Many people approach internet marketing as direct mail marketing online without giving too much thought about their brand. But how important is branding to online sales?
Jason Bax Interviews John Lawson about branding.
Excerpt from Jason’s full 43min interview.
John Lawson is an urban accessories retailer who has sold millions of bandanas online using eBay, Amazon, Google pay-per-click and search engine optimization. In this interview excerpt, John shares:
- An easy way to understand branding
- And, why a positive brand is important if you want to generate online sales
{ 15 comments… read them below or add one }
Fabulous interview, Jason. Extremely valuable to anyone selling a product online. Thanks very much.
Thanks, Basil.
Yes, the Internet as a medium has matured and anyone who wants to step their game and scale their business should listen carefully to what Scott has to say about online media buying.
well, you’re obviously doing something right. Your blog came up #1 when I typed “internet marketing” for google blogs. kudos to you sir!
Michelle
Yes, that’s a challenging keyword to rank for, Michelle. It also demonstrates the value of an exact match domain name for the purposes getting top positions in the “Google machine.”
The keyword or branding in the domain is something I still wrestle with. Because I have a search engine optimization background I’m always tempted to buy the exact match keyword in the domain (IF you can still get it). And I own dozens of them. But for building a business, I know getting a catchy, memorable domain is probably just as important, if not more.
eg. OnlineJobSite.com vs Monster.com, CheapDomainNames.com vs GoDaddy.com
John owns and promotes 3rdPowerOultet.com not UrbanClothingAccessories.com and he’s doing pretty well.
So, as John discusses in the interview, there’s more to consider than just your Google ranking. And not everyone can own InternetMarketing.com, can they?
Bax
Michelle – we are fortunate to have very good SEO. It never happens by accident – it’s always hard work. We are working on a series of new blog posts on how to increase SEO. Please check back.
Thanks Basil. I ignored branding for years in favor of making the quick direct sale, but now I know you that your brand can not only help you sell, but as you well know, that brand can be worth a pretty penny to a larger company.
Your products or technology WILL change but your brand stands for something…and that has value too.
JASON Nice post man… this interview is help me a lot………..
Thanks, Jithin. Glad the info is helping you.
Stay tuned. More to come.
I think, the best branding ever has to come from the business owner; his/her character. Just look at apple – Steve Jobs really made it his brand. The brand was him.
My guess is branding will be the way things go due to most of the keyword domain names, such as the one you have now, are taken. My view on branding is that it’s good, It causes people in Marketing to build a reputable business (hopefully) rather than get the keyword domain, wham, bam, pay me Sam.
What’s really great is Google recognizes that too and if you search any given keyword you’ll see a good mix of both on the first page.
I just wonder what phrases and names will be left in 10 or so years……
Great post, thanks Jason! We’ll share this with our followers.
Great! Is there a specific topic you’d like us to cover, Blogging Panda?
I think Branding is importan, People are after images.
Great stuff John! That’s a very practical way to describe the real value of a brand – what people say about you when you’re not there. You know in this age of computers, a great way to build your brand online is by utilizing user-generated video in your marketing schemes. A nice video testimonial on your website coming straight from a customer or fan can be really convincing and makes all the difference.
Wow! What a powerful message and interview concerning branding. It is something that should not be overlooked. Thanks for this article. Definitely worth the watch.