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12 Brand Building Tips Shopify Store Owners Need to Know

GemPages Team
Updated:
8 minutes read
branding tips

With Shopify, anyone can build an online store these days. That's because the platform makes it easy for anyone with ideas to create a store within a few clicks. 

Furthermore, Shopify has many themes and templates to help you get started without any design experience. But the thing with Shopify is that most stores look the same. 

Branding is one of the best ways to stand out from the rest of the pack to increase sales in your online store

In this post, we'll walk you through a slew of helpful branding tips on how you can build your brand on Shopify.

1. Prioritize Product Quality

Prioritizing product quality is one of the business branding tips topping our list.It is easy for customers to be loyal to a brand they know they can rely on. Quality control is important when building different types of products for a specific audience. 

If your products are well-made, you can avoid losing out on customer loyalty and referrals. When you narrow your focus, you can give more attention to your product's overall quality and reputation. As soon as you've scaled your products and built a loyal following, you can venture into other products with the same audience and niche. 

When you build and start your ecommerce website around quality, customers will recognize your business value. If you've already launched but you're not getting much traction, consider scaling back and relaunching your focus to just one product. 

Learn more: Best one product Shopify store examples from top brands

2. Establish Your Brand Personality

Branding tips - enhance brand identity

Likely, your brand wouldn't be everything for everyone, especially if you're starting out. 

That's why you need to know your focus, informing other parts of your brand as you build it. 

Here are some questions to ask when establishing your brand personality: 

What's your positioning statement? 

A positioning statement is one or two lines staking your claim in the market. Having a unique value proposition is crucial. Make sure you know what it is, making it a vital aspect of your brand's messaging. 

What words do you want to associate with your brand? 

Imagine your brand as a person. What kind of personality would your customers be drawn to? This helps you set the brand tone, both visual and written. 

What metaphors or concepts would you describe your brand? 

It also helps to think of your brand as a metaphor and then personify it with the qualities you want it to have. It could be anything- as long as it has a prominent reputation in your mind and gives it the vibe you want. 

3. Consistency Is Key

Brand consistency is key

As soon as you have a brand idea, it would help if you were consistent with it. Your brand is your company's identity. Thus, the last thing you want is to change it depending on the social media platform you're using and other external factors. 

If you're crisp and clean with your blog, ensure that the same goes for your social media accounts and online storefront. You don't want to send your customers mixed messages. 

Here are some key elements that help your brand become more consistent: 

  • Tone and voice: What key characteristics do you want to convey to your audience? Establish a brand voice that captures your audience's attention. 
  • Color palette: Brand color consistency aids in brand identification. Make visual assets consistent and not repetitive. Pick a primary color along with 3 or 4 complementary hues. 
  • Logo: Plan how your logo will appear in various formats. 
  • Images: Decide whether or not you'll use stock or proprietary photography and images. 
  • Fonts: Usually, brands have primary and secondary fonts for titles, paragraphs, and captions. Consistent brand fonts help in brand recognition. Check out this template library that you can use for your Shopify store. 

4. Understand the Your Target Customers

understand target customers

Now that you have a solid idea of what your business will be like, the next thing that you need to do is to look at who your customers are

It's worth your time and energy to survey your prospective audience. You should know what they need and want to know and how you can deliver your products in the most appealing way possible. 

Marketing success involves knowing who your customers are and how you can reach them. Usually, starting with big goals is less successful than just focusing on a specific target group. 

Defining your target audience or the specific group of people expecting to buy your products and services is an essential first step before you can start marketing your business. Usually, existing and prospective customers make up this group. 

You can create better content and personalized ads with the right marketing message for your target demographic and their pain points. It’s also important to understand that various messages affect different demographics. There’s also a risk of spending a lot of time and money if you don’t know who you’re targeting. 

5. Exceed Customer Expectations

Once you have a brand in mind, you should be creative by solidifying your brand in your customers' minds. As much as you can, exceed your customers' expectations. 

You can spread brand awareness by making infographics, offering free and helpful content, giving away brand merch, running fun contests on social media, or partnering with other local businesses! 

Over time, this helps build trust and credibility in your customers' eyes. They'll also think of you as their top go-to brand. 

6. Know Your Competitors

Study companies that made it that are similar to yours. Ensure that you have the same goals and aspirations as them. Then, from there, find ways to stand out from the rest of the pack. 

Only copy some of what they do, as this could show in your branding and leave a bad taste in your customers' mouths. Instead, try to look for ways to differentiate your brand from them. Let's say that your customer is cheaper than you. Make sure that you make your premium. 

7. Identify What Makes You Different

Define your brand’s unique selling point

Another thing to remember is that there's no way your brand will speak to every person you come across, and that's okay! You don't want to strive to be the right brand for everyone. Instead, identify what makes your brand unique and capitalize on that. By developing brand identity, the right people will find you.

Instead, be the perfect brand for your target audience. Have a solid understanding of your target audience and how you can build a strong brand for them. Ideally, find traits that set you apart. 

You must learn to position yourself and your products well to avoid being invisible to more prominent, engaging brands. 

8. Associate with Strong Brands

To build your brand from the ground up, you must associate yourself with other strong brands. This doesn't mean that you're trying to make the number one brand or company in your industry, as the prospect may seem unattainable at first. 

It helps you associate yourself with strong brands that will help boost your credibility and brand visibility. You can achieve this by getting featured on big-name blogs in your field. 

9. Integrate Your Brand into Every Aspect of Your Business

Another thing that you need to do is to integrate your brand with every aspect of your business. The moment the customer enters your store, your brand image should show both in your environment and in personal interactions.

It should also be visible to anything tangible, from your business cards, ads, packaging, products, and digital platforms. Ensure that your brand looks the same in all of these areas. Utilize a brand style consistent with your visuals from the colors, logos, fonts, landing pages and product images you use. 

If you use GemPages page builder for designing your online store, you can make use of our Global Styles feature to achieve brand consistency. Global Styles allows you to create custom presets and apply them across your store pages. That way, you no longer have to repeatedly tweak every tiny detail. Just another way we’re making it easier to uniform your brand look.

Ready to elevate your Shopify storefront?
Take your storefront to the next level with GemPages page builder. Free plan available. Upgrade as you scale.

10. Start Spreading Brand Awareness

spreading brand awareness

Brand awareness describes the brand, product, or service's level of recognition over its customers. Solid brand awareness can boost sales, enhance customer loyalty, and strengthen your competitive position in the market. 

So how do you spread brand awareness? Our advice is to start where you are. One of the best ways in brand awareness building is through referral programs. Loyal customers will likely spread the word about your product or service to their family and friends if there's an added perk. 

Another way is to improve your organic social media presence and brand visibility to attract the right people who are genuinely interested in what you offer. If your target audience has a positive experience with your brand, they'll start to see the value of your brand. 

11. Conversations with Your Customer Helps Build Your Brand

Many ecommerce store owners don’t realize that store and product feedback also helps build your brand that their target customers love and resonate with. It all boils down to your product copy, marketing assets, and speaking in a language that resonates with them.

Surprisingly, poor reviews help build your brand as well. The main goal of your Shopify store is that your brand needs to be strong enough that if customers have a terrible experience with a product, they continue to buy from you instead of opting for your competitors. 

However, for this to happen, you must show them that your brand is committed to helping and supporting your customers. Let’s say a customer gave you a one-star review. You can look at why they did this in the first place, resolve the issue, and provide them with a free replacement. 

This goes a long way in showing the customer and future customers how you care. Nothing will build your brand more than being a Shopify online store that cares about its customers. 

By supporting your customers, you’ll also enhance your customer retention in the long run. 

12. Having Long-Term Strategy Is Essential

Build a long-term strategy for your brand

Refrain from trading long-term growth for merely short-term results. To create a landing brand, you must put in the time and effort to build a strong brand.

It's also worth noting that only some businesses benefit from the same strategies others use, especially if those tactics aren't in line with their own. Thus, you must be wary of these things, especially if they don't align with your existing branding initiatives. 

It would help if you also exercised at least some caution when it comes to the latest trends in your industry. This is because many branding trends are out there that only help with your long-term goals.

Build Your Brand Today!

So, there you have it. 

At the end of the day, brand building isn’t about logos or choosing a new font. It goes deeper than that. Brand building isn’t about logos or choosing a new font. It goes deeper than that. 

It also involves looking at various aspects of your business, and once you have a solid brand, you can increase prices and stay at the forefront of your customers’ minds while increasing word-of-mouth marketing. 

Remember, building a successful brand on Shopify takes time, hard work, and a little bit of upfront investment on your part. You can use the following branding tips to help you get started on Shopify.

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