From Zero to Hero: Build your Brand through Online Marketing

For SMEs, marketing’s about getting your name out there and recognised for what you do in your local area. And when that effort’s focused around digital marketing, the temptation is to follow the herd; getting carried away with the latest tech capability and putting maximum time into optimising Internet searches through keywords and location references. Now, while this is a smart way to drive up visits to your website and deepen its online footprint, it doesn’t do as much for an age-old tenet of marketing, one that’s absolutely critical for SMEs in their local communities – branding.

 Be consistent

One of the unbreakable rules to achieve successful branding is consistency. Whenever your company’s name is mentioned – or its address, email address or telephone number(s) are – and wherever that may be (on your website, a review site, an industry-specific online forum or community, a blog or a social media platform like Twitter or LinkedIn), make sure it’s always consistent. You’re selling your business whenever it’s mentioned on the Internet; that means you’re constantly selling a brand. To do that well, it has to be the same every time so it lodges in people’s memories. To this end, you must be consistent when uploading images, photos and videos too. Especially your business’s logo(s). If an online marketing company in Dubai is primarily responsible for your digital marketing, make sure they’re aware of what they should be doing for you.

Build reputation

Just as important in brand-building, of course, is establishing a reputation as a quality business that reliably delivers. In a digital marketing sense, this means a combination of good sales service and good after-sales service. The latter might see you invite a satisfied customer to write a recommendation of what you’ve done for them on a review site, or keep people up to date with what your business is up to and offer them bargains and special package deals via emails or app alerts.

Plus, when you compile a blog article on your website revealing insight into your business’s niche, make sure it offers genuine insight and reflects who you are and what you do; make sure it demonstrates integrity and doesn’t contain falsehoods. Building a brand’s about trust. It’s about being there for your customers; building a relationship with them so they’ll come back for more, not just purchase a product or service one time only.