Why Strong Brands Will Dominate Digital Marketing in 2024

For many years, Etsy has been a site where creators and artists share their handmade goods. You could find it all, whether you wanted a customized portrait or beads made from sand collected from the Sahara.

Over time, it began transforming into an e-commerce platform. Soon, shoppers were running into cheap drop-shipping items more than customized handmade crafts. This resulted in a decline in site activity.

The same scenario is beginning to play out in digital marketing.

AI has great potential to grow digital marketing. But not everyone uses it as they should, and it generates mass-marketing content and dehumanizes customer experiences.

This misuse of AI creates a lot of NOISE!

Creating a unique brand packed with personality, authoritative insights, and personal experience helps you stand out from that noise. You are the handmade item amidst the cheap, mass-produced products.

While services like SEO are essential for brand awareness and bringing traffic, they only take you to the front door of that business. A strong brand welcomes people inside.

Let’s jump in and start building that strong brand that stands out from the noise.

What Is Your Brand in Digital Marketing?

Just because you have a strong company doesn’t necessarily mean you have a strong brand. Your company is the organization that runs your business, and your brand is how your customers view it.

Investing in your brand improves customers’ feelings about you when they see your telltale imagery, like logos, branded colors, and faces.

Through digital marketing branding, you transform your company from products into emotions, which have a far more convincing power to turn people into customers.

6 Factors that Contribute to a Strong Brand

So, how can you create an emotionally evocative brand that stands out from the noise and makes people willing to spend more for your services?

Here are six ways to build a strong brand in 2024.

1. Foster a Real Connection

People crave connection. When we have authentic connections, we have better mental health, live longer, and have a higher quality of life, according to multiple studies.

Yet, despite living in a world where social media enables constant contact, three in five Americans still say they feel lonely, and that number continues to increase.

What people want isn’t MORE. They want REAL and AUTHENTIC.

You can build these relationships using purpose-driven strategies focusing on the big picture of your goals.

For example, Penguin Random House creates that personal connection through quizzes. The company doesn’t just rely on backend data collection. It recommends people take quizzes on things such as who their book boyfriend is or their favorite things to do in New York City. Those quizzes help Penguin Random House’s algorithm understand the visitor on a deeper level and offer more personalized reading recommendations.

2. Focus on Quality over Quantity

After years of moving forward technologically, many people are pulling the breaks and taking a step back.

We are seeing increased homesteading, homemade food, homeschooling, and a return to small businesses.

If people wanted more, they would embrace the advancements. But businesses are finding people are drawn to simple, authentic experiences instead of all those bells and whistles.

Your brand doesn’t need to keep up with the AI Joneses to appeal to customers. Offering those high-quality, authentic brand experiences will appeal to your audience much more than those that misuse AI to create more content. It gives them fresh air after being bombarded by low-quality mass-produced experiences.

Quality content also benefits your search engine optimization as Google prioritizes high-quality E-E-A-T content over generic mass-produced content.

3. Build a Deeper Understanding

Creating generic content without truly understanding your audience will be as effective as not creating content. Customers notice when you take the time to truly understand them and their needs.

For example, after buying a new refrigerator, AI ads recommend refrigerators everywhere you turn. A deeper understanding of customers means knowing that the average person does not want to purchase a dozen refrigerators.

However, when someone buys a fridge, there’s a good possibility they’re remodeling their kitchen. So, they may be interested in a new stove, freezer, and dishwasher.

You need to reflect that same level of deep understanding in all your marketing by addressing specific customer fears, triumphs, and needs.

4. Establish Your Authority

Imagine if we began calling inanimate objects “experts.” My car is an expert in driving, and my phone is an expert in communication.

Most people would be confused because we understand those items aren’t experts. A phone isn’t an expert communicator. An expert designed it to help people communicate. Phones would be useless without humans designing them and using them correctly.

AI is not a subject matter expert. It’s a tool experts use. It doesn’t know anything apart from what humans trained it on and how humans use it in AI content creation and marketing.

Authorities with personal experience and consumer trust can infuse first-hand knowledge and examples into your branding and marketing that help you stand out as a genuinely knowledgeable brand.

5. Create a Memorable Image

Visuals impact your branding.

If you see a letter C with a chicken head or a cow encouraging you to “Eat Mor Chikin,” you immediately think of Chick-fil-A. Chick-fil-A’s branding goes deeper than its logo. It’s also the family-friendly experiences, clean restaurants, and the signature “my pleasure” that comes along with your customer experience.

All these elements together build an identity.

Your branding ensures what customers see matches what you offer – and how you offer it.  If your brand is playful, your branding should be as well.  Quality branding will appeal to customers, be easily recognizable, and reflect a professional brand.

The most important place to implement visual branding is your website. Your website is often your customer’s first impression, so upgrade it to look sleek and on-brand. This is one area where AI can level up your branding by creating engaging visual experiences.

6. Tell Your Story

Storytelling is the art of turning products and services into stories your customers can relate to. This idea goes back to your goal of creating that authentic connection.

For example, your local coffee shop isn’t just an establishment serving overpriced coffee. It’s a family-owned business run by your neighbors. Bob and Sally, the coffee shop owners, want to give back to the community. You don’t just buy coffee; you support your local community for a brighter future.

Stories act as a guide that helps your customers discover solutions to their problems. They create connections and help you become more relatable.

Some ways to tell your story include:

• Building a structured About page on your website.
• Show behind-the-scenes on social media.
• Use video shorts to build authenticity and connect a face to your brand.
• Share case studies of others who were part of your story and how they had an impact.

Build a Digital Marketing Brand Worth Remembering

Instead of adding more to your to-do list to outdo other businesses, consider taking a step back. A quality brand development strategy will bring you much further than adding to the noise.

We can help you attain that higher level of brand development and marketing.

We aren’t a mass-marketing agency that pushes enormous quantities of information into the digital marketing void. We are a client-first agency that cares about details, communication, and authenticity.

Do you want to be part of the digital transformation that prioritizes customers?Contact us today to start your branding journey.