Too many businesses jump into digital marketing without a clear understanding of the multiple moving parts of an effective outreach strategy. They think integrating digital marketing into their growth strategy is enough to turbocharge sales. They’re wrong.

Without a detailed brand development strategy, digital marketing won’t work. Companies must have a clearly defined brand for digital outreach to be effective. If you want help creating a brand development strategy for your company, following are five crucial factors you must address.

1) One of the smartest brand developments moves you can make is to start working on a reputation management plan for your business. Your brand’s reputation says more about your company than a logo or business motto every could. If you want to develop a cohesive digital marketing strategy for your company, a strategic reputation development and management plan needs to be a core component of your efforts.

2) Content marketing should be an integral part of any brand development strategy. It’s not enough to post content on your blog every few weeks; your content outreach efforts need to be consistent and targeted. Too many brands start a business blog with the best of intentions, only to realize content creation is a time-consuming and resource-intensive endeavor. If you want your inbound marketing efforts to draw targeted sales leads to your business, your content development strategy must include everything from who will create your content to how your content will be distributed. If you don’t think you have the in-house talent to keep up with the demands of consistent content creation, consider using the services of an on-demand content creation company like Constant-Content.com.

3) A detailed customer acquisition and customer satisfaction plan should be another component of your brand development strategy. You can’t build a viable brand reputation if your company is inundated with bad press online or negative social media mentions. Make it your mission to wow your customers and exceed their expectations and your efforts to build a successful brand won’t be derailed by poor customer satisfaction.

4) Partnership development is a component of branding many companies overlook. The partners you do business with reflect on your company. Consider the types of businesses you want to partner with, who your vendors will be, and the types of companies you think will make for awesome, long-term partnerships. This is also true for the types of companies you plan to serve. If you’re contemplating showcasing clients on your business’ website, think about how advertising those clients on your website will reflect on your brand.

5) Social media marketing is critical for effective brand development. How you portray your brand online is reflected in everything from the types of content you share on social media to your choice of platforms for forum posts. If you want to skyrocket your digital marketing via social networking, it is imperative your brand strategy includes a cohesive social media marketing plan.

It can’t be overstated how important brand development is for companies wanting to use digital marketing for business growth. All the digital marketing efforts in the world won’t matter if your company has a negative brand reputation. Work on improving your branding efforts before you go all in on inbound marketing to grow your company. Failing to do so might mean you are throwing good money after bad in an attempt to increase sales.