Is your brand ready for the metaverse? It can be a complex question — for one thing; the answer depends on what “the metaverse” refers to for you as a business owner. For another, it can depend on the type of business that you run. But, ultimately, brand owners want their companies to be ready for anything — and active growth is often top on the list.

What Is The Metaverse?

The answer to this question depends on who you ask, but a simple definition is “a collection of technologies that allows us to interact in a virtual universe.” Most commonly, those technologies involve augmented or virtual reality and video.

Technically, our ability to interact with AI or with avatar representations of others on social media is an offshoot of what the metaverse is intended to be. The function of the metaverse is to meld the physical and the virtual into one.

As technology advances, experts and innovators predict that we’ll spend more time in this digital universe than we do now — and maybe more time in our virtual world than we do in the real one. With the heightened focus on digital communications and ecommerce during the past two years, this doesn’t come as a surprise. Statistics already show the rise in interest — in 2020, almost 84 million people were using AR/VR regularly in the United States alone, with that number projected to rise to 110 million next year.

There’s endless scope for the imagination with the metaverse concept — not to mention endless scope for business growth. Big companies like Microsoft and Epic have already invested in the metaverse, aiming to stake a claim on their virtual brand. As a result, the market for augmented reality, virtual reality, and mixed reality are projected to reach 300 billion dollars yearly by 2024.

There’s no doubt about it — the metaverse is the next significant shift in the digital world, and it’s best to be ready to take advantage of it!

Here are the top three ways to build your business brand in the new digital movement known as the metaverse.

Read more: The World of 2021 was Digital; Metaverse Booms in 2022

Unified Branding

Branding is always one of the top keys to building a business. Branding not only identifies who your company is but connects it with core values, products and services on offer, and even your audience.

“Just make sure you have a brand” isn’t really the best advice, though, because inconsistent branding can actually be detrimental to your overall brand. Inconsistency can cost — 90% of consumers expect to have a consistent experience with a brand regardless of the platform, and consistent brands are more likely to have strong visibility, whereas if consumers are less aware of a brand and have less of an impression of it as a whole, they’re less likely to notice the company — and therefore less likely to engage or invest. Neglecting your color scheme or making a logo design mistake can have serious consequences.

Along with consistency, specific elements can help with solid branding. For example, using a signature color can boost a brand’s recognizability by up to 80%. That means that customers would be 80% more likely to recognize and interact with your brand in the metaverse if they see your signature color.

Leitmotifs, or sonic branding, are also valuable to a complete branding package. Some statistics suggest that using audio — think jingles or recurring notes, like with MacDonald’s ba-da-ba-ba-ba — as part of your branding can increase recognition by up to 46%.

In the end, the numbers show the importance of keeping your branding steady as you move into the metaverse with your brand. Unified branding across all platforms, including print, storefront, social media, and website, has been shown to increase revenue by up to 23%. That’s significant growth, especially for a small business.

Virtual Experiences

The metaverse is all about virtual reality, and adding virtual experiences into what you offer your customers is an excellent way to get them ready for the metaverse even now. In addition, you may be able to leverage the rising sales of VR headsets, which is one of the most popular ways to explore the metaverse concept. From just under five million sets sold in the US in 2020, sales are projected to reach more than 14 million yearly in the US by 2024.

But VR headsets aren’t the only way to craft a virtual experience to share with your customers and attract them to your business. Build a digital storefront that mimics your brick-and-mortar store. Create digital tours of your products. Ikea is an excellent big-name pioneer of this, already demonstrating how to use the metaverse concept to grow a particular aspect of a brand. With virtual room design, Ikea customers can see what furniture and features will fit, how the color scheme will turn out, and how frustrated they may get while figuring out how to put it all together.

Okay, that last part isn’t actually a feature of Ikea’s virtual experience. But it’s only a matter of time.

Video Production

A final and significant way to build your business brand in the metaverse is to incorporate videos in your marketing, website, and social media posts.

The importance of video isn’t anything new. Approximately 85% of marketers already leverage video use as an essential part of their strategy, with 92% of that number labeling it as essential to their work going forward. Video nets the most engagement on social media, especially Instagram. More than 90% of businesses point to social media videos as a key that has garnered new customers and directly caused conversion.

But with the metaverse being focused on virtual/augmented reality and video, video production is even more of a recommendation for brands that are looking to grow. Not just for marketing purposes, either — other popular kinds of videos include how-to or explainer videos and social media videos, both of which puts the focus on entertainment and education.

The more value you can provide, the more likely you will attract new interest. And with new interest, your brand is sure to grow.

Read more: The Future of Connectivity: The Metaverse

To the Metaverse and Beyond

It’s challenging to get a consensus on just what the metaverse means and how far it will take us. But one thing is for sure — we’ve been spending more time in the virtual world than ever in the past few years, and it’s almost guaranteed that the trend will continue.

With essential brand-building methods, your brand will be ready to grow in the metaverse and whatever comes next.

Image Credit: Julien Tromeur; Unsplash; Thank you!

The post How To Build Your Business Brand in the Metaverse appeared first on ReadWrite.

If you have an internet-based company, especially an eCommerce site, you’ve probably already spent a lot of time optimizing your website design. Optimized web design, fast loading speeds, and attractive graphics are all part of drawing customers in.

But have you ever thought about taking it further — and making web design an integral part of your branding efforts?

Of course, when most people think of website branding, they focus on the visuals, like making a company logo stand out and color choices. And those are essential parts of a brand, for sure.

But there’s more to it than that. Any interaction between your online company and a customer is really a branding opportunity because branding is all about perception in the public eye.

This means that the overall design of your website is even more important than you thought.

Website Design Aesthetics And Your Brand

As mentioned, one of the first things that people think of when it comes to a brand is the visuals: the logo, the graphics, the colors, the font.

Not coincidentally, visuals are an integral part of your web design, too. Statistics indicate that it takes only 0.05 seconds for a visitor to develop an opinion on your site, which means that the opinion is mainly visually-based. After all, 0.05 seconds doesn’t give them much time to navigate through your pages and see what you have to offer.

Creating an aesthetically pleasing website

For that reason, creating an aesthetically pleasing website should be near the top of your priority list to minimize your bounce rate.

You should also maximize your branding within the website design. Include your logo on each page — the most commonly used location is the top left corner. Utilize your brand’s color palette, and incorporate branded fonts, graphics, and images.

Overall, picture your website as though it is the actual house in which your brand lives. Aesthetically and visually, it should reflect and amplify your brand to truly become the foremost part of your branding efforts.

Related: Design for Startups: The Aesthetics of Web Apps in 6 Questions

Website Optimization and Customer Service

How your website loads and operates is another significant factor in the overall quality of the design.

Again, users form opinions on sites they visit in staggeringly short periods. So if your website takes longer than that 0.05 seconds to load, there’s a good chance that they could bounce right out of there.

Make faster loading time by optimization of images

Optimization of your site, images, and layouts to help to make shorter loading time and increases the chances that your initial visitor will actually get to the site — let alone remain on it. A well-maintained site that respects the time of its visitors will, on its own merits, provide a bit of extra shine to the reputation of a brand.

At the same time, it’s more than just the loading time that provides an actual customer service experience. Make sure to include all vital and relevant information in your layout, including contact information and product listings. Make navigation easy to understand and use. Let your website do the job it is designed to do, and your brand will benefit from it.

Web Design Technology and Impact On Branding

One of the most significant factors for many newer brands is how “cutting edge” the brand is perceived to be. Especially for an internet-heavy, eCommerce-type site, the ease of use and innovations in technology are big draws to new customers, as well as helping the retention of established customers.

This means that keeping your site new, updated, and on the cutting edge, using any relevant technology, gives your brand a significant boost.

Maintain your site with fresh, relevant content and optimize for mobile

This means not only that you maintain your site and include fresh, relevant, actionable, or entertaining content regularly. It also means making sure that you optimize your site for a variety of platforms, including laptops, desktops, mobile phones, and tablets.

Designing for a wide variety of platforms is what enables a brand to reach the broadest range of consumers. Remember that 40% of online transactions this last year were done with a mobile device and the number of mobile users vs. laptop users continues to increase.

At this point, 50% of websites use responsive design, which means that if your site is lagging behind, it could have a significant impact on the perception of your brand.

Related: New Web Development and Design Techniques

Web Design — The New Branding Trend

As web design garners more and more attention, more and more importance will likely continue to be placed on it. And since your website is the “home” of your brand, it makes sense that your web design directly impacts how your brand is perceived.

With attention to the beneficial use of new technology, aesthetics, and overall UX, your web design could be more than just the home for your company. It could be the face, the representation, of your brand as a whole.

Image Credit: RODNAE Productions; Pexels; Thank you

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Brand image is a lot of things, depending on who you ask. It’s the primary identification of a company — true. It’s the way a company connects with its audience — also true. It’s the logo that marks products produced by the brand — well, now you’re oversimplifying.

As a matter of fact, brand image is about a lot more than just the literal images and visuals that are tied to a company. While those visuals play a part in the definition of brand image, the image itself transcends pure visuals.

Let’s get into it.

Defining a Brand Image

Whether you’re setting the branding vision for your new startup or revising products/goals/themes/connections/etc. for an established brand, the connection between your company and your audience is vital. That connection is all about your brand image.

While it’s tempting to solely identify brand image as the visuals that accompany your branding efforts (after all, it’s right there in the name), brand image is made up of many more components than simply the visual aspect. And all of those components play a part in the success of your brand, fueled by audience perception and customer loyalty.

Brand image is professionally identified by Forbes writer Solomon Thimony, for example, as the “mix of the associations consumers make based on every interaction they have with your business.” In short, every single point of communication or connection between your company and your customer coalesces into the overall brand image.

That makes it pretty easy to see why it’s more than just a question of your logo or your advertising campaigns, but that doesn’t mean that details such as those can just be sidelined.

What Goes into a Brand Image

Brand image is a matter of compilation. The more that goes into it, the more accurate the image can be. 

So every detail that an entrepreneur adds into their brand image, all across the internet, feeds back into that image. 

Theoretically, a brand image can be made up of ever-changing, ever-adapting connections, just like the interactions between two people. But in practical terms, it’s important to have a clear idea of just what deserves attention in order to build a good brand image. Otherwise, you might miss out on an opportunity to further contribute to your brand image, which in turn will boost your connection with your audience and brand loyalty.

• Visuals — this is an easy place to start, especially since the word “image” is right there in “brand image.” Visuals are what most people commonly associate with the concept of branding, and good visuals are a tangible goal. The color palette that you select, the types of graphics that you choose, the choice of whether to use a free logo maker software or work with a professional graphic designer — everything plays a part in how your audience views your brand, whether or not they choose to interact with it, and how the interaction plays out.
• Advertising — we’ve all seen the poorly-done advertising that leaves us shaking our heads or wondering why they even bothered. Bad advertising leaves a bad taste in the audience’s mouth, and impacts whether they choose to follow through on interacting with the brand. Good, innovative advertising, on the other hand, can favorably influence the viewer.
• Clarity of messaging — in both the branded visuals and the advertising, as well as through social media and official websites, clarity of messaging is important. Messaging includes the promises that are made by the brand, and the brand’s ability to follow through. If a viewer isn’t entirely sure what your brand is all about, what the goals, services or products are offered, or whether they’re even the right audience for those services and products, the messaging is muddled and so is the brand image.
• Customer service — this is an easy avenue to overlook, but it pays dividends when handled well. In terms of how well a brand is viewed, more than 70 percent of consumers declare their love for a brand because of excellent customer service, and almost as many would choose not to go back to a brand because of poor customer service. One-on-one customer service is one of the most effective ways to create a fantastic brand image.
• Ease of contact — the lack of contact can have a debilitating effect on brand image. While it might seem easier from the brand’s point of view to simply cut off complaints at the source, all it does is cause greater frustration in the customer when they can’t even discuss any potential problems with brand representatives. I personally have written off more than one brand after getting the run-around from them on their website or social media.
• Public relations — this is an excellent opportunity for a brand to take charge of its own image. Getting out into the community and sponsoring or participating in events is a clear demonstration of the values held by the company. And almost 90 percent of consumers will choose to remain loyal to a brand that they view as sharing their own values — a statistic that vividly illustrates the importance of brand image in company growth and success.
• Follow-up — a specific point of customer service that deserves attention deeper in the customer-brand relationship. Follow-up isn’t just about ensuring that consumers are pleased with their purchases. It’s also about figuring out why they might have been displeased or disappointed. Why viewers who never became buyers chose not to. And why those who clicked out of a website haven’t come back. Follow-up demonstrates the continued interest of a brand, and we all like it when someone is interested in what we think and feel.

Brand Image — the Good, the Bad, the Ugly

Ultimately, brand image is problematic for brands, no matter what they do — and this is because there is no way to guarantee 100 percent control. To a certain extent, brand image depends on the individual who interacts with the brand. You may choose your visuals, products, customer service, outreach, demonstration of values, and follow-up carefully, designing it to appeal to everyone — but there will always be outliers.

You can please some of the people some of the time, but you can’t please all of the people all of the time, and that’s the main reason for continually laboring under a brand image.

Measuring the success of your brand image isn’t going to be a matter of ensuring that every single customer is entirely happy. There simply isn’t a way to ensure that, and a lot of time and effort will be wasted in chasing the 100 percent standard.

For each individual brand, setting an acceptable standard in effective and accurate brand image is a vital part of creating a brand growth strategy that makes the most of brand loyalty and customer satisfaction. Including all the elements listed above gives entrepreneurs the best chance of continued success now and in the future.

Feature image: Photo by RODNAE Productions from Pexels

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These days, it’s easier than ever to create a piece of graphic design, and this is especially true for logo design. These small graphic works tend to be simple, with relatively few elements and limited colors. They serve the purpose of identifying a brand and have few requirements. However, the design must be memorable, unique, and do the job for which they were designed.

Theoretically, logo design is so easy that anyone can handle a DIY logo. Even if they don’t have much experience in graphic design, they can turn to the plethora of AI-driven logo design tools that have flooded the graphic design world in the past decade.

That may be great news for the newbies and the DIY-ers. But do artificially powered graphic design tools mean the death knell for human logo designers?

The Time-Honored Job of Logo Designers

Logo design as a concept has technically been around since about the Middle Ages, which is when some bright shop and pub owners realized that using a pictorial representation of what their establishment provided would circumvent the issue of illiteracy entirely.

However, it wasn’t until the early 1900s that logo design began to rise as an art form, with carefully-chosen elements that accurately reflected not just the services provided by the store or restaurant, but also the “personality” behind it. It was around that same time that “branding” began to be utilized as a way to draw new consumers and influence the loyalty of existing customers.

Logo design played a large part in that. Well-designed logos tell the viewer essential facts about the brand they represent. A great logo can communicate:

• What audience the brand caters to
• Services the establishment provides
• Promises that will be fulfilled
• Details like the name, location, etc., of the store or organization

Like any creative endeavor, there’s “good” and “bad,” and what individuals think about a piece of graphic design may depend on their personal taste just as much as how effective the logo actually is. For example, a business owner may love their logo. Still, it may not draw the intended audience or cause a disconnect between the brand personality and the logo’s message.

Generally speaking, logo design is far more nuanced than it may appear on the surface, and iterations and variations are common in order to fine-tune the design to its best. And the more experienced a logo designer, the more readily they will provide an excellent design early on in the process.

The Rise Of Artificial Intelligence-Driven Graphic Design

Logo design isn’t solely in the purview of logo design companies. Instead, new business owners can turn to independent designers or even consider crowdsourcing logo design.

But outside of these human designers, there’s also the option of design tools driven by artificial intelligence.

AI in graphic design covers a wide range in the function it carries out, the deftness and accuracy of the design, and the extent to which it is used. For example, tools like Adobe Illustrator and other graphic design software offer some automated settings and filters to assist designers to iterate logos quickly and easily. On the other end of the spectrum, some sites and software provide fully artificial logo designs, pulling pre-existing graphics and fonts and putting them together randomly as suggested logos.

Experienced human designers can use AI design tools. DIY-ers, too, can use these tools to complete a design for a lower budget, or even for free.

But can AI-powered logo design tools entirely replace human designers?

Pros and Cons of AI Design vs. Human Designers

One thing the experts seem to agree on is that AI design has its place. It’s useful, but it can only go so far.

Logo design, like other aspects of graphic design, is essentially a creative endeavor. However, to achieve a truly effective and unique design, it needs a creative spark that can’t be found in AI design tools — at least not at this juncture.

However, AI design tools are continuing to advance year by year. So is there a chance that they might entirely drive human designers out of business?

It’s difficult to say for sure, but it’s hard to imagine that human designers would ever become entirely moot. Even if AI design becomes the industry standard, human designers would still be needed to proof and fine-tune the designs.

That being said, the US Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates a decline in graphic design jobs over the next several years. So it’s a good bet that logo designing positions will be more difficult to find in the next few years. AI logo design tools may be a part of that.

AI lowers the budget for graphic design, making it more appealing for new business owners, and more accessible to all.

Smart designers will stay on the cutting edge of technology as it relates to graphic design. In addition, they will learn how to incorporate AI into their design process to make the most of new developments.

Like any other business, it’s essential to be ready to adapt. But the human touch will remain a vital part of creative endeavors like logo design.

The Missing Link

Artificial intelligence continues to flood all industries, advancing more and more every year. And the area of logo design is no exception.

It’s very unlikely that human designers will ever be entirely eradicated from the industry. Like other graphic design areas, Logo design requires a detailed understanding of complex issues that vary for each brand. To achieve a unique, memorable, and accurate logo, the human touch remains a vital component of great logo design.

That being said, the best designers will continue to adapt and learn how to incorporate new tools into their design process.

Image Credit: Brad Neathery; Unsplash; Thank you!

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Reduce, Reuse, Recycle — You’ve heard it before, but did you know the saying dates back to the 1970s? That’s when Americans first really got into the underlying earth-conscious movement. As a philosophy, the three Rs have heavily impacted everyone from individual families to large corporations.

How SaaS Companies Can Adopt the Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle Mantra

The Environmental Protection Agency lists some serious benefits following the “Reduce, Reuse, Recycle…” mantra. It’s good for the environment, it’s good for our pocketbooks, and it’s good for the future.

You might almost say it’s good for the soul.

But “Reduce, Reuse, Recycle,” typically applies to physical, tangible objects. After all, tangible things have the biggest impact on the world around us.

That doesn’t mean that the three Rs don’t have their place for companies that provide software as a service. However, “Reduce, reuse, recycle” has implications for these brands’ development, budgeting, and even overhead.

Read more: Top 12 Advantages of Software as a Service (SaaS)

Building on the Back of Established Software

One of the recommendations of the EPA when it comes to the three Rs is to “buy used.” The idea behind it is to use something that’s already in existence rather than putting money and resources into creating something new. For budget-conscious buyers, it’s a helpful tip.

It’s helpful for SaaS companies, too. Not that a software developer can go out and buy a used program to market as their own, but it still applies in principle.

Software development relies on coding, and coding is frequently reused and repurposed in different ways. Going into initial development, SaaS companies can establish best practices that allow for later adaptation of new code, such as writing codes that can be easily extended if necessary, removing extraneous coding, and ensuring that the coding is high-quality.

Other assets are reusable as well, such as test suites, designs, and documentation.

Combining assets and using them as the springboard for new development cuts down on the workforce needed to create new software, lowering the overall cost of the development and providing budget benefits to the company.

Reusing Space Within SaaS Applications

Still, looking for the budget benefits that the three Rs can bring to your SaaS company? A significant avenue that shouldn’t be overlooked is the use of space within the design of the software — specifically, how that space could be leveraged for applicable marketing and advertising.

SaaS design is typically done with attention to both form and function. That means a layout that makes information readily understandable, with plenty of space around the content. But sometimes, that space isn’t necessary for a good user experience, and it may be more efficient if repurposed into advertising space.

However, this reuse of space requires caution, as advertising can detract from the overall UX if not handled judiciously. Typically, advertising in-app or throughout the software is expected for free or open-source software. If a SaaS company charges a reasonable amount for its services, the customer may quickly grow irritated with additional advertising.

Hulu and other video streaming services are good examples of this. Hulu has tiered pricing that dictates how often the viewer sees advertisements. IMDb, on the other hand, offers free entertainment, so ads are expected. However, IMDb still keeps their advertising to a minimum, whereas even the lower-priced tier for Hulu often gets complaints on the frequency of ad breaks.

With caution, overall, reusing in-app or in-software space for appropriate advertising can be an excellent way to stagger your content and repurpose existing space to boost your revenue.

Hardware Is Impossible To Ignore — Even For SaaS Businesses

We all want to pursue a business model that lowers the amount of saleable hardware and requires product packaging. Theoretically, SaaS businesses have it made. Their subscribers don’t have to purchase physical objects, and so recycling is a cinch.

But that isn’t entirely the case. Even for SaaS companies that exclusively sell intangible products, there’s still a certain amount of hardware that must go into the development and management of the company.

It’s pretty much impossible, for example, for a tech company to avoid providing computers and development software to their dev team and programmers. They have to use something to provide a finished product.

When it comes to tangibles, it’s recommended for SaaS companies to keep their developers stocked with up-to-date technology. Ensure that the technology runs well, reduces power usage, and doesn’t need replacement every six months to a year. This requires more of an initial investment, but it’s a reduction of consumption that benefits the company and the environment in the long run.

Of course, when it comes time to jettison existing computer hardware, SaaS companies may be able to resell products to offset the cost of the new. But, if not, it’s time to employ the traditional meaning of the three Rs and recycle your old computers and laptops.

The majority of SaaS companies run on a subscription basis, but some still do offer tangible products — CD-ROMS, for example. In that case, product packaging can also be made to meet best-practice criteria for the three Rs.

The Three Rs for SaaS

Reduce, reuse, recycle — it’s good for the environment, good for a company’s budget, and good for the soul.

The principle of the three Rs is a best business practice, no matter what a company sells, whether it’s software or hardware. Of course, for SaaS brands, it may require a little extra thinking outside the box. But, since the principle benefits the brand and boosts sustainability for everyone involved, it’s definitely worth it.

Image credit: reduce-recycle-reuse; pexels; thank you!

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The year 2020 really did a number on individuals, businesses, and the world in general. Looking at the toll that a worldwide pandemic took on companies, the Washington Post states that over 100,000 small businesses have closed their doors forever as a direct result of the virus and the effect it had on the economy. And even for those companies that have managed to weather the storm, there are challenging times ahead.

Smart Business Objectives Entrepreneurs Should Focus on Now

Each year, entrepreneurs form their business strategy for the months ahead, basing actions and developments on the end game. What do they want to see at the close of the year, and how they can align this year with their long-term goals?

With the pandemic still going on and the world constantly changing, what business objectives should entrepreneurs focus on now?

Let’s look at five smart business objectives and how they can impact your company’s growth:

• Brand for the new normal
• Move to an at-home office
• Boost customer loyalty
• Increase social media marketing and interaction
• Increase website traffic

Objective 1: Brand for the New Normal

With that shift to online-only and online-preferred marketing and services, we see corporations touting their ability to provide services that are tailored for the new normal. Promoting free shipping/returns, curbside pickup, offering incentives and new digital customers, etc. are the new norms.

To make this as organic as possible and prevent it from looking like a bandwagon-jumping gimmick, it’s important to promote these as part of your branding strategy.

Yes, you want your efforts to be noticed and appreciated, but you don’t want them to be haphazard, out of tune with your current branding, off-message, or generic.

What to Do: Now is the time to set aside part of your marketing budget to ensure that you’re applying good brand identity design principles across the board, and thinking in the long-term, not just the present.

Some ideas that you might consider include:

• Brand with digital media
• Create a personal brand for yourself
• Volunteer locally to create brand awareness
• Give products or services for free to spread the word

Read More: How Technology is Helping to Improve Small Business Growth

Objective 2: Create a Productive At-Home Office

Working from home has often been cited as a perk for both employees and business owners. But these days it’s a little more than that — it’s just good business sense.

If you made the shift from office space to an at-home office at the beginning of the pandemic, you likely saw how sustainable it is. It cuts down on your required budget, makes use of your resources in a more effective manner, and even eliminates your commute. This gives you more time to focus on what really matters in your business.

However, many who made the shift did so in a rather slapdash manner. For many, that means that they’re still working out of a corner of the living room, without a dedicated workspace, which cuts down on productivity.

What to Do: If working from home is a beneficial step for you — as it has been for many — and you like to keep your budget low, it’s wiser to invest in productivity tools and a good working environment in your home office. Setting it up now will cut down stress levels, boost productivity, and enable you to keep your focus where it needs to be: growing your brand.

Objective 3: Boost Customer Loyalty Through Customer Service

Customer service is a recurring concern for many entrepreneurs. This is because it heavily impacts word of mouth, which is one of the most effective ways of marketing yourself, with the lowest budget.

Now more than ever, customer service deserves your attention. Your customers have been through a difficult time over the last year — or even longer. Your understanding, compassion, and willingness to work with customers now, in times of need, will do more than you can imagine to build up their loyalty.

What to Do: Set aside time and budget to create customer service initiatives that reward your customers for coming back to you and sticking with you. Again, look to the long-term. All indications point to this rough patch in the economy. So set up incentives and rewards programs that lasts.

Objective 4: Engage with Social Media Marketing

A business objective that is worth your time is building your social media marketing. Not just increasing the amount of content you post, or the number of followers, but focusing on quality over quantity.

This is the time for digital transformation to ensure that your customers — and potential customers — understand their continued importance to your business. By giving extra attention to your fans and followers, you convert them right from the word, “Hello”.

Engaging with your social media audience also lets you know exactly what your customers or prospects are looking for. It’s time to reach out to them, rather than play the dormant role of letting them come to you.

What to Do: Set up a CMS to orchestrate regular posts, curate content to provide value and interest, make everything easily shareable — but above all, take the time to interact with your customers as individuals. Respond to complaints, questions, comments, and remember that each public interaction with your brand can bring in new customers.

Objective 5: Increase Website Traffic

Your business website is the home base for your company. It’s the most dedicated advertising space you can have. It’s the hub for customer interactions, and it’s the ideal branding opportunity. How you handle your site can position you as an authority in your field. It can also turn visitors into consumers, and effectively tell your story, bringing in new customers and retaining existing ones.

But your site won’t have the chance to do any of that if no one is visiting it.

Just two months into the pandemic, back in April 2020, statistics showed a 129% increase over the previous year in e-commerce sales, and the numbers only continued to skyrocket through the year. The year 2020 showed us a definite shift towards online services and shopping. This shift doesn’t seem likely to change anytime soon.

This is both good news and bad.

Internet traffic will continue to grow organically, as your potential customers seek out your site, prioritize online services over visiting in-person locations.

However, your competition will also benefit from this trend, so the playing field is fairly level.

What to Do: This illustrates the importance of not only riding trends but capitalizing on them. This is the time to increase the flow of traffic to your website by:

• Boosting your SEO
• Proving your value to your visitors
• Make sure that you’re marketing effectively through PPC

Don’t wait for users to come to you — get out there and direct traffic to your website. And if possible optimize your website for UI and UX to appeal to search engines. After all, that’s one top priority of a good website.

The year 2021 may seem like it’s time to focus on recovery, not on big goals, for fear of overreaching ourselves. You may not have to aim for overly ambitious goals, but these objectives will help you get on with the setback.

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The Internet of Things is a pretty hot topic these days, for a variety of reasons. First, the internet favors IoT, especially in light of the online trend that has spiked in the past year and a half. Also, there seems to be an endless supply of new ways to put the internet to work on behalf of us all, whether for a corporation, a small business, a supply chain, or an individual. But, do you know about the pillars of sustainability?

Every IoT Business Should Know About the Pillars of Sustainability

The three pillars of sustainability — economic, social, and environmental sustainability, (aka profit, people, and planet) — outlines the goals which companies seek. Thus, truly sustainable business models are built on all three pillars, rather than just one or two.

The more a business employs practices that use all three, the more it reaps benefits and progress.

The pillars of sustainability are like taking care of your health on multiple levels. If you eat well, exercise, and go to a doctor for regular checkups, life will work out better for you than if you do just one of those things.

Sustainability is important for businesses that employ IoT since it evidently isn’t going anywhere. 

There were almost 9 billion IoT devices worldwide in 2020, and that number will rise to more than 25 billion in just ten years. A variety of companies are already using IoT devices, but there are plenty of projected uses for the future. And for a company that wants to thrive and grow, the future involves sustainability.

Environmental Expansion

Of the three pillars of sustainability, environmental expansion is perhaps the most currently discussed, especially related to IoT. 

Global warming and the rise of natural disasters draw more attention in the news, one can expect the environmental impact of businesses will be subjected to public scrutiny. The good news is that IoT can be part of your business practices in a way that reduces footprints and contributes to a sustainable cycle.

For example, Rami Avidan, the managing director of Deutsche Telekom IoT GmbH, pointed out how the ever-rising food services industry — including supermarkets and cargo companies — would benefit from increased use of IoT to control temperature during transportation and storage, pinpoint location, and send information about the condition of the products. This one process would help at least a 7% drop in food waste. Why not do it?

That may not sound like a lot at first. However, over time, it would add up considerably. Not to mention that advancing IoT technologies and information sharing could continue to cause the number to rise.

Either way, customers like companies that can honestly claim a reduced environmental footprint. This means that IoT not only saves money for companies, it also provides a great basis for marketing.

With that saved money and free marketing, businesses can reinvest and continue growing while being part of the sustainability cycle.

Whether it’s a question of using IoT to help predict the best way and limiting the fuel used for company vehicles or freight; leveraging IoT to maximize tech use, or recycling used computers to boost your company’s sustainable reputation further, IoT can be adapted to make your business more sustainable at every level.

Economic Impact With IoT

The economic impact of adopting IoT is probably first on the list for most businesses. Business owners and managers are always searching for ways to reduce their overhead and maximize profits — that’s just good business.

What do IoT businesses need to know about this sustainable economy pillar? And why is it important?

Economic Impact of IoT

The economic impact of IoT is made up of a combination of minimizing outgo, maximizing information resources, and creating additional income streams. How businesses achieve goals depends on the individual enterprise and how IoT integrates their practices.

For example, in a subscription-based business model, instead of offering a one-time sale to a customer, the company offers a discount based on a monthly or yearly subscription. Thus, the longer your customer is willing to remain with your company, the better it is for both of you.

IoT for Meaningful Data Sustainability

Incorporating IoT data in your business model gives you deeper, more meaningful interaction with your customers. This means that you can offer services based on their needs, which boosts the likelihood of continuing to stay a customer. That’s one way that IoT can help grow revenue for a brand.

Another example involves saving money based on utilization of asset tracking, management, and conservation of employee hours. Again, Amazon is a notable example of this.

With the sheer number of warehouses and products that the retail giant has to keep track of and ship out, doing it all by workforce alone would be a significant expense. Amazon uses WIFI-enabled robots to select products and ship them out, incorporating QR codes to ensure correct fulfillment.

The massive database that Amazon maintains would be impossible to tract without IoT. In addition, IoT makes it possible for retailers like Amazon to sustain their rapid and accurate shipping and lower their overhead for employee hours.

Socially Sustainable IoT Business Practices

Bringing people into the mix can get messy for any business. Yet, people are a vital component and the mainstay of the second of the three pillars of sustainability.

Why IoT Need People

Why would IoT companies need to be concerned about the people involved? IoT is tech-based, right? The point is to automate information gathering and projections, not turn the data over to humans to collate.

But businesses don’t sell to tech — they sell to people. And in order to create a sustainable business, the audience has to be part of the equation.

Why IoT Needs to be Socially Sustainable

IoT is hugely useful for informing businesses of the target audience’s needs, desires, and goals. Not only for informational purposes of what products could fill a niche but also for elevating existing products themselves.

For example, responsive smart home features that accurately learn and predict the preferences of the homeowner. The better the IoT tech works, the more responsive the smart home device is, and the happier the individual. This all cycles back to better reviews, which translates to more customers. Sustainability is a cycle. Any business needs to remember that their actions now will impact the results they have later.

The man who coined the term “Internet of Things,” Kevin Ashton, pointed out how important the “people” pillar of sustainability is — it’s integral to the whole IoT ideal. In short, the IoT is about integrating the interconnectedness of human culture, our “things,” with our digital information system — the “internet.”

It’s impossible to discount the social sustainability principle. This is because IoT requires an audience from which to draw information. Not to mention that, without social sustainability, IoT becomes almost pointless.

Building for the Future With Sustainable IoT

There’s no limit to how sustainable we can get, and it’s impossible to arbitrarily declare a cut-off point. That’s it; we don’t need to think about sustainability anymore; we’ve done enough.

New companies will continue to launch;

Existing companies will continue to evolve; and

Technology, to better serve both of them, will always be on the horizon.

IoT technology is just one way to help companies to adapt and thrive. Within that concept are a million smaller applications, any one of which could make a difference to your company.

Image Credit: sergio souza; pexels; thank you!

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Every business starts somewhere, and for a startup, that somewhere is in the concept. You get an idea for a great product, and then you build around it. Every aspect of your startup goes back to the kernel of the original idea, because that’s how building works.

How to Build Your Startup Brand from Scratch

Everything needs a foundation.

If your ideas are the foundation and structure, your branding makes up the finishing touches that turn a construction site into a busy, thriving building. And just like the entirety of your company itself, your branding has to start somewhere.

Why Brand?

Launching a new company can be an iffy prospect. Just take a look at the lists of do’s and don’ts, the myriads of suggestions on how to structure and launch, concerns about backing and solvency, and the emphasis on startup resiliency and growth. There’s a plethora of warning information out there about how difficult it can be to start a company that actually lasts past the first few years — and the uncertain economic times that we live in are not making things any easier.

The US Bureau of Labor Statistics indicates that 20% of startups fail within the first two years, and the numbers go up to 65% within the first decade of operation. Investopedia cites lack of market research, lack of marketing, and poor internet presence as among the main reasons why startups crash so quickly.

All three of those things, however, can be addressed within a good brand strategy.

Other problems that plague startups, as well, can be met and answered by excellent branding. In part, a whole-cloth approach to branding can address the issues of:

• Garnering attention before startup launch
• Drawing in new customers
• Building customer loyalty
• Motivating customers to emotionally invest
• Reaching new audiences
• Crafting the best customer service experience
• Communicating with the audience
• Establishing as an expert in the field
• Boosting traffic and search ranking

Every issue on the list is a problem that startups face — even in the best of times — but these things will definitely be faced today.

If you’re an entrepreneur launching your startup, you likely know that branding is a necessity. The real question is, how do you put your branding strategy together from the very beginning?

Here are some simple but absolutely vital steps to take. Use it to build your startup brand from the ground up.

Do Your Research

You’re an entrepreneur. You know that starting a new business requires extensive market research. You need to know the demand for your potential product or service, who your competition is, and what strategy best suits your approach.

Your branding follows the same path. Before you make decisions on brand logo, colors and fonts, research the competition. The last thing you want is to blend in with the crowd; make sure your startup stands out, avoid any design elements that resemble your competition too closely.

Graphic design trends, such as logo designs, can be valuable indicators of what will and won’t work for your branded visuals. But trends come and go — logos are forever (except in the case of a rebrand, of course). Let trends inform but not decide your ultimate design decisions.

Your target audience, as well, should play a part in how you brand. Elements such as the psychology of color and font present valuable insight into how your choices are likely to be perceived and reacted to by your target audience.

Researching your market and competition is a worthwhile endeavor because it starts to shape your brand even before making any branding decisions, giving your startup brand an ideal launching pad.

Brand from the Inside Out

Market research tells you a lot about what not to do. Once you’re ready to start making branding decisions, it’s a whole different ball game. It goes from being about saying, “No, that’s too much like everyone else,” to saying, “Yes, perfect, I want that.”

But there’s still a gap between, “I want my branding to look like this,” and, “This choice is on-brand.” It’s important to allow your visual branding design to be something of an organic process — your branding should not only fit your company but also showcase its values.

a. Brand for visual impact

Highlighting the importance of this fact is the statistic that 86% of consumers cite authenticity to decide whether they both support and form an attachment to any given brand. The visual choices you make for your branding should harmonize with your brand’s personality, which is why it’s important to brand from the inside out.

Customers want brands to be honest about themselves — more than 80% of consumers require brands to be trustworthy before they will do business with them. It’s much easier to engage with a brand when you trust them; even if some of your potential customers don’t agree with every aspect of your brand, the fact that your branding is upfront and represents those values truthfully goes a long way to building respect in your viewers.

b. Brand for engagement

Don’t try to leap into external branding decisions without first having a clear idea of who and what you are, what your brand is about, what identifies it in a crowd, and where it’s going.

Know what values you’re promoting and how they align with the values of your customers. Branding with authenticity and according to true values is a big part of not only getting the attention of your target audience, but building their emotional engagement and, ultimately, their loyalty.

It’s almost comical that seemingly small decisions about color palettes, fonts, graphic styles, and even use of space can have such a big impact on how a brand is received.

But your visual branding isn’t a matter of a decision here and there; it’s about the brandscape, what you see when you look at all of it as a whole. The brandscape is what sends the message that appeals to your target audience.

Depending on the type of startup you’re launching, you may have different branding needs.

• Logos
• Email marketing
• Newsletters
• Business cards
• Promotional products
• Digital marketing materials
• Print marketing
• Product packaging

There’s also the question of where you should apply your branding efforts.

Be Consistent

In the digital world we live in — especially after the extra push to online services that came about in 2020 — it’s imperative to build a healthy, active online presence. No startup can survive and thrive without taking advantage of all available opportunities to make contact with the target demographic.

Startups should have:

• A company website
• Social media accounts on platforms that target the chosen audience, such as Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, etc.
• Multiple points of contact with potential customers, including social media, “Contact Us” forms on the website, and email leads for newsletters and special offers.

With this variety of online opportunities, it can be overwhelming to ensure that your branding is consistent across all platforms and across all points of customer contact.

What this means is that you watch what your branding looks like, but also watch the tone and vocabulary within content, marketing, and individual engagement. You will be consistent in the values, personality, messaging, images — everything needs to remain harmonious across your site.

How important is this to your startup? Some statistics indicate that consistency across platforms can increase company revenue by more than 30%. For a small startup, a margin like that can make all the difference.

Always Be Branding

Much of what we’ve addressed thus far connects to the decisions you make for visual branding — and visual branding is what most of us think of when we consider branding in general.

Visuals heavily influence not only the first impression — it takes only 0.05 seconds to form a first impression — but also whether we’re inclined to continue to look at, read, or watch something. What we see has the weightiest impact on what we do.

But branding is more than just visuals. Ultimately, branding encompasses every point of contact between you, the entrepreneur, and your potential customer or audience. Customer service queries, complaints, and commendation all fall into the branding purview. It allows you to expand your brand beyond what the customer sees into how they feel about how they were treated.

Branding for customers

Connecting with your audience via your website, over social media, through emails, or in-person is a vital element of good branding.

And this aspect, like the other elements listed here, should begin at the very start of your launch — if not even earlier. Treat your customers well from the very beginning, and you’ll encourage their emotional engagement and loyalty to grow. Satisfied customers are some of the most influential factors in the success and growth of a startup; if you make your first audience feel that they were valued as a part of the process, they’re more likely to stay with you all the way through.

Regardless of how many times you need to rebrand as your startup continues to evolve, good interactions with your customers are a constant in excellent branding.

If you really want to build a fantastic brand from the ground up, that’s the perfect place to start. Start with the people you want to build your company around — your customers.

Establish Authority With Perfect Content Marketing

“Perfect” is a word that gets thrown around a lot, but usually either in an ironic way or accompanied by a head shake, as in, “Nobody’s perfect.”

It’s true. Nobody’s perfect. But that doesn’t mean that you can give up on creating content that is perfect for building your brand from day one.

Some entrepreneurs believe that branding and quality content are subsequent steps in the creation of a strong startup. “I’ll focus on the look of the brand first,” they say, “and then fill in the gaps with content afterward.”

But there’s too much competition in the world of startup businesses to leave anything up to chance. You may plan to eventually give your new customers good content and slowly build yourself up as an authority later on — but if you can get your brand off on the right foot, why wait?

And even more than that, can you afford to wait?

a. Quality content and consumers

Content is a huge part of the first impression that your potential audience forms about you, second only in importance to the initial reaction to your present visuals. As consumers, we want to pursue buyer relationships with brands that we trust; startups are inherently iffy, as we tend to rely either on what we see from the brand itself or on what we hear from other customers.

Your startup may have generated some buzz prior to launch, but the prime source for helping potential consumers take the plunge is you — you and your content. If your content is valuable, educational, and worth an investment of time, your audience will attach those same descriptors to your brand as a whole.

b. Content and impact on ROI

Not only that, but in a world where ROI is scarce, and startups have to seek serious funding to make it through the first year, content marketing is a key player in pushing brands onwards to success.

Content marketing has significantly boosted marketing leads for 74% of companies surveyed by Curata. Content marketing has been shown to result in five times as many sales leads, while also costing less. So it’s a boost for your conversions, and a helping hand for your budget at the same time.

Quality content and strategic content marketing provide multiple opportunities to connect with and educate your audience, forging a closer relationship and influencing their decision to engage with and invest in your startup. Content also gives you more chances to build your brand, interact with others, and show — rather than tell — the world what your startup is all about.

For all these reasons and more, a smart step in building your startup brand is creating valuable, authoritative content for immediate use upon launch, or even before as you start to build buzz.

c. SEO focused content

There’s more generic content out there on the internet than there are fish in the sea, which is why an important factor in content creation is compiling perfect content — perfect for your brand, perfect for your audience, and perfect to introduce them to each other.

Naturally, this requires thorough knowledge of SEO keywords and frequently asked questions for your niche, as well as insight into what needs your target audience has that you can fill with carefully crafted content.

Remember, too, that excellent content is a gift that keeps on giving — if it’s relevant now, there’s a good chance that it will be relevant in the future. You will have the ability to regularly update, spin, repurpose, and repost your perfect content to continue building your brand and strengthening your position.

From Startup Dream to Startup Reality — Making the Launch

It’s easy to dream of creating a successful startup. Most of us have had entrepreneurial dreams at one time or another, whether we followed through on them or not. Often, the idea isn’t the difficult part. It’s the actions required to bring that idea to the public and let it shine.

Branding your startup is a fundamental part of the process. Without excellent branding — including targeted marketing, unique visuals, fantastic customer service, etc., your startup would have virtually no chance of success, forget your ideas making out of your dreams.

It may seem overwhelming to contemplate the long, long list of to-dos required to launch a startup. Remember that famed startup founders like Jack Dorsey, Steve Jobs, Katrina Lake, and Anne Wojcicki struggled too. Each and every one of them and more had to go through some variation of this process.

Creating and founding a startup requires strength, bravery, belief — and branding.

Launching a new company isn’t easy, and ensuring success for your startup isn’t exactly a cakewalk, either. By applying good branding principles, your startup can get off on the right foot. From good content curation to user interaction, attractive branding, etc., let’s hope, your company hits the ground running.

Image Credit: andrea piacquadio; pexels; thank you!

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