Branding. You hear the word all the time. But you may not know what it means.

I look at some websites and they are a total departure from  the communications and marketing materials the same business produces offline. So the key to branding your blog or website is to make sure they also match the look and strategic message of your printed materials and broadcast messages if you have them.

Pay per click advertising should also carry your message as it will likely attract the people you’ve designed your website to appeal to. For instance, if you are selling high end dog food you would not run a ppc ad that says, ’super cheap dog food’. You might get traffic but you would not be bringing in your target market and conversions would be miserable. You would have the Walmart types totally perplexed at your outrageously-priced frou frou dog food when what they came to the site looking for is cheap dog food. (We are going to ignore the fact that someone looking for cheap dog food is not likely to shop for it on the internet.)

So basically branding is consistency of design, message and tone of the copy that should be a motif throughout all communications from your stationary and business cards to your website,  email campaigns, ppc and print ads as well as any broadcast messages, bags and POP (point of purchase signage).

The benefit is ‘awareness leverage’

If each and every thing you produce looks nothing like the other, you do not get the advantage of building awareness of your product or service easily. Things that have a similar look and hang together visually start to build a brand image and consumer familiarity. From here, you build awareness and get to leverage the power of previous products to launch new ones. New products should carry the same tag line or message, too. A simplified example would be tomato sauce.

You go to the supermarket and get Tomato Blaster tomato sauce. You’re are an artsy fartsy type so you really like the illustrated label, organic ingredients and the herbal taste. So Tomato Blaster brand comes out with garlic flavor pasta sauce and in addition introduces some whole wheat organic pasta. All carry the same style organic illustrated label so you know it’s part of the brand family.

Now Tomato Blaster has created some brand loyalty and you are more likely to look and be familiar with their products and have positive vibes about it. It is a brand that caters to your likes and dislikes so you are apt to notice new additions to the product line and buy them. You like the first brand so you stick with new products that they introduce.

Brands are high end, middle or low end and their design and message caters to this positioning. A high end package is going to be nicely designed and those on the low end will look more generic and try to look cheap so penny pinchers will go for it. They might even make fun of the fact their label is so boring and call their generic brand, “Really Cheap Tomoato Sauce. Made from the same damn tomatoes as the jar that costs double.”

This is what you need to keep in mind when creating a blog or website, too.

Leverage what you have created to attract attention to new articles, brands, products.  You’re building something one brick at a time, little by little. And don’t think it takes one or two pieces to do this. It takes persistence and time and CONSISTENCY and acute knowledge of your target audience which you will get more data about as you go along. It’s the key to creating a loyal following, building an audience and a brand image. It is the key to business success online or offline.