How does branding wiggle its way up the priority list online?
Recent studies have shown unanimously that recognizable brands convert at up to 300% more than companies with no little or no brand recognition. The industry ecommerce average is hovering in the 1% range; Staples.com has a 20% conversion rate.
The problem is that companies are spending more and more of their dollars online. Online advertising companies are very direct-response driven. Clients expect to see the ROI for every dollar spent. This data has been a 2-edged sword. It is great that you can see where your dollar goes; in fact, I pitch it all day long. The problem is that the very ability that allows us to see the fine detail of where marketing dollars goes gets clients (of all sizes) away from branding and simply obsessed with a sale or conversion. In addition to this, most online businesses are not funded and require making a profit each month on its marketing dollar. This makes it very hard as a combination direct response/branding campaign is hard to pull off.
It is my belief that the internet will do a dramatic shift from its’ early pioneers of young people building seriously profitable garage-based businesses to large brands dominating the space. The “little guys†need to start coming up with a clever way to get people brand aware before it is too late.
This is sadly all too common with clients. You are correct in saying that most clients want the most immediate and traceable ROI. Especially considering the fact that Internet marketing is famous for its ability to be tracked.
This is a dangerous scenario, especially clients that become too obsessed with site analytics data like bounce rates, time on site, etc. They lose site of the end goal of increasing their business, either through additional sales or sign-ups.
I think that given these facts, we as Internet marketing consultants, are responsible for hammering the proper expectations into client’s heads from the beginning. These need to be reinforced almost constantly throughout the relationship as well. With all of the educating that Internet marketers have to do the cost of Internet marketing can get expensive for the agency. I think that Internet marketing agencies need to figure these extra costs into their pricing as well. Heck, if traditional ad agencies have been able to charge so much for their services all these years then there is no reason online marketing agencies shouldn’t be able to as well.
Danny DeMichele's primary function as Founder and Chief Executive Officer of eVisibility is to maintain the company's position as the leading innovator of customized Internet marketing strategies dedicated to delivering verifiable results to clients.
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