When it comes to branding on social media, many businesses make the mistake of thinking that uploading their logo as their profile picture and having a branded banner image is plenty. While this is definitely important, that’s just one small step toward developing a strong digital brand identity.

With literally millions of businesses out in the world trying to build a name for themselves and stand out from a crowded marketplace, visual branding has become more essential than ever before. And we’re not just talking about logos, photography and fonts. Branding is all about the unrivalled experience you provide your customers through your marketing efforts, evoking emotions and forming connections.The great news is that branding your social content isn’t the hard work and effort that it once was. No longer are teams required to go through lengthy processes,  sending content to the design team to work into Photoshop and then waiting around for feedback and approvals. Fortunately today there are much easier ways to ensure your social content is on brand and on fleek.Slate’s powerful content creation tool has been helping ambitious clients’ effortlessly create high-quality, on-brand content wherever and whenever in a matter of seconds. With our all-in-one solution, the once fragmented process of creating branded content is totally streamlined. Marketing managers and social creators can produce content using the creation app with instant access to custom branded fonts, colors, filters, graphics and animations that are controlled by brand and design teams through a dedicated web portal.

6 reasons why on-brand social media content can no longer be an afterthought

If the increased ease and effort of creating branded content isn’t enough to convince you to do so, we’ve outlined some of the not-to-be-missed benefits below.

#1 Increases brand awareness 

Brand awareness is all about how familiar your target audience is with your brand and how well they are able to recognize it from the growing crowd. This is important for all kinds of reasons, but mainly it’s all about building trust.At a time where consumers have more options available to them than ever before, the ability to build trust and loyalty with your audience is everything. For one thing, consumers who become aware of your brand are more likely to grow emotionally attached and are more inclined to make repeat purchases with little to no thought.Brand awareness and recognition is what helps to form that brand trust. Customers are more likely to trust you if they recoginize you through the content you are creating — whether that’s through familiar colours, styles, personality or storytelling. Much like how we form human connections based on familiarity, the same can be said for brand and consumer relationships.When it comes to the first stages of building brand awareness, visual impact is everything. Did you know the average person only has 6 seconds to register the first impression of your brand? And, according to a study by McKinsey, the top reason consumers don’t trust online businesses is because of poor graphic design…

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#2 Enhance brand credibility

The value of producing high-quality branded content in today’s market cannot be overstated. A content strategy serves many different purposes for brands across industries - whether it’s to showcase new products or services, share educational tips, or to comment on tending news and events. Whatever the reason, the creation of high-quality and high-value content can do wonders for boosting your credibility as a business. But  if done poorly? Well, unfortunately, it can have pretty detrimental impacts. In fact, according to a web credibility research from Stanford University, 75 percent of consumers admit to making judgements on a company’s credibility based on branding and website design.You’ve likely experienced the power of content in building credibility as a consumer yourself! We’ve all been there — presented with multiple options of a similar product at a similar price, scratching our heads over deciding which one to go with. So, we check out their websites and social media profiles for further research. If you’re anything like us, you’re going with the option with high-quality, high-value professional and informative content. With this in mind, your business simply cannot afford to miss out to competition due to poorly executed content.

#3 Build brand consistency

Brand consistency refers to how ‘on-brand’ a business’s marketing content is in regards to brand identity and brand guidelines. It’s ensuring the alignment of brand values, brand design, and messaging across all channels.Why is this important? Well, put simply, because customers appreciate it. According to one study, a brand is seen to increase revenue by 33 percent by having a consistent brand image. Consumers want to get to know your business, and one of the best ways they do this is through your brand. This links back to the points we mentioned earlier around brand awareness and trust. Why?

• For your target audience to trust you, they have to feel like they know you

• For them to feel like they know you, they must be aware of you, recognize you, and remember you

• For people to recognize and remember you, you must show up in a way that’s consistent

Keeping a consistent brand image via branded social content goes a long way in helping customers position you as a credible business at the forefront of their minds.

#4 Protect your content 

As competition heightens, plagiarism and content theft is becoming a problem of epidemic proportions on social. Everybody needs and wants content, but unfortunately, not everybody is willing to put in the hard work to create it. Unfortunately, it’s way too easy for people to simply screenshot your compelling content and pass it off as their own to unbeknown consumers. While Google has gotten better at detecting and penalising content thieves via SEO rankings, social media platforms still have a while to go. If you do notice it, you can of course report it on the relevant social platform. But the likelihood is that this problem often goes unnoticed. All the blood, sweat and tears you have put into producing a piece of content could potentially be being ripped off by another brand in your industry, who could even be profiting from it. For social media marketers and creators, the issue of content theft can be totally infuriating. Fortunately, branding your social content is one way to avoid the awful problem. The logic is that businesses looking to save on time and money by stealing the content of others will be less likely to if that content is branded and easily recognisable.

#5 Showcase brand personality

In today’s competitive landscape, cultivating a unique and engaging brand personality has a major impact on business success. Much like personalities in us humans, brand personalities refer to all the fantastic qualities and and characteristics that make a business unique.Building a strong personality has a myriad of benefits, from boosting your engagement on social, helping to form authentic, emotive, relationships with customers, to helping to communicate your brand values in a personable way. Ensuring that you are creating consistent, on-brand social content is one way to showcase your brand’s personality. From the colours and fonts used to your brand voice — all of these features help to create an individual personality for your business, helping it to become instantly recognisable.

#6 Stand out from the crowd

With our feeds getting busier than ever, it’s getting way harder for brands to capture the attention of time-strapped consumers. The truth is, your target audience is getting bombarded with information and over-crowded digital channels. For them to pay attention to your content, it’s going to need to be good.Branding your content with eye-catching colour palettes, branded backgrounds and captions, and custom stickers and logos is a sure-fire way to shine a light on your content. In a world where brands are pumping out the same, disengaging and uninspiring content, investing time in powering up your content will go a long way in standing out from the crowd. And with 90 percent of information transmitted to the brain being visual, what harm can added attention to your visual branding do?Here at Slate, we make the process of branding your content an absolute breeze via our all-in-one content creation platform. Explore our features and schedule in a demo today!