Branding is a strategy that has been followed by large corporate companies offline - but it is equally important for online businesses regardless of the size.

The idea behind branding yourself is to make sure that people remember you. A lot of focused effort goes into getting your visitors online to recall your product or service and not your competitor.

Now that we know why branding yourself is important, let us look at the various simple ways in which it can be done to make a big difference:

• Being repetitive: this works. When it comes to your website, make sure each web page on your website has the same design and shows your logo clearly at the top of each page. The navigation menu must be in the same place on each page rather than have the visitor getting irritated looking for it.
• If you publish a newsletter or an ezine, these are ideal vehicles to display your domain name and your signature or slogan. For ezines you can make a header at the top of the page showing your domain name and slogan. Use this header consistently through all your ezines.
• Your website domain name plays a vital role in branding. A lot of thought must go into this so that it is easy to remember by your visitors. This domain name must then appear on all your stationary, business cards etc.
• Your signature file: this is something you will have to compose - so that it is attention grabbing. Preferably let it show your unique selling point with your URL, so that each and every communication you send out has your signature attached to it, building your brand. Signature files are easy to set up.
• Each page of your ebooks must be branded with your logo, signature and URL. Then use them as giveaways and allow your recipients to also give it away freely to their visitors. Think of the viral effect!
• On your website, wherever you have online forms through which visitors sign up, subscribe, contact you or ask for more information, you probably have a thank you page as well. If not, make one and place your logo and signature on this page, so your visitors remember and recall.
• One of the easiest methods of branding is through articles. Write good articles and publish them in article directories, other websites and ezines. Ensure that you make a resource box at the end of your article and include your name, a link to your website and a brief text that will pull visitors to your site. Allow others to reproduce your articles with the resource box intact. Include a line about yourself along with something like “to claim your free ebook on 25 methods to get free traffic, go here”. Publishing articles is a great way to get free publicity and to establish yourself as an expert in your field - leading to building your brand.
• Last but certainly not the least, use your autoresponder in brand building! These tireless workers who operate on your behalf 24 x 7 to send out your emails, reports, articles etc automatically can be set up so that both the top and bottom of your autoresponder’s message include your signature, logo and link to your website.

Implement the above suggestions right away and see the difference!

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