Justuno Partner Series: What Does Being on Brand Really Mean?
Written by Debra Weinryb, Content Strategist
You’ve launched a brand new design for your ecommerce website, but how do you know your messaging is really on brand? Sure, anyone can follow brand guidelines to create assets with eye catching designs that will capture the attention of a reader, but here’s the hard truth — good design doesn’t always correlate with keeping your brand authentic and staying true to your business mission.
To dive deeper into the topic of staying on brand, I’d like to introduce you to the first post in our new partner blog series featuring Rob Hammett, Director of Solutions at Justuno. Justuno empowers digital marketers, store owners and everyone on an ecommerce team to rapidly test, design and deploy lead capture and onsite retargeting campaigns to create a smoother, more personalized customer journey.
Rob’s been with Justuno for over 6.5 years, working directly under the CEO & Co-founder Erik Christiansen. In his role, Rob guides strategy for prospects and clients on how to optimize the onsite experience for customers to guide them toward converting. Here’s what Rob had to say about what being on brand really means:
Q - What does being on brand really mean?
A - “On brand” means utilizing your messaging and aesthetic to stay true to both your brand’s mission and your customer base. It’s this feeling of authenticity to your marketing efforts that resonates with your customers. The more natural it feels, the more likely you are to be on brand and have your audience engage with you.
Q - Can implementing an omnichannel strategy help you stay on brand?
A - In terms of staying on brand, I always go back to thinking about channels as if they are a brick and mortar, physical store. If you are advertising Halloween costumes on a billboard in a parking lot, are you also enforcing that message in your store when people arrive?
Thinking in terms of an online presence, how does consistent messaging across channels like paid ads, email marketing, SMS, and more drive people to engage with your site? By presenting a unified brand personality through messaging and visuals, you’ll ultimately boost your brand’s presence. Like the physical store approach, being relevant and consistent throughout the journey to your store will drive volume and attract an engaged, high converting audience.
Rob says keeping messaging and visuals consistent across channels will boost your brand's presence and help you stay on brand.
Q - How can elevating the site experience help an online store become more on brand?
A - As marketers, we tend to think about conversions as data, but to the end consumer, making a purchase is personal. You do your research and make the decision of whether or not you would align yourself with a brand. In relation to ecommerce, I think elevating your site experience lets you convey your brand’s voice and values so people can align themselves with your brand on a deeper level. Connecting with consumers is crucial for driving conversions and it starts (or ends) with their experience on your site. As a customer moves through their journey and gets closer to buying, give them a reason to align themselves with your brand, rather than moving through your site and onto your competitors. In short, elevating the site experience lets your customers know that you understand what they want.
Q - How do you keep your brand authentic and true to your business mission?
A - Keep your copy concise but filled with value. If you donate 1% to charity, then say it! It’s so important to keep things simple and easy-to-understand, especially when it comes to copy. For example, when we see people asking their users to take a lot of steps before receiving an incentive, like following them on social media and tagging a friend, using a hashtag and opting into emails at the same time, we know engagement will drop off. This is asking too much of the visitor and they’ll balk at how much effort is required of them. Also, It’s critical to have brand guidelines to keep your team aligned on everything from website design, creative assets, copy, and required fields.
Q - Why is Shopify Plus the best platform for retailers to grow their brand and boost revenue?
I talk to a lot of retailers, and they all want the same thing: speed, control, efficiency, and features. They want all the bells and whistles, which is what Shopify provides. Shopify Plus is great because they empower smaller companies to grow into $100 million dollar brands, like Pura Vida and Fashion Nova. They also have a thriving technology partner ecosystem that allows merchants’ marketing technologies to plug-and-play together.
Pura Vida runs a successful online store on Shopify Plus that leverages Justuno's pop-up features to grab their customers' attention.
Q - What’s the benefit of leveraging Justuno via an agency, like Diff?
By leveraging Justuno through an agency like Diff, we are filling in the blanks on what you might have missed as a singular retailer. Justuno has developed comprehensive best practices and benchmarks guided by our extensive work with retailers. The folks at Diff and other agencies we work with already have an idea of the UX best practices to leverage through Justuno, and they like using our platform for its flexibility in terms of design, extensive integration options, and for its strength as a data and AI conversion suite.
Consistency is key to staying on brand
As we’ve discussed, branding is more than just your product, your logo, or your design choices. It includes all these things and so much more. User experience, brand promises, messaging, mission, and personality are all a part of your brand that provide value to your customers.. The more value you provide, the more likely your customers will feel like they know and trust you, and in turn, they will be more likely to make a purchase or return to your store. It is this difference that builds an online business that is not only authentic, but on brand.
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Read our next Justuno partner blog, 4 ways to make your retail brand voice stand out on Shopify Plus!
