To put it simply, branding is a campaign to promote your company name and logo to the market through a lot of ways such as the common advertisement, public relations, and many more. Today we all can feel that the economy is slowed down, but trust me, internet is always a strategic place for your branding process. People do not have to leave their house to your store and they only need to sit in front of their personal computer and view your company website advertisement through the internet. If you can make your web page interesting enough, the customer will probably do some transaction at that same moment. But you need to remember to make your web advertisement should not look like an advertisement. It should be interactive and entertaining.
To build your brand through the internet you must use every available option and always looking for other best method to increase your brand popularity. Try e-mail, online communities, contest and promotions. Other methods that you can try are:
Banner ads: A standard method that you can use online and offline. The processes are the same. You design your ads and pay some money to someone else web page. This method is effective if you can pay sufficient amount of money to keep your ads appear in someone web page or a high rate successful website.
Classifieds: Try to promote your brand in a classified ad site such as America Online Classified Plus.
Pop up ad: This is a pop up ad. With this method you can make your ads stand out in the web page, but do not abuse it since it will annoy your website visitor.
Keyword searches: This method will make your website appear effectively in the internet. You can also use a pay services for this method if you need a quick and better result.
Newsletter: This method uses the e-mail as the center of the process. You can build a good will that will drive your business to your website.
Partnerships: Do not working alone in your business. It is a good strategy to boost up you branding campaign as long as you can find another online company that complements your business such as Microsoft who signs an arrangement with National Broadcasting Company a couple years ago.
Those are some tips from me to start your online business branding. If still confused you can start with the basic thing such as making sure that your signature files, your domain name, and your e-mail address all refer to your company name as close as possible. Online branding will take time to grow, so start it as soon as possible.