Being branded has always been a buzzword in the digital space. However, what does it really mean for businesses, and how do you become branded? It’s one thing for your agency to say you have a “branded” digital presence, but it takes a united front to actually do it.

Being branded means unity. Unity in every external piece of communication that touches your audience – whether it’s your current target audience or not (because a good brand means good brand awareness). All of your social media pages should have matching color schemes, tone, and imagery, which should match your website (aka the hub of all your digital activity), which should match any digital advertising. Now, we’re not saying the exact same image should be posted everywhere with the exact same text. No, branding is not about cloning – it’s about familiarity. An internet user should be able to go to any piece of your business’s digital strategy and know it’s the same company creating each similar piece.

The key aspect to achieving branding nirvana is communication. Messaging, imagery, and strategy will vary largely in a workplace that does not communicate. Each department needs to understand what the other is doing to make sure offers, specials, images, and tone matches. To achieve a brand presence that everyone in the office adheres to, consider creating a branding guide. This guide should include fonts, images, colors, tones, slogans, value statements, and anything else you deem relevant to your brand image. Each person in your organization should be given free access to your branding guide. Each piece of the branding guide is interwoven from each department’s talents to create the overall brand – which is important for everyone to know.

In a more immediate sense, from day-to-day or month-to-month, departments need to communicate to share the information each person is putting online. If the social media department doesn’t know the special the digital ads are running – why not? Then the special is not reaching half of your overall digital strategy. Send those digital ads to the social department, so they can match imagery and tone to create a cool post or advertisement to stretch that special even further and reach new users. Then, send all of those posts, ads, and more to a targeted link on your website. If you’re communicating specific details that are featured on an interior page of your website, why would you set your click-thru link on your ads to the homepage? Being branded means your ads should click-thru to the information listed in your social posts, digital ads, etc.; after all, that is the information that ignited their interest in the first place. Also, sending users to a generic page chances them not finding the information they wanted. Internet users like quick and easy information. Users may leave if you make information difficult to find, then you just branded your business in a negative way.

Overall, the trinity to remember when branding yourself digitally is planning, communication, and consistency. With all three, your business is on track to become a branding rockstar.