Council Post: How To Build A Cohesive Brand Experience Across Channels

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Consistency is everything in marketing, but it’s challenging to achieve. Brands are expected to be present on every channel, accessible from every type of device or platform, and reach consumers in whichever way they prefer. With so many expectations around brand presence, many marketers rush to do all of it at once without much of a plan to support their initiatives. Ultimately, this can confuse consumers and create a disconnected, disjointed brand presence in the digital space. You don’t want that.

Effective marketing in the digital space requires consistency. Your company must have a cohesive brand experience across all your channels. This includes everything from your website to your social media accounts. Your brand experience includes your design, copy, messaging and even the functionality of the systems that you employ. Here are a few steps to ensure a cohesive brand experience on every channel and platform.

The ultimate goal of your digital presence is to create a positive experience for prospects and customers every time they interact with your brand. Every customer should come away with the same understanding of your brand, your services or products, and what makes you unique. The first step to ensure this is to identify your brand identity and objectives. You can’t create an effective digital marketing strategy if you don’t have a clear understanding of your brand’s goals.

For most companies, brand identity doesn’t change much over time. You will likely have a core set of products and services tied to a specific need in the marketplace. However, how you communicate your brand identity and current marketing objectives may change with time. The internet has created a system of rapid evolution that requires brands to adapt and tweak their messaging regularly to stay relevant.

In this identification process, there are static and variable elements. Your core offerings, brand mission and target market are static elements. These won’t change much from what you determined at the beginning of your brand. However, details like your logo, the colors and fonts that you use, and the strategies you employ to engage your audience are variable. In fact, they could even change or get updated every few years. The key to joining together these objectives is consistency.

Create a style guide that identifies which logos, fonts and colors you want to use across channels. Assess your website for any branding discrepancies and adjust accordingly. Keep a standard format for graphic design and digital posts so that your company shows up in ads, social posts and online in a consistent way.

An effective website design is a huge part of the brand experience. Most marketing efforts will drive traffic to your company’s website, whether through paid advertisements, email campaigns or social media posts. If your website isn’t functional and responsive, you’ll see a low conversion rate and your strategy won’t be effective. Responsive website design means that your site is able to provide the same (consistent) experience for each user, no matter which type of device they are using.

There are a few key components of a responsive website. You’ll need a flexible layout that can adjust to different screen sizes, typography and graphics that scale to a readable size for screens, and a reasonable load rate (you don’t want your visitors waiting around for your site). Ultimately, the goal should be to create a simplified, streamlined website design that can adjust to each site visitor’s needs.

Digital trends change constantly, and it’s critical to keep tabs on them so you can maintain brand relevance and ensure consistency. This doesn’t have to be a complex process. Every company should audit, update and adjust its digital presence regularly to ensure maximum effectiveness. If you’ve already established brand guidelines and strategies, this shouldn’t be a problem—you’ll have a template to work with. By maintaining a consistent design strategy and ensuring that your website is responsive, you’ll be able to provide your prospects and customers with a predictable experience across platforms.

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