Bots(robots), affiliate marketing sites, discount sites and link farms are all making the conversation very crowded for brands trying to get their message heard online. All the entities have one purpose and that is to sell product. Some of it is discounted. Some of it isn’t. Some are names of sites you have never heard of, and some are names like Amazon.
Recently, we were asked by a leading brand in the outdoor and ski markets to search for it and see what we find. Well, it wasn’t pretty. Channel Signal search engines, which have blacklisted over 10,000 authors and sites, still came up with a ton of junk surrounding this brand.
Why? Because the company had not delivered good online content and sales pitches (selling primarily discounted product) had taken over the brand’s identity.
We searched Twitter…could barely find any content about the actual brand.
Blogs…junk everywhere.
YouTube…better content here.
Online traditional media…not much.
To be clear, all of this sales noise is not all bad. A retailer, Amazon, posted 1,900 customer review ratings in the past year on a product produced by the brand with an average rating of 4.8 out of 5 stars.
Now, if you figure 20 percent of the customers who bought from Amazon wrote a review, that means about 10,000 sales in one year. Not bad from the online retailer.
However, the brand is being drowned out by the sales pitches. Can’t really call it noise because it does move product.
What to do?
First a brand must sharpen its identity online. Advertise to your target market about where to go…on Twitter, Facebook, Google+, your blogs, etc. In short, drive consumers to where you want them to go for your content. Then…
Fill these places with good content. Not content that sells stuff, but content that educates consumers. How to layer? Why a hat is important. Goggles and what they can do for you. Breathable socks. And make this information directly applicable to your product lines.
And then, build online relationships with your retailer partners.
1. Support online retailers with content they can push out and reprint on their own sites.
2. Train retailers to understand how to do things like embed a YouTube video, update their blog and utilize basic search engine optimization techniques.
3. License content correctly for reprinting/republishing through retailers with photographers, writers, video producers.
By building a grassroots content strategy through retail partners, brands can deliver better content online, serve their customers and drive sales with key accounts.
So, break out of the noise by building your content and building your partnerships with retailers.
