Brand Websites Are Still Alive and Needed

Search Engine Marketing Home / Blog article: Brand Websites Are Still Alive and Needed

Brand Websites Are Still Alive and Needed

Jan

By Katie Cousino | Account Leader

A recent comScore study stated that one of every five minutes spent online is on a social media site. Furthermore, 82 percent of online users visit social media sites. Therefore it’s not a dicey statement for digital marketing analysts to predict social media sites and their usage will continue to rise through the year. Mistakenly, this sometimes translates to business and marketing managers thinking corporate websites are no longer worth additional effort or attention.

While the four of the other five minutes are spent on brand websites, we need to take a step back and look at the total digital marketing mix to make sure that brands can communicate with consumers and businesses in all the digital ways they prefer. Skittles is a great example of why a brand should not place a brand’s digital presence into just one digital medium. Skittles scrapped their non-ecommerce brand site for an all social media approach and regretted very quickly when negative user generated content usurped the brand messaging and positive image of Skittles. Websites Branded

Brands typically implement social media because they understand that consumers want to communicate and interact with them, which when planned with the audience in mind, results in a great consumer experience and increased brand awareness. This is the same reason it’s vital that companies keep their website updated and relevant; consumers will often visit your site to learn more about your company structure, brick and mortar locations, new products and more.

Brand websites also allow for control of messaging, content and the user experience. Brand websites provide a place to speak to and communicate in the format and design in which the only limitations are budget and creativity. Brands can update pages or block sensitive customer pages with ease, and provide recent press accolades and awards and other product centric information that may not be shown or fit on other non-owned digital sources.

Brand websites can also act like a home base or the glue for all your digital marketing communication. They become a dependable, reliable source of brand information that can lead to other digital discoveries and connections, such as branded social media pages. For B2B information, a brand website is key. Typically businesses are not looking to “friend” or “like” or “follow” social media pages but rather gain critical information about doing business with a company and without a brand website the information decision makers need may be lost on tabs and updates never seen by the average online viewer on social media sites.

All digital marketers would be wise to take a step back and evaluate where else online users are spending their other 4 out of 5 minutes. Just like offline, it takes multiple touch points to make a connection – companies have to be digitally present not just in social media but also in the many other areas of the digital arena, including a branded website.

Posted in Featured, Performance Marketing