February 19th, 2012 : Measuring the Success of Your Online Branding Campaign

You probably already know how important branding is to your business. It's really nothing new. But how does one measure the results of the online branding campaigns? It's really tricky to get a good handle on just how effective you're online branding campaigns are. There are a few analytics and stats that you have to take into account when you are endeavoring to make sure if your brand is even making any progress with your prospects and customers. If you don't know what branding is about, you can just ask any regular high school senior that has a web page. The biggest corporations in the US truly believe in branding. Take Coca Cola for example, they will run a commercial and the main goal of the company is all about branding. They are not so much concerned with direct or quick sales, as they are about branding their image. Banks are the same way. Almost every Bank of America advertisement has the goal to make you feel like you can trust the company. Whenever you see advertisements that put their focus on intangibles, then it's probably a sure bet that the company is trying to build a brand.

Think about this example for a minute, you're driving down the highway to Georgia, and you stop for refreshments at an exit. There's a Denny's and a McDonald's. There's also a diner by the name of "Rita's' Place". If you chose "Rita's Place", then you're probably much more adventurous than the average person. You're in the minority, because most people traveling on the road will either pick Denny's or McDonald's. This is because they know these brands. They trust in these brands and know what to expect of them. These branded businesses can very likely be run by supervisors and managers who don't make sure that their employees wash their hands after using the restroom, where as "Rita's Place" could be one of the cleanest places in town. That doesn't matter, because the average person only takes a few seconds to make a decision. An unknown diner will seem like a huge risk.

When it comes to the online community, the small businesses seem to focus on conversions and sales. To them, online branding seems like something of a luxury. This can be a huge mistake. The type of delivery method for online branding does not matter. It can be the Internet, magazines, radio or television. If your particular website converts just two sales from every five hundred visitors, does that signify that 498 visitors are worthless? No it does not.

It can take some time for the more shy customers to become comfortable with your particular brand. The internet has a lot of scammers on it, and you can't blame people for being extra cautious. Whenever you open your email inbox and get the latest scams pouring in, you have a daily reminder of all of the slick attempts to infect your computer. Whenever a consumer has a first time encounter with your brand, she or he will probably not trust you. If you are not able to get a sale on the first contact, then it is your responsibility to at least try to help those customers to become more comfortable with your brand. This is so that you can close a sale at a later date. Online campaigns regarding branding works, in a general sense, if branding did not work, then why do people routinely pick Pepsi and Coke over generic brands? Why would anyone drink Heineken beer over some unknown brand? The problem is not if branding works. The problem really is how are you able to measure the success of your branding?

• Take a close look at the page views per visit. Look and try to get a vibe for the number of pages your site visitors are looking at per visit. If you have only one page on your site, then you won't fit into this category.
• Look at the average time each visitor spends on your site.
• Look at the number of return visitors.

By keeping these points in mind, you can definitely make a more accurate determination on the efficiency of your branding efforts.

Tags: Online Brand Marketing, Brand Marketing

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