Balancing your brand traffic
When is a strong brand too strong? Your analytics can tell you.
We’ve all been told that you can have too much of a good thing. This is especially the case when it comes to your brand and digital marketing. When we’re assessing how well a client’s digital marketing is performing, one of the first places we’ll look is their brand vs non-brand traffic and engagement. We’re looking to see what their marketing relies on, where the risks are and the gaps. Knowing these helps us to shape and define a strategy that is right for them.
What is a brand?
A brand is a strange thing. It’s so much more than a logo and a couple of images on your website. Your business’ brand needs to mean something. It needs to resonate with your customers and your colleagues and team-mates. Your brand should be the part of your business that you live and breathe. The thing that you return to time and again and the part of your business that helps you through tough times.
Your brand is important from the perspective of your analytics because you want you business to be known and found. People who are searching for you by name are people who want and need you – they don’t just need a thing, they want something that you and only you can provide. That is, in many ways, the holy grail. They think of you. You are solving their problems. You are meeting their needs. Only you can answer your customers question.
Brand vs non-brand
Those of you who spend your time looking at your analytics will have invested some time looking at keywords and your incoming search terms and traffic. If you’re investing time in reviewing tools like Google Search Console, then you are possibly getting a better view of the terms that your site is being found for too. It is not uncommon to see a list of brand keywords and phrases dominating the list. Increasing reach for non-brand traffic is what most clients look for. A strategy for increasing non-brand traffic is what most agencies know how to do. Wouldn’t you love to see that list of keywords flipped and it be a list of non-brand, product and service filled terms?
Perhaps, but when we have worked with clients who are faced with that scenario, they wish for stronger brand presence. When it comes to digital marketing – search marketing especially – a lot of emphasis is placed on head and tail terms. Head terms, the short, generic phrases drive awareness, are highly competitive but don’t drive conversions. Tail terms, the long, specific terms are less competitive, with lower traffic but higher conversions. It’s the science that we see presented back every day and it’s good science.
Role has a brand to play. Brand offers a different dimension. Brand gives your marketing heart. Your band is the reason that your customers will convert from a head term or a tail term. It is the reason why people will make that purchase and the reason why they will come back time after time. Different specialists will tell you differing things about search results and click through rates – they are clearly essential in PPC, even though their organic ranking impact is still questioned. What is for sure is that a good brand will drive clicks. A good brand will give people looking for the things that you do, the confidence to click, explore and purchase. And it will encourage them to come back.
When Google talk about offering a good customer experience on your website, they are, in part, talking about your brand.
Find a balance
When you are next reviewing your keywords and your online marketing performance, look at the split of brand and non-brand keywords. Ask yourself, what do you want to be found for? The chances are, you want to be found for both your brand and your stock. If one’s missing, then that’s where you need to place your focus.
Let us help
Knowing that you have a problem is the first step to solving it. The second – giving us a call and having a chat. We can help you develop strategies and campaigns that will deliver the results that you need for both your brand and your products.
