Individually or all together, a brand is comprised of a name, phrase, logo or design that represents your business. But it is more than that. Branding is really what your customer thinks when they see that name, design or logo. Branding is one of the most important things for a company to consider in their marketing efforts. But do you have to employ an entire team dedicated to establishing your brand and spend millions of dollars on a Super Bowl commercial? Or can it be achieved with a good plan and email marketing?

It takes seven times for a consumer to recognize your brand. The goal in recognition is to confirm credibility and establish customer loyalty. There are more ways to do this than Octo-mom had babies. A multi-channel approach is not only suggested, but necessary to establish a brand in today’s day and age. And though traditional methods of branding are still used successfully (advertising, public relations, etc.), newer methods like social networking and email marketing need to be used as well. It’s not an either or approach. It’s an “all of the above” effort that marks the truly successful brands.

Branding starts with groundwork. To make all your efforts come to fruition, it is necessary to make a plan before you begin. Decide where you want your company to be and how you want it to be recognized. Establish this with your logo as it’s your identity. Use it in your place of business, website, anywhere you are. Then move out from there.

Good email marketing can be used as a way to piece all your marketing channels together while unifying your branding efforts. It can be used to update your customers on the goings on at the company. Do this by linking to your blog or sending pictures and tips in a newsletter. Email can also be used to promote your social networks as well as promotions being held in those places. Finally, email can be used to market directly to your customers. Today this can be highly personalized, which increases the effectiveness of the approach. Remember, proper branding is a time-consuming, multi-angled, focused implementation of efforts so that your customers will believe exactly what you want them to think about your product.

Be sure that your email campaigns are the same color scheme as your website, as well as your Facebook and Twitter Pages. Benchmark Email makes this easy for you, with our Twitter Email Template. If a customer is seeing your logo everywhere you are, they will recognize your brand before you know it. Recently eMarketer reported that a friend referring something on Facebook made 2/3 of Facebook users more likely to purchase a product or visit that company’s retail space. With 41% of all U.S. Facebook users promoting Fan Pages, it is easy to see why marketing on all platforms is necessary.

In the end, branding is about building that bridge between how a customer views your product and how you want them to see it. By using email marketing to point your customers to all your communications channels, you improve your overall branding efforts with a unified voice. The final step is for your product or service to live up to its promise.