No matter how you engage with customers–-face-to-face or online, through the mail or over the phone–your brand is an essential element that differentiates your company from your competitors. A well-defined brand tells customers and prospects who you are and what you stand for.

Elements of a brand include many things. At the most basic level, brand is represented through the company logo, the colors used and tag lines employed, if any, that evoke the company's essence. Consistent use of these elements helps build a strong brand image. For example, the "swoosh" check-mark style of the Nike mark with the accompanying tag line "Just Do It" is one of the best-recognized brands worldwide.

Email and the Brand
Brand marketing and email marketing work hand-in-hand. A strong brand lets email recipients know that the time spent reviewing messages won't be wasted. And a creative, well-coordinated email marketing campaign can add significantly to your brand's influence. When designed to increase brand awareness and position a company's presence in the marketplace, email can serve to help distinguish a company from its competitors. Email's ability to tailor messages to individual needs can deliver a tremendous boost to brand appeal by underscoring how well it meets customer needs.

One of the common and important aspects of a brand image is a company’s logo. A recognizable logo is a critical element to establishing a strong position in the inbox. The logo within an email should always be positioned to be visible within the preview pane. Yet in evaluating emails for its "Email Creative That Works" study, Silverpop found that logo position varies dramatically.

Silverpop found that most email marketers place their logos in the top left-hand corner of the message. The next-most-popular spot is the top right. But a surprisingly large percentage of companies–11 percent–don’t include their logo anywhere within an email message.

In developing the creative approach to branding, the use of consistent images and colors that evoke the brand promise should be used across marketing channels. Email campaigns with the same look and feel as offline ads can enhance online results and strengthen multi-channel marketing efforts.

Building Trust Through Email
Trust is another important element of a strong brand position. Trust in an email relationship is achieved when care is taken by the marketer to deliver highly relevant messages at an appropriate frequency for the recipient. Lifecycle email marketing that takes into consideration customers' relationships with the brand–their knowledge of company offerings and the interest they express in its products and services–can add substantially to customers' beliefs that they are well-served by the brand.

An email program integrated with Web analytics can build strong customer trust and loyalty by reinforcing desired customer behaviors. For example, when inactive customers return to your Web site, sending an email message welcoming them back with a special offer can strengthen customer relationships and improve ROI.

Overcoming Media Fragmentation
The fragmentation of media has caused brand marketers to work ever more feverishly at identifying the right mix of channels to reach target audiences. Successful branding reaches prospects and customers when and where they're most likely to be receptive to the marketing message. Highly successful email campaigns do just that.

Truly effective email branding doesn’t require big budgets, unlike brand marketing programs that utilize other, far more expensive channels. It does, however, require consistency. By continually and consistently making every email communication relevant and timely, you increase the depth of customer relationships and the stickiness of your brand.