How Building Up Your Brand Boosts Your Business' Bottom Line
The Sprocket Report
Sure, your business has a brand. But a casual branding relationship isn’t going to cut it in today’s digital marketing world. Read on to find out what you’re missing and how to fix it.
Marketing metrics are different.
We used to measure “traffic” to a website such as hits, pageviews, and so on. More traffic meant more chances for our marketing message to grab a user’s attention and give us the opportunity to pitch our product or service. So, instead of traffic, what should we be measuring on our websites?
Due to the increased use of AI summaries and chat conversations, website traffic has dropped noticeably. People are doing their research by asking questions of AI bots, so when they do click on a website URL, it’s because they are much closer to making that “buy” decision. “Conversion” is now the metric to measure.
Consumers are much more wary.
Flimflam has certainly plagued humanity in the past – the word itself is four hundred years old – but deception has especially flourished across today’s digital landscape.
Trying to be good consumers, people want to research organizations, services, and products before committing to them, and the internet is well-equipped to help with that task. But there’s also an awful lot of flimflam online, which consumers are well aware of and fear.
To reach these people, businesses need to anticipate what questions are being asked during the research phase. Once you know your user’s “search intent,” you can provide the answer they are looking for. The next step is to be the trustworthy answer, which relies on your branding.
Branding is crucial to success.
Consider your own buying habits and who you trust with your money. Folks shop at Costco, but they remind each other that, while products wear a Kirkland label, they are really from “major national brands,” which is pretty clever branding on Costco’s part!
“Major” brands work for and highlight their good performance history. Consumers are familiar with their products and trust them to continue performing well. Brand cues such as logo and color are easily recognizable and underscore that familiarity. That’s the kind of branding to which every organization should aspire.
Embrace all the branding avenues
How do you achieve that? Deliberately and consistently. Businesses that haven’t paid much attention to their digital marketing up until now have more work ahead of them, but if you already have a digital footprint, that’s a great start.
The goal is to prove your organization’s authority and trustworthiness with all kinds of online markers. Social media, news releases, directory links, consumer reviews, and, of course, your website. These aren’t merely links to your URL, but demonstrations of how your business has what your customer needs. Wrapping up that information in a memorable logo and colors, and showing up consistently helps build familiarity along with authority and trust.
The Sprocket Websites + Digital Marketing team can help your business grow by assessing your current digital footprint and creating a plan to improve your brand’s visibility online. Call us today to learn more.
Photo by Nataliya Vaitkevich
Kate Gingold
I have been writing a blog with web marketing tips and techniques every other week since 2003. In addition to blogging and client content writing, I write books and a blog on local history.
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I have been writing a blog with web marketing tips and techniques every other week since 2003. In addition to blogging and client content writing, I write books and a blog on local history.
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