“Be Everywhere” Approach a Smart Online Marketing Strategy
June 14, 2017
Does your online marketing strategy have the following?
- A website
- Original content (a blog)?
- Social media presence
If you have all three you’re probably nodding along and smiling at how you’ve checked all the boxes. But what if I told you that wasn’t enough to get your business found online today?
It’s time to go beyond the basics with your online marketing strategy — and should you have to be everywhere to do so?
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Is “Be Everywhere” A Smart Online Marketing Strategy?
I recently read an eBook, The Everywhere Brand: Embracing the Universe Beyond Your Website (and App), by best-selling authors Jay Baer and Jeffrey K. Rohrs.
The eBook details the basic online marketing strategy and how it has changed.
These savvy authors say it’s time to think differently about how you engage customers online. And I agree.
Here are just a few of the ways online marketing has pivoted:
- According to Nielsen, the average U.S. adult internet user visits 45 mobile websites and uses 28 smartphone apps per month.
- In November 2016, mobile surpassed desktop internet usage for the first time ever.
- Mobile search now accounts for nearly 60% of all searches.
- Voice search now accounts for more than 20% of all searches on Google.
Jay and Jeffery define an “Everywhere Brand” as:
“The Everywhere Brand is a brand whose digital knowledge — the factual assets about a company that capture consumer attention — exists consistently and accurately in a great many online locations, not just on a corporate website and app. This universal approach ensures that The Everywhere Brand serves customers on the digital planets they frequent, translates into a better brand experience, and drives more business opportunity.”
The biggest point they underscore is that most website visits are 10-seconds or shorter in duration, and they are often referred by search engines.
7 Key Traits Of Brands ‘Being Everywhere’
Our authors also insist that if you want to be a ‘be everywhere’ brand you must have the following seven traits.
1) You must be customer-centric. In other words, do you really know how your customers see you? How do they search for your brand online? How do they use search, maps, digital directories (think search engines and AI, like Siri or Alexa? Voice search now matters!
2) Be Active. Are you actively updating all of the information that’s available online and through digital media to reflect your brand’s most current information? Because there are hundreds of digital areas that provide information on your company (maps, directories, search engines, social networks, GPS, etc.) this is no easy task.
3) Organization. (DUH!) Outdated data and the cure to being everywhere means you have to put the three things to work:
- People — who is in charge of being everywhere?
- Processes — what processes ensure your data is up-to-date?
- Technology — what technology helps you achieve the above?
4) Thinks in real-time. With 71% of all online searches happening in real-time through mobile devices, your ‘be everywhere’ brand must also happen in real-time. When weather, illness, or other emergencies take place, are you prepared? Is your data instantly updated?
5) Is granular with their data. Taking a page from SEO, you know how important it is to stand out and be different. Meaning you have to get down to the nitty-gritty with your data and be AS SPECIFIC AS POSSIBLE when putting information about your brand on the world wide web.
6) Is always responsive. Do actively solicit reviews for your company? Do you always respond to those reviews, even if they’re negative? You should! Feedback can be hard to swallow but responsive, ‘be everywhere’ brands look at feedback as a way to improve.
7) Strives to be innovative. Granted, this is easier said than done. Resting on what you have done won’t get you anywhere. You’ve got to be a risk taker, make plays, run tests, and constantly be looking for “what’s next” in your industry.
Should Your Brand Be EVERYWHERE?
If your online marketing strategy is to “BE EVERYWHERE” that’s totally fine (and doable). But you have to own it.
You can do that in three simple steps by:
- Choosing where you’re going to BE
- Making sure those assets (owned or rented) are accurate
- Ensuring your online data (people, products, location data) is always up-to-date
As Jay and Jeffrey point out in their eBook,
“This goes far beyond each location’s name, address, phone number, and hours of operation.”
If and ONLY IF you are able to make that commitment, go ahead and be a ‘be everywhere’ brand.
If not, you may want to start taking baby steps to get yourself going in the ‘everywhere’ direction.
How do you feel about the ‘be everywhere’ business mentality? Do you agree or disagree, and why
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