Building a brand can often mean the difference between the success or failure of a business. Many business owners do a pretty good job when it comes to building their brand through traditional channels because they hire a professional graphic designer or marketing company to develop an effective corporate identity and ensure that all of their printed materials, signage and advertising utilize it in a consistent manner. On the other hand, most business owners are not nearly as effective when it comes to building their brand online because it is a completely different environment than they’re familiar with.
Company name/domain name
If you are still in the process of starting your company, you’ve got a bit of an advantage. Because you’re not tied to an existing company name, you can develop one while you search for a short and memorable domain name. Short and memorable is always better than having keyword phrases in your domain, but if you can have both, by all means do so, but avoid keyword stuffed or hyphenated domains. You should do everything in your power to purchase both the .com and the .net version of the domain you want. While you’re at it, go ahead and register your domain for at least five years, preferably ten years. It will cost a bit more but doing so can help to improve your organic search ranking because the length of time a domain is registered for is one of the many factors in Google’s algorithm.
Organic search optimization
Include your company’s name and tag line in the title tag and header tags on an about us page, which should be a separate page from your home page. Additionally, the file name should be the same as your company name.
Example: http://www.yourdomain.com/your-company-name.htm
This ensures that your website appears in the organic search results without diluting the effectiveness of the search engine optimization of your home page.
PPC (Pay-Per-Click)
Utilize Google and Yahoo’s PPC (Pay-Per-Click) programs with your company’s name as the keyword phrase. Chances are that your own website will show up in the organic ranking as well, but every impression counts. Plus, you won’t need to invest very much on this because unless you generate tremendous attention few people will actually search for your company name, and most of those that do will click on your organic listing anyway.
Display advertising
Utilize display advertising, such as banners or rich media ads (Flash, Quicktime, etc.) on targeted websites. You can search for appropriate websites through a company like Federated Media, which connects advertisers with publishers. Display advertising gives you the opportunity to put your company name, logo and message in front of a large number of people relatively quickly with a modest investment. The click-through rate of display advertising is generally low, often below one percent, but the key here is the visibility. Each and every impression you get to make with potential consumers adds up.
Blogging
Blog on a regular basis to create dialogue with your visitors and encourage them to return. The more often visitors return to your site, the more impressions you’ll be able to make with them giving you a greater chance to convert them into clients. You can even use free open-source software such as WordPress, which is extremely powerful and highly customizable. Installing your own blog is far more effective than simply setting up a free account like those offered by WordPress, BlogSpot or any number of other blog hosting services because it allows you to continually add fresh content to your own website which is something the search engines love!
