Challenges of Online Branding for Start-ups

Every brand has a story to tell. A start-up having a story is likely to evolve into a brand. Storytelling is one of the critical challenges of online branding for start-ups. How a story is narrated emotively and visually is more important than the story itself. Nothing impacts the human psychology as much as inspirational stories. Gone are the days when branding was limited to advertising with a slogan or jingle on the electronic media. Online storytelling through web design is more challenging technically and aesthetically. Recently, storytelling has become the backbone of every marketing campaign.

A start-up may have a powerful story with a strong emotive undertone. No matter how convincingly the story is presented, it will not be engaging if it does not relate to the target audience. Storytelling helps with online branding and contributes to the success of an online campaign only when it connects the philosophy of a startup with the target audience. These days storytelling is blended with content marketing to accelerate an online branding drive. Build a story around the principal objective of a start-up with a sharp focus on the audience for successful content marketing, which further adds value to branding.

Web design is another challenge of online branding for start-ups. A start-up stands out as a brand on the strength of uniqueness in design. According to statistics, about 90% of users interact with a business website if the design appeals to them. These days, it does not take a lot to get a website designed with good look and feel, which may not necessarily be unique. A readymade template can be developed into a website through a little customization. Several websites can be developed out of a single template. However, those websites look all the same having nothing unique about them. That’s why custom web design is the need of the hour for the branding of startups. After all, uniqueness and distinguishable quality come at a cost!

Online branding is a consistent effort, especially for start-ups. A start-up is recognized as a brand over a span of time if it maintains its stand in the target market. Having a great website with a unique look and feel is not enough to retain the brand image and positioning. Content across the Web is a consistent effort to push the branding of a startup forward. Content reflecting the philosophy or ideology of a startup should be used for holistic marketing across the Web as well as Social Media. Producing impactful content as much as required in different formats and for different platforms is a challenge of online branding.

With visibility being a need for online branding for startups, content for search engines should be searchable and content for social media should be highly engaging. Branded content for online branding makes it possible to gain maximum visibility for startups. Branded content is the content with a key message of a startup. If these challenges are met, the online branding of startups is undoubtedly a success.