Your brand identity is an essential part of your business. And how you do branding is really how you do marketing and even sales.

First impressions matter more than ever in the digital world today, as researchers suggest. That means you can’t stick to the old website you once paid for, skip great-looking visuals or fail to take into consideration the user experience from the moment they land on your platform.

Luckily, your brand identity is in your hands. Even if you didn’t pay much attention to it so far, you can take control of that aspect of your online business now and change direction. For that, you’ll first need to make sure the essentials are in place and that’s what this article is about.

Here are the most important elements of your brand and what to do about each:

1. Define your brand.

One of the mistakes those just starting out in business make is not having a clear definition of who they are and what they do.

But how can you position yourself in a crowded niche if you yourself can’t summarize that in 30 seconds (which is the so-called elevator pitch)?

You need to be recognizable, to have a unique value proposition, to tell your target audience what they want to hear so that they can be sure you’re the person to do business with. And to also keep it short and sweet, as everyone’s attention span is quite short on the Web.

The brand identity is first formed in your mind, though, and no one else can do that for you. Feel free to ask friends for ideas, get feedback (that’s important!), research your competitors, find out what you can do better, go do it but add a personal touch so you can stand out.

Meanwhile, though, don’t forget to truly grasp the ‘why’ behind the brand you’re trying to create. If you don’t do that early on (or when you’re pivoting if you’ve already been in business for some time), you won’t make it far.

2. Make your brand visual.

Visuals play a huge role. In fact, they are often more important to digital marketers as visual content grabs people’s attention, engages them and is more likely to let them stick around for a bit longer.

In addition, people retain 65% of the information even days after if there’s a relevant image included, compared to just 10% retention rate when it’s just text.

So, how do you make your brand more visual?

Let’s start with colors. Get an idea of what each palette means and how it affects the decisions and actions of an online user. That’s basic color psychology, really. And there’s the color wheel to help you out when choosing the primary and secondary colors for your brand identity.

Next, create a great logo. Luckily, there are plenty of tools to make it quick and easy. Check out this free logo creator, for instance.

Images are a must, not just an additional element to your articles and posts. Set some time aside to find relevant and quality royalty-free ones. Or better yet, invest a bit to get professional ones.

As for the photos of yourself you’ll share on the About page and across other platforms, and behind-the-scenes content for social media, make sure you get these done right too. People want to see a face behind every company, and low-quality images won’t really make a good first impression.

3. Brand consistency.

Last but not least, all elements of your brand must align with the big idea behind it, the content you create and share, the products you sell, the person you are.

Your website color scheme must resonate with your overall message and tone. Also, don’t forget to use the same colors, logo, motto, and fonts across all platforms.

Have a consistent style for images and formatting on your blog. Do that with all types of content you create, such as infographics, videos, social media posts, emails you send to your list, etc.

Brand consistency leads to brand recognition, and – ultimately – brand differentiation.

A mistake many online business owners make when it comes to their brand identity is that they change directions too often. That confuses their readership and following and people stop paying attention at some point.

There’s a reason why some of the biggest and most successful brands in the world have stuck to one logo and one slogan for decades. Once you get into your customers’ heads, you want to keep it like that and only give them more of what your brand has to offer.

Over to you now.

What are you doing for your brand identity to grow your online business, build a name for yourself and position yourself in your market?