Does Digital Harm Your Brand Experience?

Today, brand experience is played out largely online – whether its in search, social or your website. These digital experiences are woven into the fabric of our everyday lives. Successful companies understand this and strive to build powerful brand experiences across all employee and customer touch points. So ask yourself, “Does our digital presence enhance or hurt the brand experience?” Here are four questions to consider as you evaluate the way you build and deliver your brand online: Do You Effectively Tell Your Brand Story? Simply pushing out information on your products or services is not enough. You need to demonstrate what your brand stands for. Be authentic and showcase how you pay off your brand promise to customers. And make sure your content is accessible, sharable and social-friendly, so your brand advocates can easily spread the word. According to Gallup, the highest performing companies deliver on their brand promise 75 percent of the time — both online and offline. Consumers are now more engaged and participatory because online channels have afforded them a high-touch experience. Activating your brand in digital is all in the details and going the extra mile. Are There Issues or Gaps in the User Experience? Every digital touch point is an opportunity to get it right or get it wrong. And bad user experience means a bad brand experience for your customers. Audit your digital experience down to the fine details. Do you have a lead generation form on your website? What does the confirmation page say after a user has submitted their information? What about the error message for a form field the user forgot to fill out? If you answered, “I’m not sure” or “my web developer wrote it,” it’s time to audit your content ASAP. You should strive to deliver a consistent brand experience. Do You Accommodate Different Types of Users/Needs? Your digital users take on many different forms — prospects in research mode, current customers trying to address an issue, job seekers and brand evangelists, just to name a few. Have you built your digital experience to accommodate these different types of users? Take time to evaluate your users needs and make sure you’re enabling them to address their needs with limited barriers. FedEx does a great job of addressing different needs from different users. User experience is top notch. Information and user pathways are clearly presented. And they have put some serious thought into accommodating their different users. For example, if you’re a novice who needs to ship something for the first time, they’ll teach you how through educational content. Are You Digitally and Operationally Disconnected? Have you ever checked a store’s hours online only to find they were closed when you arrived? Bad or outdated information and unrealistic expectations spell trouble for your brand experience. I once worked with a company that touted their exceptional customer service and 24/7 availability in an effort to win more B-to-B clients. Customer Service was getting it right for their current clients, and Marketing was leveraging this as key selling point of the brand. However, when new prospects submitted web inquiries, they were told a sales person would get back to them in five to seven business days. If you haven’t built your brand with the digital experience in mind, it won’t survive. Your brand is one of the strongest businesses assets; and managing and nurturing it in all channels is critical.

Performance Marketing

Does Digital Harm Your Brand Experience?

Matt Daly

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Matt Daly