How to Build a Brand Online in Zambia

Learn How to Build a Brand Online in Zambia easily from this complete guide

If you run a company then you know you can’t compete on the market without a unique brand being created. The question is, how are you going about it?

With so many content development, branding and reaching new markets on the table, one can easily find oneself overwhelmed by tasks and opportunities at every stage.

If you’re looking at social networking, paid ads, making material, SEO or blogging … branding is a huge part of the method.

It’s easy to start an online business but not to turn it into a trusted brand.

To help you get there, find the following steps and case study examples, if you want the easiest and safest path to building a brand that people can trust and buy from.

Identify Your Audience in Zambia

Here’s the thing- there’s no lack of online branding tools and services that can help you build anything from stylish logos to your company marketing campaigns. None of these will work though if you’re not targeting the right people.

You’ll need to define your target market before you start working on your brand. To get that detail, the following are some of the questions you can ask yourself: Where are my customers?
What is my clients age group?
What kind of lifestyle do most of my clients have?
If all of this knowledge is in place, then it’s time to create a website and forum around their needs.

CASE STUDY EXAMPLE: To accomplish this, few industries are more crucial when it comes to understanding your market than ecommerce. Not only is the competition tough, it’s also a form of business with a ‘first impression,’ and if those first few seconds on your site don’t seal the deal… you could lose the potential customer for life.

If you want to improve clicks and sales from your online store, you need to make sure that not only does it have excellent web design and navigation, it also requires proper product search and breakdowns of categories.

WalkingOnACloud, an online retailer in Canada that focuses on a wide variety of shoes and boots through their website, offers a good example of this. Check out the screenshot below to see the site’s quick navigation and product reviews.

What you’ll note is that every shoe picture pops right off the screen, and even the title and brand is easy to read.

If the end user has any trouble browsing the web and finding the correct shoe or company that they are looking for, all they need to do is make a few changes to refine their quest on the left side menu.

The site also features several other classic models and brands which also allow it to rank individual shoes and long tail keywords in the search results. If you visit some of the pages on the web, you will also find that at the bottom of each page the text and keyword is heavy — thereby giving the end user more interest and increasing their chances of ranking in the search results by getting real text on the web and not just individual items and photos.

Define Your Mission in Zambia

A brand has a dream and a mission to it. There’s just no way around it. So you need to find some spare time, and think about the things that determine your existence’s meaning.

A good question you can ask yourself is-what are the issues my company is solving? The answer can be anything to that question.

Another interesting way to look at this is to ask the audience where they are. Some brands, for example, concentrate their efforts more on Instagram, compared to Facebook or Twitter. The more you learn about your audience, the easier it will be for you to see a ROI with your efforts to build content and to market.

For starters, your company might be supplying bachelors with inexpensive furniture, clothes for students taking the leap to college, or maybe you’d like to provide everyone with the most delicious homely meals. Whatever the response is, it will become the cornerstone of your mission and your dream.

At the same time, user interaction is now significantly more concentrated than ever before. It’s not only about getting a presence on social media, it’s about how brands actually interact with their end users and give them interest.

If you have a general understanding of the purpose and vision of your company, you can read a guide or two online on how to compose proper statements. This way you won’t have to change the same again and again.

CASE STUDY EXAMPLE: Social media is great for many different things but only a few brands and ecommerce sites do it correctly when it comes to the actual ROI and business that is created from it.

You can create content, create a follow-up, and have as many profiles and followers as you want, but if they don’t contribute to actual sales and conversions, what’s the good thing?

That’s something Zappos knew right from the start, and as a result they have one of the biggest ecommerce and shoe retailer follow-ups on social media.

With more than 2.5 million followers on Twitter, and millions of dollars generated in weekly sales, customer service remains their strong point.

Social media marketing is nothing new for Zappos — as it’s how they got their start and found major online success. They decided to make their brand more about customer service and user interaction, instead of concentrating solely on sales and marketing.

This eventually leads to the company’s success today — which results in them becoming one of today’s world’s largest shoe retailers.

The fast lesson here is not only to be involved on social media, but also to give your audience a reason why they should follow you — and in reality be interested in the products and services that you provide through social media.

Study Your Competition in Zambia

Branding is about separating the business from others in the industry. So, it’s important to pay close attention to your competitors and their brands.

You should review their mission and vision as well as USPs, and also pay attention to their logos. This is because you want to be different from all of these. Only then can you stand out, and quickly draw customers.

You also need to consider how and where to concentrate your efforts, at the same time. For certain companies, this may be due to their efforts in social media marketing and branding … while for others it may be in content marketing and SEO form.

CASE STUDY EXAMPLE: We all know that there is a downturn in SEO and Google search but the standard is still there. If someone goes to Google and types in what they’re searching for … then they’re more likely to take action too.

However, for this to work, the site would need to be affiliated with a nice DA and PA, while of course still providing some nice backlinks and good quality content.

With ecommerce sites, this is always a concern since they concentrate so much on their individual product pages and not enough ‘service and material.’ Brands can create top lists, ratings, and stories about the products they make, by using a blog.

Then, these content pages will rank at much higher and faster speed than normal product pages in Google. Around the same time, it would be very difficult to list for specific product names and labels, as there are already so many other big name sites and shops.

A good example of this would be seen if you had anything like “the best clothes to wear to college” on Google. It’s a long tail keyword so maybe not a lot of people are looking for it, but it’s always a good thing to rank for — and those who are looking for it are probably already in buy mode.

Check out the search results, and see what kind of material each of these sites produces. If you’re a retailer of clothing, this is a no brainer — and you can do this for any sort of case, season, or whatever … that people may be looking for ideas on clothes.

Define Brand Guidelines in Zambia

Consistency is the secret to good branding, and when you’re prepared to make the effort, it can be easily accomplished. All you basically need is the instructions for brands.

Through setting the criteria, you will make sure the branding is consistent in all platforms — social media, blogs, newsletters, and even offline platforms. Community event flags, personalized merchandise etc. The following are some of the things you need to identify for your company: Color palette Typography Writing style and sound (for blog, website material, etc.) Mission statement and vision When you have a clear message that describes your company, developing an action plan and set of business goals to help you get there will be so much easier for you.

EXAMPLE CASE STUDY: To build an successful and meaningful vision for your company, you need to consider not just your business but also what it means to the people you represent.

To spark the imagination, FitBusiness has an excellent write up on 10 excellent dream statements.

At the very least, these will be extremely useful in giving you some real-life examples of what it means to have behind it a powerful brand, company, and intention (vision).

In designing a vision and statement for your company and brand, one of the most important things to note is to make sure it relates to your audience, how they view your company, so that you will actually perform so deliver on the commitment you make.

Market Your Brand in Zambia

You can start promoting it anywhere you can, until your brand is ready. There are various examples on the internet on how to promote your brand with targeted blog posts, emails, social media etc. You just need to build a plan and it is also highly recommended that you use at least a few tools to make your job easier, including a social media manager, SEO analytics tool, advanced video editors, etc. What does that mean when you’re talking to your clients on social media or blog, you need to make sure you have the same tone and voice.

EXAMPLE CASE STUDY: Much like how we discussed creating content for your website or company to reach new markets through search rankings with original ideas for blog content, knowing how to market your company is crucial.

It’s not just about understanding who you’re selling to, it’s also about how to construct the best content relevant to it.

It is something that social media has become increasingly successful in, particularly Facebook Advertising and Instagram Marketing — as both provide targeted demographics, interest and custom audiences.

Having these choices in place, it’s no longer a matter of producing content on your website and only hoping it will be noticed … but also how much and when.

By using paid ads, social media, and the power of remarketing – it is now easier than ever to reach your ideal consumer and demographic audience.

Concluding

Do you need help building your brand in Zambia? WhatsApp me +260977770202

The internet has made it extremely cost-effective and convenient to create a web site and go live with a company or brand.

Today, we are all in an incredibly competitive environment, with more than a billion active websites and blogs on the Web. This ensures that any small and large company needs top-notch branding in order to thrive and also increasing the monthly revenue.

If you want to train for that in the simplest way, then the above measures and case studies will help you get there.

Good luck!