you think you or your business could benefit by learning more about digital strategy? Drop us a note at info@sidepart.com for a free consultation! We’re always up for meeting new people and hearing about the digital challenges facing businesses in today’s market.
