Digital brand building: The interplay of (online) branding & customer experience

Digital brand building or branding is one of the central topics in online marketing. Read on to find out more about the growing importance and characteristics of a (digital) brand, how to build a brandthrough an outstanding customer experience and how to measure branding digitally.

Definition: What is digital brand building or what is online branding?

Digital brand building or online branding describes a method of brand management. Digital brand building is about positioning in one or more thematic areas and strengthening the relationship between a brand and potential and existing customers via the customer experience (user experience) with digital touchpoints.
The difference to classic branding or brand building is that in digital brand building, the algorithms of important digital gatekeepers such as search engines and social networks must be convinced in addition to users.

In most cases, brand building or branding is promoted through the interaction of digital and analog touchpoints.

What are possible branding goals?

The goals of brand building and branding are

• building and improving relationships with potential customers, existing customers and employees as well as potential employees (employer branding)
• Expanding and maintaining relationships with other stakeholders such as influencers and other multipliers
• Positioning the brand as a thematic authority.
• Better visibility and findability on the internet and with important gatekeepers such as Google, Facebook …

Web 3.0 as a logical consequence of Web 2.0

Web 2.0 and its technical possibilities have made it possible for virtually anyone to publish content online via their own websites, blogs and social media profiles. This inevitably leads to a flooding of the web with information and data, as the following infographic impressively demonstrates.

Gatekeepers on the web such as Google and Facebook want to and can identify these brands and authorities on the web via graphs. It does not primarily matter whether you have already built up a brand offline or not. Entities play an important role in this consideration.

The connection between entities and brands

In most cases,entities are part of at least one ontology and can represent people, buildings, companies, etc. Ontologies describe the environment in which the entities are located. For example, Zalando is an entity in the entity type store or retailer and part of the ontology e.g. fashion or fashion stores and is related to other entities in these ontologies.

In the semantic web, strong digital brands are generally also highly relevant entities with many interfaces to other entities in certain thematic ontologies. This also plays an important role in search engine optimization. Applied to the Internet, websites or domains can be seen as the central digital image of a brand.

Brands can be positioned algorithmically in ontologies via links, co-occurrences of the brand with other entities in search queries or online texts. The frequency of these relationships is used to assess authority and credibility.

Why the digital brand plays a central role in online marketing

There are several reasons why brand building plays a central role in (online) marketing.

• The market situation in many sectors.
• The technical development of the most important gatekeepers towards the semantic Web 3.0.
• The importance of trustworthy and thematically authoritative sources.
• The information shock for consumers
• The challenge of automatically identifying trustworthy and authoritative providers and information sources.

Companies that have only relied on performance marketing in the past and ignored branding are having problems asserting themselves on the Internet in many areas. This is due to the increased competitive pressure over the years and the broad increase in know-how and resources in performance marketing. In addition, attention for advertisements is on the decline, and not just because of ad blockers. The information must fit the user’s context, otherwise it will not get through the user’s narrow attention window. Advertising as a touchpoint does not achieve this in many phases of the customer journey.
A strong brand can make a decisive contribution to the success of online marketing.

• A strong brand can lead to better completion rates or conversion rates , as trust in a well-known brand is greater.
• Greater trust can also lead to improved click-through rates in the SERPs , which has a positive impact on Google rankings.
• Established brands lead to greatercustomer retention and loyalty, which can result in more returning website visitors and customers.
• The chance of referrals and social shares is greater, as strong digital brands are more likely tobe linked to, referred to and content shared by multipliers due to their trustworthiness. This leads to greater reach and better rankings. Content marketing, SEO and PR becomes easier.
• Brands that have established themselves as an authority in one or more thematic areas via the domainare more likely to be found with content on Google than non-established domains.
• Due to their popularity, strong brands also benefit from better click rates in search engine advertising (SEA), which leads to an improvement in quality factors and therefore lower click prices.

In addition, brand traffic, e.g. via direct access or search queries for the brand in search engines, is the most valuable traffic together with returning visitors.

In most cases, the higher the proportion of brand traffic, the higher the engagement metrics such as page views, average visit duration, bounce rate… the loyalty metrics such as the proportion of returning visitors and, above all, the completion rates.

There is therefore a direct correlation between brand strength and performance.Buil

ding a brand follows a strategic, sustainable approach with the aim of improving customer loyalty and reputation, which promotes sustainable positioning in the market.

Performance marketing, on the other hand, is often more tactical/operational and rarely follows a brand positioning strategy.

Building a digital brand is a critical success factor and is moving to the center of online marketing, where previously performance marketing was the sole focus. This is why performance marketing and branding can no longer be separated from each other.

Building a brand through an outstanding customer experience along the customer journey

People build relationships with brands by experiencing positive feelings when interacting with different touchpoints with the brand. The user or customer experience with these touchpoints plays an important role here. Touchpoints can be, for example

• Content
• Advertisements
• Contact with the sales employee or salesperson
• Contact with the service employee
• an offer
• order processing
• the experience of using the product

Typical digital touchpoints are

• organic search result
• Product detail page in the store
• Guide content in the blog
• Google Ads ad
• Social media post
• Social media ad
• Display ad
• Order completion page in the store
• Contact form
• Whitepaper
• …

Depending on the context, the touchpoints must

• be emotionally appealing
• be rationally appealing
• be functionally appealing
• be in line with expectations

All points are perceived and evaluated individually depending on the person or context. Touchpoints should therefore be designed to satisfy the most important target groups or personas accordingly. In addition, as many touchpoints as possible along the user’s customer journey should be consistent with their needs. Inconsistency and contradictions lead to confusion and a limited user experience.

Here are a few examples:

A user who googles “back pain” in a search engine has a specific search intention. They are looking for objective information such as a guide article or video. A search result that meets expectations would be a comprehensive guide to symptoms, causes, treatment options … A product presentation for a new rheumatism remedy, on the other hand, would not be a touchpoint that meets expectations.

Especially for touchpoints that rely on a pull mechanism, such as organic search results or search engine advertising and the corresponding landing pages, you should pay close attention to expectation conformity, otherwise the user experience and thus the brand perception will suffer.

A user clicks on a display ad that suggests they can purchase a free product. On the landing page, it becomes clear that the product is not free. The result is a negative user experience, as it does not meet expectations.
A user visits a website that takes an infinitely long time to load. They want to continue navigating through the website and at some point they abandon it in despair because every interaction with the website takes too long. The result is a poor customer experience due to poor functionality.

The same applies to non-functioning applications such as configurators or tools.

A company employee posts a post on Facebook that contradicts the company’s values previously communicated at other touchpoints. This leads to emotional uncertainty and, in the worst case, a shitstorm. This inconsistency leads to a poor user experience on both an expectation and an emotional level.

The customer experience at the touchpoints has a direct influence on the perception of the brand. Touchpoints that are perceived as positive can be positive for brand building and vice versa.

There will never be a company in the world that can design all touchpoints to be outstanding. That is why it is important to identify the touchpoints that are most critical to success as part of touchpoint and customer journey management in order to design and optimize them with focus.

The different levels for branding and the design of touchpoints

For brand development, it is important to place the brand in a context that is understandable and consistent for the user. This context has several levels.

1. The thematic level
2. The emotional level
3. The relationship level
4. The functional level

The thematic level

To become a thematic authority in the minds of users requires a thematic classification of the brand. Especially for B2B companies or providers of expensive and/or complex services and products, this level plays a special role alongside the relationship level.
The user must understand in which thematic areas my brand can be classified as relevant. Cooccurrences, i.e. the repeated mention of my brand in connection with terms of a certain topic, play a major role here. The more frequently your own brand is mentioned in connection with the respective thematic contexts or their typical terms, the more authority is attributed to the brand in the thematic areas. This can also be referred to as thematic positioning.
Cooccurrences are measurable and therefore useful signals, especially for the algorithm-supported identification of thematic authorities or brands, e.g. in search engines such as Google.

The emotional level

The emotional level plays a key role in marketing when it comes to purchasing decisions, no question.  I see this in a slightly more differentiated way and would want to differentiate between the three levels according to the product or service in terms of their respective contribution to the purchase decision.
The emotional level is strongly determined by the appearance, feel and other audiovisual characteristics of the touchpoint. However, it is also a very individual perception.

The relationship level

Proximity to other brands, be it companies or personal brands such as influencers, plays an important role in brand building. The relationship with other brands strengthens the user’s trust in their own brand. It is an affirmation and strengthens the relationship or bond. This level is therefore an amplifier of the effects that have arisen from the other levels.
Signals for the relationship level can also be used by algorithms to identify a brand.
However, the relationship with representatives of the brand such as service and sales employees or other human contact points also influence the customer experience and therefore the perception of a brand.

The functional level

The user-friendliness and thus the user experience, also known as the customer experience, is also influenced by the functionality of a possible touchpoint. An outstanding functional UX when using a service or product is an important prerequisite for customer loyalty.
However, touchpoints in the pre-purchase phase, e.g. when completing a contact offer, the conclusion of an initial consultation, the use of applications and content in the context of new customer acquisition, such as accessibility, are also important. Mobile-friendliness and loading time of a website should offer an outstanding functional user experience.

Characteristics and key figures of a brand

Applied to the Internet, websites or domains can be assigned important characteristics as the central digital image of a brand. A digital brand can be recognized by the fact that the brand website is more popular than the average of other websites in the subject area / industry. Key figures for above-average popularity can be, for example, the following:

• Number of visitors
• Number of new visitors
• Search volume for brand terms
• Search volume of navigation-oriented search terms in relation to the domain and brand
• Social spread, social buzz, visibility in social networks

Another important characteristic of brands as well as authorities is customer retention and loyalty. Loyalty metrics can be

• average length of stay
• bounce rate
• Percentage of returning visitors

Probably the most important characteristic of a brand and authority is the reputation and trust placed in it, which can be evaluated using the following external reputation indicators:

• Co-currencies and co-citations
• Brand mentions and links

Another sign of trust in a brand or website are key figures that show the level of interaction. The following engagement metrics can be used for this purpose:

• completion rates
• Other interactions with the website such as downloads, comments, etc.
• Relationship with other brands, authorities and influencers
• Number of page views (page impressions)

Of course, completion rates always have something to do with conversion and usability optimization measures, but engagement also always has something to do with trust in a website and therefore also the brand.

Tools and methods for measuring brand development

There are various methods for tracking the success of your own brand development. Various Google tools in particular provide a good indication of how popular, thematically positioned and networked a brand is.

Google Trends

Google Trends can be used to track the development of brand demand. Here, for example, is the development of demand for the car brands VW, Mercedes and Toyota in recent years:

However, Google Trends is only suitable for brands that already have a certain popularity, as otherwise no data is output.

Keyword Planner

In the article Why E-A-T is so important for the ranking and how to optimize E-A-T, I explained a method for determining the thematic authority of a domain, i.e. the digital image of a brand, with the help of the Keyword Planner. This method is not only interesting for SEOs, but also for brand managers, as you can recognize in which thematic context your brand is googled or with which terms your brand is searched for in co-competition.
This method can also be used for the competition.
If you call up keyword suggestions in the Keyword Planner using the “Start with a website” function, the following picture emerges using zalando.de as an example:
The keywords are sorted according to a relevance undefined by Google. If you check the keywords in terms of ranking, it becomes clear that Zalando ranks in top positions for almost all of these keywords. There appears to be a thematic authority or close proximity to certain topics and other entities.

Google Search Console

In the “Performance” report in the Search Console, you can view the “Brand performance” over time for the last 16 months at most. This is particularly interesting when looking at current or recently completed branding campaigns. Simply call up the Performance report, select the desired time frame and select your own brand as the search query. In addition to the exact amount of search volume per brand term in the form of impressions, the progression over time is also interesting. A marketing campaign, whether offline or online, should show effects here.

Google Alerts

Brand mentions can be monitored online via Google Alerts. Simply create an alert for your own brand and you will be informed by email as soon as your brand is mentioned.

Media monitoring tools

Media monitoring tools are a paid alternative to Google Alerts.

Google Analytics

Web analytics tools such as Google Analytics are suitable for measuring engagement with the touchpoints on your own website. At the end of this article you will find a free Google Analytics dashboard that I have created for free use, which I will update from time to time.

Related search queries on Google and Google Suggest

Similar to the keyword planner, the related search queries in Google and Google Suggest are suitable for keeping an eye on thematic co-occurrences with your own brand. The related search queries for my personal brand provide a realistic picture of my positioning. You can find these at the bottom of the first search results page or when you type in a search query.

Breaking down silos for consistently outstanding touchpoints for branding

As in the article Marketing we have a problem! Silos and missing interfaces prevent modern corporate communication Silos in most companies still prevent the consistent design and linking of touchpoints in terms of branding. Touchpoints often differ in terms of emotional, functional and thematic levels as well as user experience and prevent the perception of a uniformly positive brand image.
Companies need structures that enable at least the most important touchpoints within the customer journey to be designed consistently and linked with each other in a meaningful way.
The customer journey phases can also serve as a basis for structuring a company. For example, the specialist departments can be sorted in the hierarchy below a management level according to the individual customer journey phases.

Or break down silos at the implementation level and enable better collaboration in the design of touchpoints.

Digital brand building along the customer journey at the heart of modern (online) marketing

I am certain that brand building or branding is the central topic in online marketing. The most important success factor for a company is the positive perception of the brand offline and online, both with the target groups and with the most important digital gatekeepers and their evaluation algorithms.

First and foremost, building a digital brand or online branding no longer works via reach-oriented push advertising as it used to. Push advertising is only able to build real relationships to a limited extent.

Brand awareness via this form of marketing has declined significantly, especially on the internet.

Relationship-building and strengthening touchpoints along the customer journey or user journey are primarily touchpoints such as content, contact with employees in sales, service … and the user experience with the offer/product. Push advertising can provide support in the right temporal and local context. The customer journey as a central strategic model helps to locate these touchpoints.
These success-critical touchpoints are best developed initially for each target group in customer journey management workshops.

Building a digital brand is becoming a critical success factor and is also moving to the center of online marketing, where previously only performance marketing stood.

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About Olaf Kopp

Olaf Kopp is Co-Founder, Chief Business Development Officer (CBDO) and Head of SEO & Content at Aufgesang GmbH. He is an internationally recognized industry expert in semantic SEO, E-E-A-T, modern search engine technology, content marketing and customer journey management. As an author, Olaf Kopp writes for national and international magazines such as Search Engine Land, t3n, Website Boosting, Hubspot, Sistrix, Oncrawl, Searchmetrics, Upload … . In 2022 he was Top contributor for Search Engine Land. His blog is one of the most famous online marketing blogs in Germany. In addition, Olaf Kopp is a speaker for SEO and content marketing SMX, CMCx, OMT, OMX, Campixx...

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