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You are here » Home » News » Blog » Read this before you throw your website out with the bath water…

Read this before you throw your website out with the bath water…

It was inevitable that the question would come up as to whether a brand website has any place in the hurly-burly world of social media conversations and engagements. When uber-brands such as Coke, Nike and Adidas start directing consumers to their social media sand pits rather than to their dotcoms, it’s time to do the same, right?

Or maybe not.

Apart from the obvious benefits of a brand web site that have already been discussed by industry commentators, I believe there is another enormously compelling reason for hanging on to your website for a bit longer: meaningful analytics.

Is social media a lot of hot air?

There’s already been extensive discussion that brand website provides credibility and an anchor for your brand. It’s the home of your prospect and customer databases and sets the tone for your brand online. And let’s not forget about all that juicy original content and the all-important organic search rankings you have cultivated.

But what has been mentioned less is this: while something like a Facebook fan page may be great for building a community around your brand, very little actual meaningful activity, such as a purchase, takes place on Facebook or other social media platforms. And even from a pure brand awareness point of view, it is so easy to click “like” on a Facebook page and then never think of the brand again when all the fan page updates get lost in the endless noise of your news feed.

A topical example of the value (or lack thereof) of social media brand fans is the recent Old Spice social media campaign. With a string of awards; more than 800,000 Facebook fans; almost 115,000 Twitter followers; and a massive 135 million YouTube views to its name, it is held up as being one of the most successful social media campaigns of all time. But without seeing supporting sales figures from the brand’s owner, Procter and Gamble, can we really consider this to be a successful social media marketing campaign? Was there actually an increase in sales and if so, how attributable is that to social media – and what parts did viral marketing and word of mouth play? Just how loyal are the millions of people who engaged with the campaign when it came down to parting with their cash? We need to start judging social media campaigns in the same way as we judge any marketing campaign: do they drive sales?

Focus on where sales take place

Which brings me back to my original point. Sales take place on websites, over the phone and in real life stores. Not on social media platforms, no matter how bleeding edge they might be.

So absolutely - do engage with your audience on whichever social media platforms are relevant at various stages of the buying process. But don’t forget to bring them into the fold, in the form of your brand web site, when the time is right to convert them to a paying customer. And unlike on Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare and whatever else the flavour of the month may be, on your own site you’ll have a heap of customer data to make the conversion process more efficient and effective.

Understanding customer behaviour – and using it to increase conversions

For instance, if someone joins your Facebook page you have no way of knowing how they got there, and what specifically interests them about your brand. On the other hand, if someone browses your website, you know how they got there and what they are interested in. Indeed, if the visitor is a returning customer, you even have a track record of what they have looked at before, and may even know that their car warranty is about to expire and that they may be in the market for a new vehicle.

Likewise, if someone “unlikes” your Facebook page you have no idea why, and have no way of asking for a second chance. But if someone abandons their online shopping cart on your website just before payment, you have enough information to contact them with targeted, personalised information and potentially win back the business.

So who wins in the social media vs. website standoff?

While this discussion might seem to be questioning the value of social media, that is not the case. Social media can provide powerful help in improving the selling power of your site. We all know consumers don’t want to be preached to by a brand, and pay more attention to what their friends say about a product that what the brand’s owner says. Make this work in your favour by displaying comments and reviews from social media platforms on your site. Most social media sites make this a relatively easy thing to do.

The fact of the matter is that you need to be everywhere at once, but you have to know why and have a clear objective for each platform. Another fact of marketing life is that although you don’t own your brand’s reputation (that’s in the hands of your customers these days), you still need to be responsible for it and give it a primary home in the shape of your brand website. And finally, don’t let the shiny new kid on the block distract you from the wealth of customer data and behaviour you have at your fingertips, with which you can make real-life, actual sales.