Google published that 53% of shoppers compare brands and products online before they make a buying decision. This means that it’s highly likely that your audience looks for your brand online before they conclude about you or your product/service.

Hence, establishing your online brand becomes pivotal in bringing more quality business. WordPress has empowered individuals to create businesses and brands with much more ease and efficiency. Before looking at how to establish your online brand with WordPress, it is essential to look at why you need branding.

Why do you need branding?

‘Brand Awareness,’ ‘Brand Value,’ ‘Brand Loyalty,’ and terms like these are thrown around pretty casually when one takes a sneak-peek into the domain of branding. What they really mean and how you create them is often rolled out in generic branding guides.

Clarity regarding what kind of branding activity you need for your online brand becomes a decisive factor in your success. A firmly established brand allows you to enjoy these benefits:

• High brand value
• Earn the invaluable trust of your consumers
• Premium prices. Loyal customers spend more money on brands they are loyal to
• More credibility
• Generate leads
• Increased public visibility

Be it for your personal brand or business; there are a few fundamentals you need to establish firmly. This guide explores how you can establish your online brand using WordPress.

1. Begin from the beginning

Now that you have decided to take this exciting journey, you must begin from the very start. Create your own website. It is great to have a social media presence but be aware that it is not your own space. Use social media platforms only as an extension of your own space.

Your website is your personal and private platform. You own it, and you decide the rules here.

The first step is to buy WordPress hosting and register a domain name. Each hosting provider has its specialty, like Bluehost offers excellent infrastructure and server resources. Depending upon your requirement, choose an appropriate plan. Most managed WordPress hosting providers offer vertically scalable plans, which you can upgrade as your needs change. Likely your web host will also provide you a free domain name. Ensure that your domain name directly represents your brand. Avoid using vague phrases. Most hosting providers offer one-click installs, and setting-up your WordPress becomes super easy.

2. Build Your Website

Creating a website with WordPress is effortless. With WordPress, you can build your website with a simple drag-and-drop option and even write your own code. Practically, it offers limitless possibilities.  

Themes become an integral part of the way your website looks. Crafting the visual appearance of your site must be done carefully so that it represents what your brand stands for. You must use licensed and premium themes. Free themes might make your website prone to threats and do not offer many customizing options. Your design must be perfect to avoid future redesign.

3. Aesthetics and Functionality

WordPress offers a perfect balance between aesthetics and functionality. It is possible to create highly functional websites without losing on the aesthetics, and vice-versa. In terms of aesthetics, there are a few primary tips you must follow to create a strong brand identity.

• Have a logo. It’s a reliable identifier that makes a brand more relatable and memorable. Create a design that is easy on the eye as it takes not more than 10 seconds for people to form an opinion on your logo.
• Keep your color palette consistent across various platforms. 80% of consumers believe that colors are a big part of brand identification.  If your brand consistently across platforms, you are likely to get 3.5 times more strong brand visibility.

You can use the power of visual imagery to communicate the most complex messages simply. However, at first we recommend you to prepare the images using online free image editor before uploading them to WordPress. WordPress lets you create a website with a powerful visual hierarchy. You can also tweak the navigation of your website to its optimum. Using slides, sidebars, tabs, and other widgets, create navigation that takes your visitors through the most important message on your website first to less important notes at last.

4. Create Consistent Content

WordPress has an integrated post publishing system that makes it super easy to post any type of content effectively. Start writing extensively, post blogs that are relevant to your industry. 61% of people are more likely to buy from you if you deliver unique content. Content is not just a tool for user engagement but also drives sales.

Visual content is the most engaging, and stats say that 54% of consumers want to see more video content from brands they support. Videos make up for more than half of the content floating on the internet today. Invest in video creation and video marketing. Experiment with podcasts, infographics, and music.

5. Build a mailing list

Building a healthy email list can be a strong foothold. Email marketing is not just about driving sales. You can create a healthy user engagement through emailers. Emails see more click through rates than advertisements.  

You can create free giveaways and freebies that visitors can receive in exchange for their email. WordPress lets you integrate many email marketing tools like MailChimp and AWeber. Send your content, latest updates, offers, and blogs to the visitors in bulk using these integrated tools.

Send customized content to different users. 82% of consumers prefer businesses after reading their custom-tailored content.

In addition to building a mailing list we also recommend you to use top lead management systems to track calls from your clients. This is a must-have tool for each business nowadays.

6. Add Testimonials

Testimonials are an excellent way to boost credibility and establish authority. It is also a smart way of showing off what others are saying about the brand. WordPress has hundreds of plugins that let you create cool testimonials that look great and convey the message appropriately. Just be careful while choosing a plugin. Pick a plugin that is regularly updated, with a jank-free code and good user reviews.

Conclusion

In this guide, we tried giving you a peek into how you can use WordPress to create your online brand. These tips are just a tiny fragment of what you can do with WordPress. Once you begin the journey of tailoring your online brand, explore the subject in more depth. But for now, we hope that you are good to start with these simple and useful tips.