Online marketers – don’t forget you’re building a brand.
It’s easy for online marketers to get caught up in all the technical stuff like click-throughs and conversion rates. I mean, it’s this type of data that makes online marketing so awesome, right? Right. However, it’s important for us to step outside our digital box and see the brand from someone else’s point of view. Those “clicks” are real people who don’t give a flying fudge what your conversion rate is or how much money you just paid Google for their visit…they’re just surfing the web. They will develop a perception of your brand based on this experience. It’s inevitable. That “click” is now a walking, talking, tweeting, posting advertisement that you once had a chance to influence. Did you create a positive brand experience for them? Don’t forget, between the analytics and optimization, you’re building a brand.
Your brand has a story to tell. A common expression, but a simple truth nonetheless. What is a brand without a story? Boring, thats what. To our benefit, the internet is one of the most versatile story-telling machines out there! There are endless ways to share your story online. One of the most obvious and necessary places to share your story is on your website. This is your home turf, so whether you think your website represents your brand accurately or not, it does. Your visitors make immediate assumptions of your brand based on your website’s design, usability, loading speed, color palette, and so many other subconscious indicators (including your SERP – #1 is perceived as the industry leader). Investing in smart website design is an important aspect of telling your brand’s story and it should not be overlooked. Thankfully, we have analytics that help us improve this user experience and lead to more effective story telling.
Thanks to the rise of social networking sites, branding has taken on a whole new meaning over the last 10ish years. Networks like Facebook allow your brand to live your story in real time. Genuine brands truly have a chance to shine here. While engagement metrics help us know just how bright we’re shining, the number of “shares” cannot truly measure impression #268’s delight with your Facebook page and how many buddies he told at the bar.
If you do it right, your brand’s story plays a major role in your online marketing strategy. When everything works together and flows in the same direction, genuine brand experiences are born and a healthy web presence follows.
“Quit counting fans, followers, and blog subscribers like bottle caps. Think, instead, about what you’re hoping to achieve with and through the community that actually cares about what you’re doing.” Amber Naslund, Author
“Let your originality – your specialness, your brand personality -come through in your online content.” -Ann Handley & C.C. Chapman, Author, Content Rules