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Given that there are over 3.5 billion Google searches per day, it’s no surprise that 85 percent of retailers say search engine marketing is the most effective tactic for acquiring new customers. Over the next few weeks, we’ll be delving deep into search engine marketing and how it can help you reach B2B buyers.
In search engine marketing, marketers research, submit and position a website to achieve maximum visibility and share of search engine referrals. In today’s post, we’ll clarify the difference between organic listings and paid search, and define the most important aspects of paid search advertising.
Organic search
Organic search results are determined and ranked only by their relevance to your search, not the amount of money a related business spent on advertising. For example, if you Google “email marketing tips,” you are likely searching for advice from a marketing thought leader, not a link to marketing automation software. You would therefore likely navigate directly to the organic search results.
Google uses a complex algorithm to determine which pages show up first in organic search results, and takes into account over 200 factors including relevant keywords used, overall site structure, site speed, and quality of outbound links. The vast number of pages that result from a simple search are ranked in order of relevance to the user.
Paid search
If an advertiser has paid to have their content associated with certain keywords, paid search ads will appear when a user searches these keywords. These are at the top or bottom of each page of Google search results, and say “ad” in small text next to the URL they offer. Their order on the results page is determined largely by the amount of money that businesses bid for specific keywords. For example, iContact would likely spend a large amount on the keyword “email marketing tips” in an effort to appear high on your first search results page. Other factors considered in ad rank, or an ad’s position on a page, include relevance, landing page experience, and the expected impact of ad extensions and other ad formats. In next week’s post, we’ll share more in-depth information on paid search, and discuss extensions and ad formats in addition to keyword bidding.
Search engines present a complex and profitable landscape for marketers, as search is the top driver of traffic to content sites. As a certified Google Partner agency, Movéo has deep expertise across search, mobile and video advertising, and our clients benefit from expedited support to ensure their Google campaigns are running efficiently and generating positive ROI. To learn more of our search engine marketing recommendations, check our past blog, “Four ways to optimize your content for search today.”
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This month, we’ve looked at a variety of data and branding topics, from the role of data in rebranding to the best ways to quantify brand performance. Now, we’re sharing 15 questions you can use to dig deeper into the relationship between data and branding in your own work. Use these questions to spark discussion with your team and generate ideas for how you can strengthen your branding efforts with data.
Using quantitative data
1. Does your research include data from the customer’s entire experience with your brand — from exposure, to purchase, to use?
2. Do you collect data from web analytics, marketing automation tools and your CRM?
3. Are you using KPIs such as unique visits, sessions, and pageviews to analyze reach?
4. Have recent changes in client retention influenced brand performance and ROI?
5. Are you using a multi-touch attribution model to quantify leads’ interactions with your brand throughout the marketing cycle?
Using qualitative data
1. What has your competitive analysis revealed about your competitors’ brands that could be helpful for your own?
2. What actionable insights do surveys reveal about your target market’s opinion of your brand?
3. Could ethnographic research reveal anything new about buyers’ attitudes towards your brand?
4. Which brand attributes are most important to your target market?
5. Are you doing everything you can to get to know your customers as individuals instead of datasets?
Brand crises and rebrands
1. How could your brand use data to prepare for and respond to a brand crisis while maintaining its unique voice and personality?
2. What sort of metrics will you track in order to identify the early stages of a brand crisis?
3. Have you conducted a “three-gap analysis” among your organization’s customers, leadership and employees?
4. What does recent quantitative and qualitative research indicate about the strength of your brand in the minds of your customers?
5. Does recent data indicate that your greatest brand weaknesses are operational or perceptual?
After answering these questions, you should have a better idea of how to plan and execute on your branding and rebranding efforts. Then, you can turn your focus to strengthening your brand further through content marketing. For more on how to create content that promotes your brand, check out “Is your new content asset brand aligned?”
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Because this month’s blogs have focused so strongly on the use of data in branding, it might appear that metrics and data hold the ultimate answer to crafting an effective brand. The fact is, however, that data without context is meaningless.
Do you remember how, a few years ago, Google famously erred in their estimate of upcoming flu cases? Their algorithm took into account only the number of searches relating to the flu, which was exaggerated by flu-related media coverage and social media mentions. Because Google’s algorithm only included the number of searches and disregarded the context of the results, they overestimated flu cases by 200%.
So while we rely on data at Movéo, we also work hard to put data insights in context, to make sure that we have a full picture of the challenges and strengths of each brand we work with. Here are two key ways to do the same for your brand:
1. Use the scientific method and real-world testing
As many of us learned in school, the best way to understand a problem and draw conclusions is by following the scientific method: asking a question, formulating a hypothesis and rigorously testing that hypothesis. Branding is no different.
As brand researchers, we begin with a question, usually focused on understanding what aspects of a client’s brand resonate best with their target audience. After a deep dive to understand a client’s existing products and positioning, we hypothesize what strategy will improve their branding efforts, and test our theories using the most applicable materials and experiments. For example, we might use focus groups and surveys to test where there’s room for a line of high-end medical supplies to improve their place in the market through new messaging. After analyzing the results gathered in the experiment phase to form a conclusion, we can make recommendations for the client going forward.
This real-world experimentation pairs quantitative and qualitative data to offer a more robust set of insights on your brand than either could alone.
2. Beware of dirty data
Effective branding decisions depend on reliable and accurate data, but obtaining such pristine data isn’t always easy. “Dirty data” is any information that’s erroneous or misleading. That includes data that’s missing, inaccurate, inappropriate, or duplicate. If you’re working from bad data, you’re more likely to waste time on marketing and sales calls to leads that are outside your target market or not properly qualified for the stage of marketing you’ve sorted them into.
You need a standardized system for collecting data, so that collection methods are kept consistent and you can draw valid conclusions from your data. It’s also all too easy to pollute your data by storing what you collect haphazardly or in a variety of different systems. Your brand may benefit from a data management platform (DMP). A DMP can sort, house, and export your data in a way that keeps everything clean and organized.
Data is key to strong branding, but an understanding of how to collect and interpret data is no less important. For more information on crafting a strong brand, check out 10 simple truths about strong brands.
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Today’s post was written by Stephen Foy, Strategist at Movéo.
At the end of the day, brands live within the minds of consumers at large — but marketers play a role in shaping that consumer perception. If your organization’s branding is consistent and compelling enough, the marketing team can shape and reinforce what an audience thinks of you. As the desired image and messages begin to take hold, brands grow in strength and impact. And focusing resources on brand strength proves to be worth it — year after year, the strongest brands outperform the market by double-digit margins.
To strengthen your brand, you must thoroughly understand your target audiences, closest competitors, and market in general. Although research can lead to this knowledge, it doesn’t always provide fantastic news. Sometimes it can be brutal, because above all else, research is honest. If it means taking a hard look at your brand, including the messaging and image, then so much the better. At least you’ll know, and be able to take action toward creating a revitalized brand — one that is audience-focused and built around exactly what your product or service can credibly deliver.
Taking action to refresh your brand
If you find yourself in the position of confronting a weakened brand, it may seem overwhelming, but a considered approach to revitalizing your story will set you on the right path. Here’s what to do:
1. Make sure you have a deep understanding of — and confidence in — the insights that have been gathered in the discovery process. That includes:
- Knowing what your priority audiences are looking for, and the standards they are expecting of the whole category
- Knowing as specifically as possible what you are doing wrong, where you are misfiring in your current endeavors, or where the disconnect lies. Is it operational (e.g. deliveries always late) or is it more perceptual (e.g. deliveries are on time but people think your service is subpar or have the wrong impression of you)?
- Considering internal branding in the research stage, as well, to understand how aligned or misaligned employees are with the marketplace
2. Take stock of what about your brand still works in light of the new insights, retaining what fits the potential new story and eliminating the rest. For example, does your messaging strategy still include the right key pillars? If one or two still work, keep them; if none work, start from scratch.
3. Review your brand architecture to make sure it’s aligned with any new strategies. Confusing architecture only serves to get in the way of a compelling brand story. You also want to make sure you’re getting credit for what you sell — that people recognize the product or service they like comes from you.
4. Consider a change to your brand identity, including your logo. Ask yourself: has your logo become outdated, so that it no longer conveys who you are in the marketplace? If core elements of your brand still resonate with priority audiences, a new logo may cause confusion; but if research indicates there should be major shifts in strategy, a logo can serve as the clearest sign of something new. Changing the look of your brand should never be taken lightly, but at the same time nothing conveys change to the market more quickly.
5. Focus internally, then externally. As reimagined brand elements are created it is imperative that internal audiences understand and get on board before rolling anything out externally.
This is where having internal research will help significantly. Your people are a big part of your brand, and it will be well worth it to spend time communicating with them. The more the brand is changed, the more you’ll want to be sure internal audiences are brought along.
Sometimes research can be the bearer of bad news — but every weakness is an opportunity. It’s far better to know where your brand can improve than not know, and rebuilding a brand to better suit your target audiences is entirely achievable with the right knowledge base.
For more insights on how to strengthen your brand, read our white paper, 10 simple truths about strong brands.
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No one wants to find their brand in a crisis, but proper handling of a bad situation can limit the damage and expense. Time and resources spent planning for a brand crisis can therefore have significant ROI. We recommend preparing for a brand crisis as soon as possible, so that you have advance plans in place and any crisis that arises can be quickly and tactfully extinguished. Here are our four steps to planning for and handling a branding crisis.
1. Understand your brand and what tone it should take in a crisis
Each brand has a different personality and voice. So just like you might respond to trouble differently than your best friend or your great-grandmother, your brand should respond to a crisis in a way that’s both effective and uniquely its own. Our best recommendation when planning for a brand crisis is to clearly identify your brand’s voice, personality, and positioning, and create examples of how the brand might respond in potential crisis situations. That way, you can build a foundation that enables you to respond to a problem in a brand-aligned manner, rather than having to compromise or alter your brand.
2. Decide how and where to react
When responding to a brand crisis, you need to make choices quickly despite stress, and there may not be any clear right answers. That’s why we recommend planning your response strategy before you’re stuck in a stressful situation. Decide now how your brand will respond to online comments, and who will be responsible. Determine what other avenues, such as social and traditional media, you’ll use to get your message out. Lay out guidelines for when you’ll be apologetic and when you’ll stick to your stance. Decide what to do if the crisis escalates, and when you should involve people like your CEO or legal team. These questions are of pivotal importance during a brand crisis, so we recommend planning for them while your head is clear and capable of targeting the potential problem in a brand-oriented fashion.
3. Monitor your social media platforms
In the social media age, customers now have the ability to express their opinions about brands across public forums, which immediately increases the visibility of a brand crisis. The best data to monitor, therefore, are your social media platforms and interactions with customers. Social media monitoring tools alert organizations when sudden conversation spikes occur, when there’s an increase in negative mentions, or an unexpected hashtag starts trending. Receiving immediate alerts when problems arise allows brands to respond quickly, thereby mitigating the risk of a full blown crisis.
4. In the event of a crisis, think it through, but respond quickly and tactfully
Assuming that your plan is already set up, you should be able to respond to an actual crisis in a timely and tactful manner.
In 2012, KitchenAid swiftly and apologetically handled a social media crisis before it was able to create a true storm. A staff member posted an insensitive tweet about President Obama’s grandmother to the KitchenAid twitter account instead of their own, which fueled outrage from its Twitter followers. Because the organization was monitoring its social media posts, KitchenAid was able to delete the tweet within 15 minutes and issue a series of apology tweets from Cynthia Soledad, the company’s head of branding. It appears that the company had a plan for a full-on brand crisis that involved contacting the most relevant executive and responding with respect to its offended Twitter followers and customers, which reflects the brand’s commitment to quality and excellence.
Brand crises are unexpected and stressful, but when handled appropriately, they can actually strengthen your brand’s image. Needless to say, a brand isn’t the only component of your business that can be affected by unexpected events. Check out our post on planning for uncertainty and the best way to stay prepared as marketers.
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Many companies neglect internal branding in their brand strategy in favor of more externally focused efforts, despite the fact that committed, knowledgeable employees perform better overall and provide higher customer satisfaction. In fact, recent research demonstrates a link between internal branding, employee engagement, behavior and financial performance. Investing in internal branding audits is helpful in learning what employees think in comparison to what the target audience thinks, which benefits both internal and external communications. Today, we’ll examine the role of regular employee surveys in internal branding, and why strong internal branding can improve external KPIs as well.
Employee surveys
At Movéo, the most common method we use to assess internal branding is working with our clients to administer biannual surveys of their employees, which are particularly useful when constructing new brand strategies. Well-conducted employee surveys can give perspective, showing gaps between internal and external perceptions of a brand. We ask employees to decide how well their brand fits certain attributes in order to clearly understand the differences between the perspectives and objectives of leadership, customers and employees. Dubbed the “three-gap analysis”, analyzing the opinions of these three groups together enables us to understand the wants and needs of each audience and then identify gaps that may exist.
How surveys can improve external KPIs
Aligning internal and external branding is particularly effective in large organizations that have multiple locations, as each location’s culture and unique workforce can influence brand perception. Branding data gathered from internal surveys aids marketers in revising the brand and implementing change. When employees are well-informed and supportive of upcoming changes, brands can be revised more easily and quickly. Changes informed by these data insights are also more robust and enduring, saving businesses time and money. Aligning external and internal branding can even lift brand equity, customer focus, and shareholder value over time.
Your internal brand is the foundation for your external brand – when it’s strong, the possibilities are endless, but even the strongest external brand can falter on a weak internal base. We feel that the combination of both are a key component of organizational success. To learn more, read our thoughts on how branding is driving business growth in 2016.
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You may think your brand is just fine as it is, but data doesn’t lie. Both quantitative and qualitative metrics are useful when gauging the current standing of your brand in comparison to where you’d like to see it go. Today, we’re sharing our tips for assessing the internal and external aspects of your brand, and our thoughts on when to consider rebranding.
1. Use data to determine successful elements of your brand
At Movéo, we often look to a brand’s familiarity and consumer awareness to determine its current standing with consumers. Both types of awareness, aided and unaided, reveal valuable information about the general perception of your brand. Unaided awareness, also known as brand recall, occurs when a consumer remembers a brand without prompting. For example, if a consumer is asked to name a type of soda, they might mention Coca-Cola, Sprite, and Dr. Pepper. In contrast, aided awareness occurs when a consumer expresses knowledge of a brand after being prompted. In this case, a consumer might recognize “Diet Rite” even if the name didn’t initially jump into their head. From a marketing standpoint, a high unaided awareness is a good indication that consumers feel strongly about your brand and that you have a firm position in the marketplace.
2. Analyze competitors’ branding efforts
When analyzing competitors’ branding efforts, we recommend looking to engagement and reach. Although competitor assessments can be difficult to conduct, you can still gather valuable information from websites, email campaigns, and social media. Look to content that’s been shared by both you and your competitor and analyze each post. What voice do they use when sharing content? How many responses, engagements, and shares do they get from each post? What does their website copy have that yours is missing? In addition to engagement, be sure to monitor reach as well. Try to get an idea of how many followers and shares competitors’ pages have, and estimate their approximate reach across platforms. Once you have a rough idea, compare your metrics to theirs. Where do your strengths and weaknesses lie?
3. Organize a rebrand according to insights
Internal and external audits can lead to valuable insights. For example, your internal analysis may have revealed that consumers see your product in multiple categories, leading to low unaided awareness. Furthermore, your external analysis may have shown that you’re targeting a completely different audience than your competitor without fully realizing it. Once such insights are gathered, it might be time to consider a change. Check out our tips for beginning a brand refresh, and stay tuned for next week’s post, when we discuss exactly how to conduct a successful rebrand in the age of data.
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Before conducting quantitative research in a new product category, researchers should first use qualitative research to develop a firm understanding of the landscape they’re preparing to assess. This early knowledge base will be helpful when determining consumer motives, segments and targets. Today we’re discussing our best tips for using qualitative research to inform branding strategy.
1. Ethnography
Any psychological, sociological, or marketing researcher can warn about the dangers of the “observer effect”, a common phenomenon that occurs when a subject acts differently while being observed. Because this effect often leads to data inaccuracies in surveys and focus groups, many qualitative researchers turn to ethnography. Customers in ethnographic environments tend to be more open and honest in their answers, and by talking to customers in their own environments (often at home or work), marketers can observe customers actually using the products instead of relying on explanations of how they use products. It’s even rumored that ethnographic research originally uncovered the need for the flashlight feature on smartphones. When it comes to merging ethnographic research with quantitative data, we recommend categorizing opinions and behaviors into unifying themes and assigning dummy variables to qualitative traits and answers.
2. Multiattribute Attitude Model
Also known as the Fishbein Model, the Multiattribute Attitude Model is a great example of how qualitative and quantitative variables can merge to generate valuable data and insights. Conducted in the early stages of the research process, the model uses three components of attitude – salient beliefs, object-attribute linkages, and evaluation – and determines a measurable score that represents a consumer’s attitude toward a product. Researchers use qualitative research (surveys, ethnographic research, etc.) to determine the most important attributes in the product category, and can use the measurable score as quantitative research going forward.
Both ethnographic research and the Multiattribute Attitude Model provide valuable qualitative insights that can later be integrated into quantitative data collection and analysis. Qualitative research often involves thoughts and feelings more significantly than quantitative methods, and these customer emotions can be closely tied to a successful brand strategy.
Getting to know your customers is no easy feat, and these methods only scratch the surface- check out our tips for getting to know your customers as individuals instead of datasets.
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Although data is usually discussed on an aggregate level, it’s the minute, numerical details that provide the base from which large conclusions can be drawn. Each data set can have thousands of variables, and with so many to choose from, how can you determine which will be most effective in improving your brand? In today’s post, we’ll discuss the most effective KPIs to include in your branding efforts.
1. Reach
Before the digital age, reach was difficult to measure. After all, how accurately can you estimate the number of people who glanced at your billboard last year? Luckily, modern marketers now use KPIs like unique visits, sessions and pageviews to determine how many people have been exposed to a brand. Making the most of this influx of data involves carefully monitoring weekly metrics on Google Analytics, CRM systems, and social media to ensure that you’re accurately estimating the size of your brand’s audience.
2. ROI
Any business’s primary goal is turning a profit, making Return on Investment one of the most valuable cross-departmental metrics. Unfortunately, from a branding perspective, ROI can be difficult to define. As we mentioned in our previous post, branding is a process that’s developed over time, so we recommend looking to your past data to find clear long-term benchmarks that quantify and measure ROI. Search for changes in areas such as client retention and repeat purchases to gauge how your marketing efforts are influencing overall brand performance and ROI.
3. Holistic score
Movéo has developed its own metric, holistic score, that measures consumer engagement by monitoring key actions in relation to marketing goals. We gauge the importance and relevance of each action to determine its respective weight in the formula, and combine multiple marketing achievements to form one comparable number. This metric generates a holistic view of brand performance that can be used to inform marketing strategy.
Although deciding which KPIs to monitor can be difficult, selecting those that help you understand current performance and forecast future results will aid in delivering value to the brand and the entire organization. Every company wants a strong brand, but it takes work to get there. Check out our white paper, 10 simple truths about strong brands, to learn what strong brands DO, not just what a strong brand IS.
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In the past, marketers used to build brands using intuition and qualitative research. But things have changed. Today, the most effective companies, campaigns and communications are made better through the assessment of quantitative data. By analyzing large amounts of data collected over time, organizations can craft brands that truly build their reputation and drive their bottom line business goals. In today’s post, we’re sharing our favorite tips from marketing thought leaders about using data to build brands that matter.
1. Branding is a marathon, not a sprint
After buying a hot dog for lunch, you’re given a coupon, which you later use to buy a discounted hot dog. We now understand the incentive pattern that resulted from our promotion, but is this information actually valuable to our brand? Truthfully, not really – we still know very little about your relationship with our brand or if next time, you might be willing to try a hamburger. Although short-term promotions can be influenced by recently collected analytics, a strong brand is best aided by data trends that are established over time. According to Peter Horst and Robert Duboff, both established marketers, “sales-oriented marketing influences short-term actions, [but] branding prompts feelings and understanding of what a brand represents”. Although one type must not be prioritized over the other, data should not be used so prematurely that valuable long-term information never has the chance to emerge.
2. Use the right tools
The branding process has evolved rapidly in recent years – whereas marketers used to worry primarily about the brand’s packaging and television spots, they must now consider many more variables. Social media, websites, and online media have not only created greater opportunities to establish and manage a robust brand, but also amass vast amounts of quantitative data from users. At Movéo we advise marketers to ensure that they are using the right tools to gain the most insight from these new platforms. We recommend that modern marketers expand their tools to include web analytics, marketing automation, their CRM and media.
3. Turn to the “dark” side
As we mention above, modern brands are established across many platforms. Each day, consumers come into contact with your brand’s social media pages, TV spots, print ads and packaging, which makes brand consistency imperative to success. Unfortunately, this rarely happens. According to Elena Klau, director of strategy and insights at North America Momentum Worldwide, the most valuable data lies between the linkages across customer experiences with the brand. This “Dark Data” often falls between the cracks, and organizations fail to tie all channels and metrics together to assess total brand experience. To correct this, Klau recommends conducting a robust audit of data gathered from total brand experience, which will help ensure that consumers are getting the same message at every point of contact.
Your brand provides the foundation for every marketing decision, and the right data can provide valuable insights that make this base as strong as possible. If your organization is considering using data to analyze or improve your brand, check out our tips for researching a brand refresh.
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