Building an online extension of your business/personal brand is extremely vital to extending your reach, and continuing to progress/stay relevant as a business in a world where “online” is not just the future… It is now.

Building Your Brand Online Series Intro from Infoswell Media on Vimeo.

The online world is constantly evolving and in so doing it continues to provide unique opportunities and tools for businesses (large or small), magazines, and publishers to build an online presence that extends their reach, and company brand in new and exciting ways.

This series will discuss a few of those tools and how you can leverage them to build your online brand. This first of which is Interactive Design.

Interactive Design

Building your brand online really means that you are extending your current brand into the online space. So it would follow that the importance of a website should be at the top of our list, and not just “a website” for the sake of having one, but one that really represents your brand, and allows your customers/users to connect with you. Think of it it as a conversation with your users, this will help you to define what you are trying to communicate with those who are visiting your site.

Once you have figured out what you want to communicate, look for innovative, user friendly ways build that interaction. A couple of things to include are:

• A simple contact form so that the user can easily send you a message from the site.
• An opportunity for your customers to send feedback and suggestions.(This can be implemented in the contact form mentioned above.)
• A company blog where you talk about company news, success stories for the company and those who use the product, and allow the customers/users to interact.

Now that you have some communication techniques in mind, pair them with a visually appealing, easy to use website interface that is in line with the overall brand.

“It is so crucial to remember that how your website looks, and interacts with those who use it says a lot about about your brand and your commitment to increasing it’s value. Your website deserves the same commitment that you dedicate to your product or service.”

A well built website is the foundational key to building a successful online brand. It becomes a platform to launch so many other useful elements of your online brand. In the next article we will discuss Social Media, and how to build solid, authentic interaction with your customers.

Everyday we see more news stories from publishers that are seeking to extend the reach of their print magazine brands. In some cases, publishers are migrating their entire print brands to online and digital brands.

“Luxury SpaFinder Interactive will be published monthly in six languages and will immediately expand the magazine’s global circulation from 200,000 to over one half million spa lifestyle enthusiasts” Press Release

In our own magazine consulting process we insure clients are optimizing their brands across all mediums in which they have cross media content capabilities. This allows publishers to actually leverage their digital and online initiatives using the print editions, interactive website, and digital magazine editions.