Pepsi created the Refresh Everything and skipped advertising during superbowl (some saying it was a mistake) to give millions of dollars to fund ideas that will refresh the world to non-profits in six categories. Health, Arts & Culture, Food & Shelter, The Planet, Neighborhoods, and Education.
IKEA‘s Facebook campaign was a stroke of genius. Using the photo tagging feature, a bunch of showroom images were uploaded to the account of a store manager at their Malmo store. The first person to tag an object got to take it home.
Ford bet on social media to generate buzz to promote the new Fiesta ( story ) and head of social media Scott Monty has been hard at work and winning.
Dell stands out as one of social media’s best examples and have created success through a network of blogs, sale alerts on twitter, and listening to their customers via their community IdeaStorm.
Intuit created a community for it’s Quickbooks software users while being active on Twitter and Facebook.
Starbucks used crowdsourcing to create MyStarbucksIdea so customers share suggestions which others vote on, with the best being implemented.
Blendtec used video for its series Will It Blend and purees everything from the iphone and more for millions of views.
Zappos has an unparalleled commitment to customer service, and social media has allowed them to form more personal connections with customers.
Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos, had the following to say…
“Brand building today is so different than what it was 50 years ago. 50 years ago you could get a few marketing people in a small room and decide, ‘this is what our brand will be’, and then spend a lot of money on TV advertising — and that was your brand. If you as a consumer only had your neighbors to talk to, you had to believe what the TV was telling you. Today anyone, whether it is an employee or a customer, if they have a good or bad experience with your company they can blog about it or Twitter about it and it can be seen by millions of people. It’s what they say now that is your brand.”
Or you could say that your relationships are your brand.
There’s a variety of ways to measure your online branding efforts, but nothing compares to the status of becoming a verb. Its an elite status that few amount to, and sets the top tier brands apart from the pack.
A lot of these brand verbs seems to be tied to technology, you can google something, MSN or skype me, or tweet about something. Seems the verb transition for branding is online mostly, although you can xerox a copy or tivo a show too.
Some of have said that allowing a brand become a verb erodes brand value, although its not clear how that could be. If you have people using your brand name as a verb it seems like free marketing. Kleenex, Rollerblade and Band-Aid are a few offline examples.
There was a time when branding was about obsessing over its unique selling point (USP) to determine its positioning and how it would be perceived. Now we have a brand’s success often determined by how it might enhance a consumers’ world through its behavior. This is the bridge to making it a verb.
The power of a brand as a verb has one risk known as genericide, which means when a term is so prevalent, or generic, that it no longer sticks to a single company. Haven’t thought of any examples, but it can mostly be protected with trademarks.
Here’s a Bing spoof ad of what they’re up against.
Targeting – Your advertising should appeal to the demographic where you place your ads. Consistent messaging that conveys your the values of your product or service is key to driving recognition or recall for when they’re in a buying mode. Creating top of mind awareness with consistency and repetition can build equity. It’s surprising how often people will think one ad will suffice for all. This isn’t print. You can rotate different creative and run with your best performers.
Social Media – Engage with your audience. It all sounds easy, but it mostly falls apart in a week or three. While starting with good intentions, other duties call. Most companies don’t have the luxury of hiring a dedicated social media specialist to manage these things, so it usually gets added to the list of tasks an employee needs to do. The best way to manage it is scheduling a block of time at least once or twice a week. Find the medium that suits you, but also look at where your customers are. It’s also recommended to grab your brand name as a username for the bigger sites like youtube, facebook, twitter, flickr, technorati, ning, delicious, yelp, scribd, and others.
Reputation Management – Staying on top of what you rank for and the conversations around your brand allows you to stay a step ahead, and possibly avoid putting out fires later. If you were to google your brand name, do any of the top ten listings have negative impact? Are you monitoring the dialogue around your brand in social media? If you see negative results in the top 10 listings when searching for your brand, you’ll want to address it before too many customers come across it.
Search Marketing - If you run an affiliate program and pay for leads, you might consider taking over bids on your brand name in Google Adwords. Why pay more for leads if you own the trademark to your brand name? Run your own campaign for those searching your brand to retain control.
Search Engine Optimization – Companies searching for your brand name obviously know of you already, but what about the ones searching for the products or services your offer? These are targeted prospects, often in buying mode. Many companies make the mistake of not including SEO in their marketing strategy. The game has changed, and those that are late will have to work twice as hard to catch up, probably more. Displaying in search engine results for phrases your customers are looking for is an excellent way to build credibility for your brand. Being synonymous with a phrase strengthens that top of mind awareness and would be comparable to branding on steroids. If you’re a customer and searching for a phrase, research shows 42% click the first listing, and 74% of the results clicked are in the top 5 positions. In a recent study, SEO shows to provide the best ROI over all other forms of online marketing.
In an interview entitled Common Mistakes of Marketing Creatives and CEOs, Keith Reinhard (Chairman Emeritus of DDB) explains…
“When I was growing up in the industry, let me entertain you, let me make you smile, I’m very versatile, it was one way.”
Advertising was this way for decades, and what may have worked for the last 40 years clearly isn’t as effective these days. A shift like this comes as no surprise. Whether its advertising or just about anything, things change.
Reinhard goes on to describe the way things work now by suggesting…
“Now it’s we’re better together”.
This is a great point as the emergence of social media has had such an impact on brands, possibly one of the largest in recent times. Consumers are tired of being told and now look within their networks or trusted resources or contacts for more impartial views and recommendations.
An interesting point also brought up in the video mentions how when a CEO is really involved with the brand, the brand endures, has integrity, and can sustain the revolving doors of marketing directors. A great point as with each change in marketing leadership comes someone that scraps direction and previously built equity.
One of the best definitions of a brand I’ve heard was provided during this interview…
A brand is who you are, what you do, why you do it, and how you do it.
One person that has maintained these types of values is Steve jobs of Apple. Over the course of the last 20 years Apple as a brand has probably never strayed far. But one example of branding confusion that comes to mind is McDonald’s. It seems with each new agency they hire (every 2-3 years) there is a different direction in the messaging. For example, they make burgers, they make them fast, and their affordable. But over the years they’ve introduced pizza, ribs, and even salads.
Online branding will take marketing to new heights with the speed at which you can connect with consumers. With social media, search marketing, and Internet advertising a brand can literally grow at sonic speeds compared with the past.
Marketers still seem to overlook the potential of SEO and how it can drive measureable revenue to their online business, yet have adopted to the virtues of social media rather quickly.
Perhaps it’s the inability of the average marketer to truly understand the benefits of how SEO and online branding belong together and how it can help their bottom line.
With paid search marketing results (PPC) accounting for roughly 20% of the clicks in typical search results, that leaves a lot of cash on the table in terms of customer acquisition.
For SEO’s, the following isn’t new information, but it might be of interest to marketers which are less familiar with the practice.
If you try the Google Keyword Tool you can get some insight to the potential of SEO and appearing in natural search results. Depending on the phrase, you can increase your visibility by thousands and more with a properly executed SEO strategy that pushes your site into the top 10 results.
It’s important to note that SEO is similar to branding in one sense. It’s a process and requires a fair amount of time to achieve those top ranking results. Realistic expectations depending on your industry to rise to the top can range from 6 months to several years. One of the keys to increased success in this venture is the quality of your content or offering. By focusing on this aspect, marketers stand to gain advocates, which will assist in the link building process by blogging, tweeting, or linking to your site for you.
You might be thinking tweeting falls under social media, but it’s the content they tweet that should be part of your SEO strategy. Sometimes referred to as link bait, it’s about the creation of quality content that will help to get those links.
Content creation and planning sometimes falls on the shoulders of an SEO, as does PR and many other tasks. It’s always wise to have an SEO involved in the process but not necessarily depend solely on them to create this sort of material.
The role of SEO is about optimizing a site (for starters), but more important, is to improve the online visibility of said website so that it will rank for phrases that you’re targeting for your business.
When you think about it, there isn’t anything much better than your site showing up in the top listings when a potential customer is in the buying mode and looking for a product or service like one you might offer.
There is more likelihood of them inquiring or purchasing versus presenting banner ads all over. Most web users have banner blindness. Can you recall 3 banners you’ve seen in the last week? Most are lucky to be able to name one they had seen.
There probably isn’t a better way to position your brand online than showing up in the top search results. In the long run, your brand will become synonymous with the phrases you’ve targeted and displaying in those results also provides credibility to your brand’s product or service.
You should note that when you appear in those results, the url in first position will get about 42% of the clicks, while second gets 12%, third gets 9%, and it starts to drop sharply with each position after. And being on page two is like not being found at all.
You can see the entire interview mentioned above here.
Personal branding is a topic that shouldn’t be taken lightly. It’s becoming more important everyday and a process that could have a big impact on your career in the future. It’s not just big brands that deal with reputation management anymore.
The following video presentation of David Armano (now with Edelman) provides some great thoughts on personal branding. No longer are brands limited to products, corporations or celebrities.
“The Internet has made it easier than ever to reach out to your target audience. Blogging and social networking are powerful and readily accessible ways to promote yourself.”
Personal Branding – Where to Start?
Blogging
If you’re not blogging, it’s time to start. There’s no better way to dive in than creating your own blog for personal branding. Make it a routine and post often. Create value with a conversation on your given topic and share your expertise. If you don’t feel you’re much of a writer, you might try video blogging.
Improve your online visibility with your blog and publish your thoughts. An excellent resource to help you get started with blogging is ProBlogger, which provides thoughts, tips and inspiration. Using a little objectivity, think about what makes you unique and tap into those qualities, and be remarkable at the same time. These days, people are proving themselves as thought leaders and sometimes receive job offers as the result of their blog.
Social Media
Have you taken the plunge and made use of social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, and others? Keep in mind that participating on forums and commenting on blogs is also advised. Think about where your audience is, and be there to be part of the conversation.
With all the tools freely available through social media, personal branding isn’t all that difficult. A bigger challenge might be deciding which ones are right for you. Keep in mind you don’t have to engage in every single one.
When discussing personal branding with others, one name that comes up often is Gary Vaynerchuk, who is known for being very passionate on the subject and one of the best examples today. The video on the BusinessWeek page is worth watching as well.
You may also want to refer to this post on online branding for additional thoughts.
It’s been a long time coming. Advertising has been about the same for some 50 years, but things just don’t work the way they used to. Within the last 5 years social media has grown so much that customers are more reliant than ever on referrals.
Marketers facing this shift find themselves looking towards social media to get in front of their audience and its a whole new ballgame. One recent development that advertisers should be aware of is the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is watching the online space for signs that advertisers masquerading as independent third parties.
Now monitoring blogs, Facebook, Twitter, and many other social network platforms, the FTC is on the watch for advertisers posing as ordinary consumers raving or providing misleading testimonials on products or services. A recent example posted by Consumerist mentions a well known fast food chain posing as fans of a marketing campaign.
An excerpt from the FTC;
“The fundamental question is whether, viewed objectively, the relationship between the advertiser and the speaker is such that the speaker’s statement can be considered ’sponsored’ by the advertiser and therefore an ‘advertising message.’”
It’s probably a method used as long as the web has been around. I recall reading about ‘seeding’ being done by the music industry to launch new pop stars some years ago, and it probably continues today. But you can imagine how this might affect your online branding strategy should you be caught.
Online branding and reputation management is becoming more imperative to monitor, and with this news regarding the FTC, you’ll want to be listening to your endorsers as well as consumers.
What to take away from all this? Monitor, engage, and also be transparent, providing full disclosure where applicable.
It’s now recognized that online branding is more than banners ads to raise awareness. As marketers looks for ways to stretch advertising dollars, the web has become mainstream for branding online, but with little information on just how create an Internet branding strategy, this post hopefully provides its readers a place to start for the vast opportunities of online branding.
Online Branding
Online Advertising
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
SEO is the process of on-page and off-page optimization to improve your rank in the search results for keyword phrases that have been targeted. This practice is highly recommended for online branding as once you rank your customers will associate you with particular phrases. The SEO process is not a fast track to branding online and often have marketers questioning how long does SEO take?
Search Engine Marketing (SEM)
Also known as Contextual Advertising or Pay Per Click (PPC), this is one of the fastest ways to launch a campaign or raise awareness for your brand. Although the amount of clicks approximately 20% of what you might receive via natural/organic search results, Search Marketing is often used until an SEO campaign starts to work.
Video Marketing
With online video views increasing so much, marketers are looking at ways to include this in the mix. While it’s no small feat to create a successful viral video, you can create your own videos inexpensively (which can also go on your blog) that will be available for others to find. A recent report suggests viewers of online video are on the rise.
Online advertising allows many options, but display advertising (i.e. banners) is still the most popular. Available as both static and animated, recent advancements now include video and interactive advertisements. For the latest news see the IAB website.
Classified Advertising
Online advertising often mirrors offline publications in advertising options, and classified advertising sites like Craigslist and Kijiji allow almost everything to be posted, often for free. Although not commonly used, classifieds provide another opportunity to promote your brand.
Mobile Marketing
A fast developing area, this includes forms of advertising such as with game/video, banners, it is mostly dominated by SMS advertising. A recent report by Gartner suggests mobile ad spending will increase significantly in 2011.
Email Marketing
This can include either marketing communications with your own list of customers or placing ads in email newsletters. This form of communications can be an effective form of communications to keep customers and fans informed of company developments.
Affiliate Marketing
By creating an affiliate program for your product or service can extend your reach and marketing efforts by way of compensation to others for promoting your offering. This is typically provided as a per lead or per sale basis.
Social Media
Social Networks
Most social networks focus on connecting users to share interests, information or activities. With tremendous growth in the last few years, these types of sites are looking to monetize their user base and often have various ways of segmenting their audience due to the information at their disposal. Ad performance is said to be average, but the more advance targeting options make it a viable option. Some of the bigger Social Networking sites include Facebook, MySpace, Bebo, Friendster, LinkedIn and other social media sites.
Online Marketing Spending 2009
Top Social Networks - Jan. 2009
Social Bookmarking
A popular way for web users to share sites of interest, social bookmarking also allows users to vote and comment on the sites, blogs, videos, articles and other media that is submitted. As opposed to search engines, which rank websites based on an algorithm to determine what site is most relevant to the search query, social bookmarking sites allow their members to vote can which bring a particular site into the popular category. There are numerous social bookmarking sites covering many categories. Some of the most popular are Digg, StumbleUpon, Reddit, Kaboodle, and Slashdot.
Blogging
Short for Web Log, blogs are online journals on just about every topic which allow its author to write entries and include images and/or video and allows readers to comment on blog entries (AKA posts). There are several platforms like LiveJournal and Moveable Type, but the most popular is WordPress. A free blog platform usd by many is called BlogSpot. Many blogs have become some of the most popular websites on the web. Blogs went through some blowback from journalists for re-reporting the news, but have gained credibility in recent years. To see some of the top blogs you can refer to the Technorati Top 100.
Micro Blogging
A condensed form of blogging, it allows users to create brief updates which followers of that user can see. Entries are smaller in size and usually limit the author to one or two sentences. Some of the more notable options being Twitter, Tumblr, and Identi.
Niche Networks
As social networks caught on, many spin offs developed evolved to cater to who wanted more specific groups and conversations of interest. An extensive list of niche networks covering everything from booklovers, artists, lawyers and more is available at Mashable.
Multimedia
Available in many formats, some of the more popular being text, audio, video, animation, and images. Sites like Youtube allow for video sharing, Scribd allows users to shares documents and presentations, and Flickr is a popular site for sharing photos.
Events
Coordinating events and meetups with social tools make party planning and event management much easier for groups and communities with sites like EventBrite or Wild Apricot.
Wikis
A wiki is a website allowing a group or community of users to collaboratively manage content. Popular examples include Wikipedia and Google’s Knol.
Reviews and Opinions
These types of social communities allow members to share comments and vote on assorted products and often include price comparison options. With little policing of postings, their popularity has diminished due to debate of authenticity for some posts. The features of reviews and ratings have since been incorporated into many ecommerce and social media platforms.
If your organization hasn’t taken the leap its time to get started. Besides making announcements on company news, sharing viewpoints on interesting articles and online resources can prove valuable. Some corporate blogs are run by CEOs and others have multiple contributors to carry on the conversation. List of top corporate blogs.
Blogger Relations
If you want to be effective at online branding, you’ll need to get others talking about you. Bloggers are a great channel to get your story out, so long as you follow some PR pitching guidelines you should be able to include them along with mainstream media in your online branding strategy. Some of the more important ones include being relevant in your pitch. Taking the time to find the right bloggers will pay off in more mentions in the long run. The old “throw it at the wall and see what sticks” method never works. Also, a personalized pitch is far more effective than drafting a one size fits all email and using BCC to blast away. Keeping it brief and to the point with a sentence or two (think elevator pitch of 15 seconds) and a link to where more info is available is usually one of the best ways to get buzz. Much better than pasting a press release of 500 plus words that will never be read.
Video News Release (VNR)
Regarded as the video equivalent to a news release, these are often used by corporations and agencies to inform on products or services.
New Zealand Sustainable Tourism – Video News Release
Social Media News Release (SMR)
The social media release consolidates many of the options available today into a single page that combines traditional and emerging forms of communications such as links, social bookmarking, multimedia, video, and other communications tools.
Overview of a Social Media Release
Reputation Management
Monitoring your brand online and the conversation on blogs, forums, websites and in the news used to be an almost impossible chore, but with social media and reputation management tools in your arsenal you can spend more time building your brand online.
You can also make use of Google Alerts for media mentions.
Also see this list of reputation management tools.
One of the things to keep in mind for online branding is you’re seeding the idea to pave a path to your website. Whether you choose SEO, Social Media, PR, or all of them, the idea is to engage and be part of the conversation or search.
There’s no end to the real opportunities of Internet branding and online marketing. Some of the opportunities worth investigating include mobile applications, social network applications, widgets, crowdsourcing, video blogging, lifestreams, virtual advertising, sponsorships, and more.
Brands are built in decades, not days, but when it comes to online branding they’re far more achievable to create in less time with the inclusion of SEO.
When building your brand online there are several ways to go, or you can include them all. Internet advertising is often the route many will choose to start, yet similar to branding offline, it is both time consuming and expensive.
Social media is another option, but I don’t think this a strategy to rely on entirely. More of something to include with your internet marketing plan in addition to other strategies you might include.
With search engine optimization (SEO), there is really only one downside, and that is that it takes time to develop before seeing results. However, it’s been proven time and again that SEO provides the best ROI in the long term.
With SEO, not only do the links drive potential customers, it also has direct correlation to online branding because as you begin to rank for key phrases that consumers are already searching for, it creations a connection to the brand. This means that a brand can become synonymous with phrases that consumers are looking for, and creates that top of mind awareness when a site is ranking.
By including SEO in your online branding efforts you’re going to push your brand harder, and can achieve the branding holy grail – having keyowrds trigger consumers to think of your brand. This is how strong brands evolve.
By ranking (or owning) a phrase, your brand becomes synonymous with a phrase. In the offline world, it takes marketing and advertising agencies years and years to achieve this. If ever.
Your brand image is more than the logo or identity created. It’s about reputation management, advertising, public relations, and the emotion or thoughts that it conjurs up when mentioned.
SEO could be one of the most powerful tools available to grow, shape, and ultimately reach brand status.
“The value of identity of course is that so often with it comes purpose.”
- Richard R. Grant
You can define and craft a vision of what your brand stands for through SEO by ranking for terms and phrases which represent your product or service.
Case in point; if you were to search for “buy books”, depending on your location, you’ll probably see Amazon as the first result. In Canada the website Chapters displays first. And considering that 42% of the clicks will go to that first listing in the search results and only 12% to the second result, its clear that the majority will click on that first listing and probably associate it as where they should just go if they wanted to buy books.
It’s important to note that online branding success factors differ from those of offline brands. If you take a look at Interbrands top 100 you’ll notice that many of those such as Google or eBay are unique to the web, or that the internet would have played a large part in their development.
Brands overestimate the extent to which consumer pay attention to branding, but the way it influences their decisions is almost subliminal, and SEO can be a major force.
Pick your battles/keywords wisely and you just might shave a few years off of developing your brand online.
At first glance, it might appear that branding online is strikingly similar to branding in the world of brick and mortars, but while there are many similarities, online branding requires a richer knowledge and skill set. Specifically, online branding requires an in-depth knowledge of search engine ranking and other forms of search marketing.
Online Branding and SEO
Offline, branding involves a myriad of techniques to increase visibility and stay present in the minds of consumers, primarily though repetitive advertising. Ads of every kind increase visibility. If this were to be translated to the internet, you’d build a brand through website and blog advertisements. There is certainly credence to this method, but the online marketplace is more vastly segmented than markets offline and without well placed advertisements and results, you’ll miss your market entirely regardless of how much money you’re throwing into an advertising campaign.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) fills the largest void created when offline branding techniques move online. Instead of constancy of ads, you must now also focus on reaching your specific target audience through popular search terms as well as strategic ads on relevant websites. Internet branding is a combination of techniques, but SEO is essentially the foundation of connecting a company with a term or phrase. Ranking number one for a particular keyword phrase essentially is your brand online. With branding, becominging synonymous with a phrase is a holy grail of sorts, and can be accomplished online.
Using SEO for Internet Branding
SEO builds brand awareness online by targeting specific keyword terms in the search engines. SEO takes time to work, and once effective, it requires constant dedication to stay at the top of the results. Your goal through SEO and online branding is to have consumers search for a phrase representing your brand. When the results appear, your company should be one of the first sites that appear in the search results. If you’re ranked in the top five for your search term that is also your brand, you’re extremely well positioned for both conversions and online reputation management.
PPC ads can replicate these results, but not to the degree of authentic search result listings. Advertisements are not as trusted by visitors as search results, and text links only receive 20% of the clicks on the results page – a far cry from the solid internet presence you’re seeking.
Building an Online Brand by Other Means
PPC is a lesser alternative to SEO, but there are other elements of online branding that can have tremendous results. Foremost of these is social marketing. By taking advantage of the increasingly social nature of the internet, your brand can be easily established and constantly replicated within your market.
Internet marketing is also an option, but with click through rates being a half percent on average, it takes a decent budget and call to action for anyone to click. And with the web being as fragmented as it is, reaching your audience with banner advertising can be challenging.
Search marketing is another element of online branding. Paid positions through banners and search results can contribute strongly to the overall reputation and presence of your company online. Again search terms, target markets and the overlap between keywords and brand will be one of the foremost criteria for positioning yourself properly on websites relevant to your branding efforts.
Whether its social networking or social bookmarking, social media is creating a paradigm shift in the way we consume media. This is not a mere blip on the radar, but a tsunami of sorts. But don’t mistake social media as another advertising channel. Marketer’s need to realize its more about talking to, and not talking at.
By knowing your audience you can leverage this medium. Note that its not a trend and your marketing efforts should include social media for your online marketing or branding strategy. Consider watching the following video to get a better understanding of social media’s influence.
A prime example of social media acceptance is a site you may know of called Facebook (a social media favorite) with over 250 million uers. It sees more than 1.5 million pieces of content (Web links, news stories, blog posts, notes, photos, etc.) are shared on its site daily. In fact, the way we interact and socialize has undergone surprising changes, with one out of eight couples married in the U.S. last year having met via social media. Although you might be surprised to learn that the fastest growing segment of Facebook are 55- to 65-year-old females.
About 25% of search results for the world’s top 20 largest brands are links to user-generated content. With about 78% of consumers trusting peer recommendations, and only 14% trusting advertisements. Furthermore, 34% of bloggers post opinions about products and brands. Another interesting fact – 25% of Americans in the past month said they watched a short video… on their phone .
Social media, bookmarking, and citizen journalism may jeopardize the future of print media. Its estimated that 98% of the largest newspapers are experiencing record declines in circulation because we no longer search for the news – the news finds us.
If you’re serious about online branding and engaging with customers, you need to include social media in your strategy.
