Part 2: Dominate the shelf space
Now in part 1 we talked about the reasons why it’s important to own a relationship with your end-consumer directly. Quite simply, it fuels your future growth in a way you have direct control over. It doesn’t leave your future success to chance and it doesn’t put you at the mercy of your retailers, Amazon or marketplaces to do your brand justice.
In this second part, we’re going to share with you a key element of your marketing mix that will help you own those customer relationships more directly.
In an interview Nestle Waters’ CMO Antonio Sciuto did with Google, he said this about their digital marketing approach:
“We need to think about search with the same obsession that we think about our store shelving. It’s exactly the same.”
Now I’m not sure about you, but I don’t think innovation when I think about Nestle Waters. But here we are. This quote rings true more so now than it did in 2017. Just as a brand wins at retail by dominating the store shelf space, brands need to win online by dominating the search results page - it’s exactly the same.
Now over our years of experience building lifestyle brands through digital, one thing has stayed true: the sheer amount of traffic search marketing can drive cannot be ignored. Search drives, on average, 50% of a website’s traffic.
So in order to successfully own the relationship with your end-consumers directly, you need to make sure they can find you in the first place. It’s not enough to rank #1 organically. It’s also not enough to hold the top spot in the ad space. Those are great starting points and if you’re not doing search as part of your mix currently, definitely start there. But don’t end there. Dominate that search page with your video content, your blog, your social properties, your influencers and affiliates, rich snippets, and answer box optimization. You win, your retailers win, and your marketplaces win because you’ve pushed competitors to page 2… and nobody visits page 2.
Once you’ve acquired this traffic, you need to take it a step further to truly own the customer relationship. In the last part of our 3-part series, we’ll discuss how to build the customer relationship, what to talk about when you don’t have anything to say, and how to reach consumers where they are.
Stay tuned for the epic conclusion, and in the meantime, enter your info below to receive our FREE guide of 17+ actionable promotions you can implement to increase your brand’s revenue and profit margins (no discounts needed!).
