Multi-Platform Branding is Essential to Your Business Success

Creating, and maintaining, a brand across platforms can be a challenge, particularly if the idea of cross-channel marketing and multiple platforms leave you scratching your head. In fact, what do those terms even mean, and where do you start?

Branding is about so much more than a logo or recognizable imagery these days; it’s about engaging customers at every turn, establishing relationships, and encouraging loyalty. In short, branding is everything. The way you approach cross-channel marketing, and interact with each platform available defines your brand and determines the successes and failures of your business.

Branding is more than advertising; it’s used to express your company’s voice and relay its message, and to create an identity by which you’ll forever be associated. A strong brand will carry your company well above its nearest competitors, reach out to customers, and attract their loyalty. More than that, branding is essential for personal identity. In understanding, creating, and maintaining your brand you ensure that all employees, no matter their job description, comprehend where the company has come from, what its main goals are, and where it’s hell-bent on going.

The evolution of branding

While branding once revolved around a company’s image, color schemes, and logos, print and television advertising, these days there are multiple platforms on which customers can be engaged.

Cross-channel marketing, or multi-platform branding, encompasses a variety of mediums. Rather than relying upon a single method of marketing, such as print media, multi-platform branding can be adapted to embrace all kinds of platforms, including targeted pop-up adverts, social media pages, viral videos, mobile apps, and websites and e-commerce. It is essential that you realize your brand identity is just that; the ‘face’ that customers will recognize instantly, and engage with.

Rather than waiting for customers to come to you, or stumbling across your marketing material by accident, multi-platform branding allows your company to step out of its comfort zone and engage with potential customers like never before; Social media and SEO (search engine optimization) are vital when it comes to cross-channel marketing; these days it’s all about being seen.

Ensuring branding success

Understand your customers: Before you begin the task of creating a brand it is essential to get to know your customers, their spending habits, and how they’ll access your marketing material. How do they use and interact with technology? Where are they most likely to come across your brand? The age and web habits of your clients will say so much about where your brand needs to go.

Define and create: First thing’s first; while understanding the platforms you’ll be accessing is essential, it’s also important that you stay true to your brand. Don’t plan a campaign around the media, but allow it to work for you. Have an idea of what you’d like your brand to stand for, and achieve, and create something that defines your business’s story; who are you, what do you stand for, and where are you going? Your brand should be fluent, and recognizable across any platform.

Voice and communication: The tone of voice your brand uses is vital; it must be unique and specific, able to stand the test of time and the domination of the crowd. Be sure to communicate your brand clearly and honestly, making sure that it is reflective of the products and services on offer. A brand isn’t a smokescreen to trick customers in, but a means of introducing the service you deliver.

Consistency: Perhaps most important when it comes to branding is consistency; try to avoid repetition, but ensure the image that you’re delivering is the same across all platforms. It must be recognizable, regardless of how customers are choosing to engage with you. Remain focused on your brand and its message, use tools and resources wisely, and don’t waste a second of exposure. Finally, use your brand to inspire customers to feel a certain way about your business; ensure they know who you are, and what you’re able to offer.

When it comes to branding across multiple platforms there are three ‘C’s that you must remember, without which many marketing attempts prove futile. They are courage, commitment, and communication. It takes great courage to think outside of the box and to push your business further than ever before, commitment to ensure that your brand remains consistent and accessible, and communication to convey that message in the first place.

It’s also important to remember that these platforms will continue to evolve. Already we have seen so many changes to the ways in which companies market themselves and engage with customers. As a business you must be prepared to accept your growing brand as an ongoing concern, and to develop it as the times change. How you move with those times will depend entirely upon you, but be sure to listen to your customers, as they’ll be your biggest fans, or critics.