How to Protect Brand Equity in A Digital Age
Brand equity is how people perceive and equate value to your brand and you want to make sure it is memorable as something good and not the opposite. From large-scale corporations to startup businesses, it can be said that all types of businesses can benefit from brand equity. This ultimately helps your business to grow further. Before the digital age, it was easy to count on traditional means of marketing such as print ads as well as those seen on television and radio.
But now that we’ve entered the digital age, how do you make sure your brand will be remembered? We’ll walk you through some tips on how you can protect your brand’s equity in today’s digital age.
Make Sure Your Money Is Invested in the Right Platforms
Back before online shopping was commonplace, brands used to rely on word of mouth, print media advertisements, and commercials. While all of those methods are perfectly fine, just make sure that you are not investing all your money into it. Nowadays, even if you have spent a lot of money on advertising, there is no guarantee people will buy it unless it is discussed on social media or raved about on online forums.
That said, remember to make room for digital means too. This means partnering with online retailers or e-commerce sites to boost your product listings, which promote your brand’s visibility. It also helps to set aside a particular team and one that is separate from traditional operations but solely dedicated to e-commerce transactions.
Remember, the appeal of the digital way of doing business is that it provides the convenience of having everything in your hands with just the click of a button. And in today’s digital age, there is very little that cannot be achieved online.
Follow Up on After-Sales Service
If you aren’t already implementing it, after-sales customer service is something you should really think about looking into. Even if the customer has already made a sale, it helps to do an after-sales talk, a sort of check-in with their experience with the product or service. With the numerous means of communication from email, phone numbers, and social media accounts, there are no reasons why you can’t interact with the customer.
You can ask them to fill out a simple survey to know what they liked or did not like about the product. In doing so, you are letting them know their opinions are valued and will be taken into consideration on how to further improve the product or service. It also demonstrates that the brand actually cares about putting out products or services that customers can keep coming back to. In a way, you are instilling the importance of brand equity and loyalty onto the customer.
The information gathered from them can also help make sound business decisions that will be able to improve the quality of the product your brand puts out. Being proactive about it now means you can avoid dealing with angry and dissatisfied customers later on when they have reached the end of their patience and are more likely to distance themselves from your brand.
Frequently Engage With Customers
More and more customers are favouring online shopping than brick and mortar establishments and why not? Given the many benefits of the digital world, customers have a wide array of information at their disposal. This includes brand and product choices. Seeing as there are a lot of players in the market, digital or otherwise, it can be easy for your brand to lose relevance, particularly if there has not been any activity that will keep customers engaged.
By this, we mean utilizing social media strategy. Ever notice how brands are more active on social media such as Facebook or Instagram? Exactly. Posting on your own social media channel gives you better control over the content you could produce. Plus, you could continuously produce content for free. We imagine it could save you money on advertising campaigns. In order to invite customers to buy from you, it is ideal if you market the product in such a way that would benefit them. For instance, releasing subtle lipstick shades that are perfect for online Zoom meetings or easy-to-prepare meal kits for those who miss dining out.
Moreover, lots of customers want transparency about a brand’s practices, so this is a great opportunity to make that of your brand known. For instance, if your brand is vegan, cruelty-free, or promotes sustainable practices, then it would encourage more people to buy from you. The same goes for social responsibility such as donating a portion of your sales to impoverished communities or for charitable causes. People want authenticity, so it means a lot for them if they are able to support local brands that would align with their values.
Ultimately, in today’s digital age, price alone isn’t the only thing that matters to customers. It may sound tedious now but it is important to come up with practices that are in it for the long haul. If you want to protect your brand’s equity and foster loyalty from your customers, then take time to invest in making your brand accessible to them.
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