At Metacake, our mantra is Grow Brands That Matter. Notice the key term here is “brands”, not businesses. That’s because real brands are more profitable, valuable, and successful than a standard business, not to mention easier to market.
Your products, even with all your patents and IP, can be ripped off, copied, or undercut. Markets, trends, and industries can change in a matter of weeks, disrupting your entire business. The only way to future-proof your company is by building a valuable brand.
Why? Quite simply, a brand can’t be ripped off. There will only ever be one Chick-fil-A, Apple, Tesla, Rolex, BMW, or Groove Life. Each of these companies have attained a top level of business mastery where they have created a brand that matters, and their customers have bought in. That is powerful and when you achieve that, you’ve won. At that point, it would be more difficult to mess up and lose your customers than to retain them. That’s powerful.
So how do you build a real brand that can attract those loyal fans? Looking at what all of the ecommerce greats have done, you’ll see there are a simple set of factors you’ll need to implement. In this post, we’ll outline seven of those key factors you will need to build a lasting, valuable ecommerce brand.
Definition of an Ecommerce Brand
Before we dive in, let’s define what a brand actually is. Contrary to popular belief, it’s actually not just about your logo, fonts, or colors. Here’s how we define it:
A brand is a name that reminds your customers of a story that they want to see themselves in. And because of that, a brand creates strong feelings and emotions that your target audience desires.
There is also a level of uniqueness to this story. You can think of a brand and its story like a person. There are a lot of humans in the world, but only one you. Many people can learn what you know or acquire your skills, but if you leverage your uniqueness, you’ll be irreplaceable. The same goes for brands.
This all sounds inspiring, but a brand is only great if it also has raving fans. These are the kind of fans who will stand in line in the snow waiting for a product to launch, go the extra mile to record a video reviewing their purchase because they’re so excited to talk about it, or buy your product for other people in their life because they’re convinced they need it too.
7 Key Factors Required for Building an Ecommerce Brand That Matters
So how do you accomplish this? Let’s dive into the core components the most successful ecommerce brands have in common.
1. Purpose
First, a brand must be rooted in purpose—an intentional reason you exist. This is the central core of the story that you communicate through everything you do. It doesn’t have to be written down, but it should be evident across the environment you invite customers into.
This purpose and story must magnetically attract your target customer, because they’re aligned with it in some way. It will also repel others. This shouldn’t be intentionally divisive—in fact it should be life-giving if you want to be a brand that matters— but it should be so specific to your audience that when customers find you, they wonder how they ever lived without you.
Don’t forget that this purpose and the story around it MUST be genuine. This is why having a real founder at the front of the brand is so important. It makes you relatable. It’s also why brands tend to lose customers once they’re purchased by private equity firms. With moves like that, the company often loses its soul, catering to shareholders and the latest social trends. This often repels the very customers that the brand originally attracted as fans in a way that leaves them disappointed or even angry. All of this to say, it’s critical to protect the soul of the brand that attracts your customers!
2. Customer Focus
Another key element is having an intentional focus on customers. You must have your customer avatars identified, and know them deeply. And remember, this is not just about knowing your customers’ gender, age, and household income. Psychographics are far more important. You’ll need to understand how your target customers think, what they desire and what motivates them, what influences their buying behavior, and more. Gather this knowledge, and then use it to cater your business to your customers. You can’t effectively sell to someone or serve them well without knowing them first!
3. Solution-Oriented System
Next, all successful brands have an established system for how they solve the problems of their target customer. In short, you must be a solution company, not a product company. Your customers have a need, and your system of products should be the solution that solves the problem better than anyone else. This often starts with a main hero product, and then is accompanied by other complementary products that customers can add on, raising both average order value and customer lifetime value.
4. Excellent Product Quality
Another critical factor is the quality of your product. This should be a given, but with it being easier than ever for anyone to sell online these days, the ecommerce space has unfortunately been flooded with cheap products. This is not the way to build a valuable, sustainable business. In fact, providing a quality product is not hard, but you will need to be intentional about it, pricing products appropriately and building a business that can sustain it. Do not forget the importance of a healthy profit margin— this will fund your ability to deliver on quality, along with innovative R&D and the ability to create new products.
5. Overdelivery
Besides delivering on product quality, great brands overdeliver on the entire customer experience as well. This does not mean over serving customers in ways they didn’t pay for. That’s how you operate at a loss, or even go out of business. But there are ways to build a great experience into your business model. There are various ways to do this based on who you are and what you sell, but the main thing to keep in mind is “wow-ing” your customer more than they expected as they shop and receive their order.
6. Customer Service
We often say great customer service is the frontline of creating brand fans. This is a place where stress or frustration can be converted into gratitude, which is a powerful tactic for turning a regular customer (or even a frustrated customer) into a raving fan.
We’ve seen many companies fall into two extremes. Either they don’t put much effort into customer service at all and miss opportunities, or they do too much and operate at a loss. Successful brands build a way to wow their customers with excellent service into their business model.
For example, at Groove Life, rings have a lifetime warranty. Even if you just lose your ring, you can contact customer service and they’ll ship you a new one. Customers don’t expect that promise to be real, so it is consistently a fun surprise for them when they do reach out. Groove Life’s business model was strategically planned to afford that level of service, and the result is creating brand fans for life.
7. Sound Business Model
Last but not least, the success of a brand hinges on a sound business model. This is the foundation of everything we’re trying to do, and it’s often overlooked or forgotten in the ecommerce world. You might have an idea for a great product or be passionate about a solution for your customers, but if your business model is not built to be profitable, you’ll never be able to grow.
To be a brand that lasts, you need a business model that can sustain all of the tactics outlined here today and still be profitable in the end. All core business systems need to be in place— the acquisition system, conversion system, and maximization system. You will also need backend systems, SOPs, and the team needed to run your company like a well-oiled machine. And you’ll need a pricing strategy that accounts for all costs with plenty of profit remaining to fund your growth to sustain it all. This is the foundation on which all of the above components can operate.
Take Your Brand to the Next Level
When it comes to building a business that is profitable and sustainable, your ultimate goal should be building a brand that is well known, trusted, and supported by raving fans. This is the biggest factor in business value. It’s also a huge factor for success in your marketing. Marketing is more efficient if people know and love you, because you won’t have to spend as much to acquire new customers, and the ads you do run will convert better. It’s also the biggest factor in profitability, as it gives you the ability to increase prices since you are more than just a commodity— you’re a real brand!
We don’t believe in silver bullets, because healthy growth requires slow and steady effort, not quick fixes. But if there were such a thing as silver bullets, this framework would be it. Growing a successful ecommerce company takes doing the right things in genuine, intentional ways in order to build a great brand.