How to Keep Brand Cohesion Throughout Your Online Marketing

One of the most important factors to a small business’ marketing success is how they build their presence across the web, on websites such as Google, YouTube, Twitter, Yelp, and Facebook.

However, when your business is present in all of these places, it’s crucial to make sure you make customers feel like they’re connecting with the same company and brand, no matter where they see your business.

For example, when a potential customer is watching a video of yours on YouTube, you want them to see the same logo, business colors, and even the same tagline that you use on all other social networks and your website.

Brand Cohesion and Recognition

It’s easy for companies such as Coca-Cola to advertise in hundreds of different places and still keep brand cohesion because they’ve invested billions of advertising dollars in making sure that the Coca-Cola brand is one of the most recognizable in the world. No matter how they design their ad, or what form it may take, all they have to do is put one small Coca-Cola logo on the ad and everyone in the world will be able to recognize it.

But when you’re a small business serving a large community, not everyone is familiar your brand and business. Because of this, you have to make sure that no matter where a potential customer might encounter your brand they see the same type of communication they might get from a different place. If your tagline is “All-You-Can-Eat Delicious Pizza,” you want customers to get that message no matter where they see your business.

If a potential customer sees an ad for you in a local magazine that says “All-You-Can-Eat Delicious Pizza” but then on Facebook you put “The Best Selection of Pizzas in Town” as your tagline, you’re losing out on the opportunity to make your business known as THE all-you-can-eat pizza place in town. The more they see your business and your tagline together, the more likely you are to be known for that tagline, and the value they associate with it.

By making sure that your website, social media profiles, and print advertising all match in theme and messaging, you will also give potential customers a feeling of consistency which will help them to recognize your brand. This *brand recognition is one of the most valuable assets a small business can have.*

Steps to Improve Your Brand Cohesion

The following steps will help you to improve your brand identity and make your business recognizable and known in your service area.

1. Social Media Profile Images: Make them match!

Having multiple social media profiles is great for your small business. The more places you can get your business to show up online, the better! But when you start to plaster your brand all across social media profiles, you have to make sure that the images you use match. When the images match across profiles it creates the brand cohesion we talked about earlier, which helps customers recognize your brand.

2. Create an Effective Marketing Message and Tagline

When you create the message that your company will use as its primary messaging, you need to make sure it effectively communicates the most valuable aspect of doing business with you. You then use your messaging to create the tagline that you’ll use across all of your marketing and your website. By placing the same tagline on all of your social media profiles and your website, you’ll make sure that no matter where a potential customer sees your brand they associate it with that same value.

3. Use Video and Engaging Photos

If you have videos and photos of your business in action helping real customers, this media can give potential customers a preview of what doing business what you actually looks like. When a customer reads your tagline and then sees visual proof of it in the form of a video, they begin to trust your business and see themselves doing business with you.

4. Events Showcasing Your Brand

Small Businesses can sponsor a variety of community events that give you the chance to put your brand in front of a large number of eyeballs. Is there a little league baseball tournament happening in your town? Sponsor the event and set up a hot-dog station. Give away hot dogs and free koozies with your logo and tagline on it. If your tagline communicates value, such as “The fastest responding plumber in town,” you can build your brand’s image and reputation in your community.

Putting It All Together for Solid Brand Cohesion

What most of these efforts come down to is the ability of your business to get your brand in front of potential customers with a logo they can identify as yours, and a message that communicates value that they will remember. If you can build an identity around your brand that potential customers recognize, your business stands a good chance of being the first they think of when they need the service that you offer.