What is brand monitoring?
As people get to know your business better, they will talk about it in various media.
Brand monitoring is the act of examining these channels to see where and when your brand is mentioned.
Media examples include:
Social Media Platforms
Search Engines
Online Review Sites (Yelp, Google Reviews, etc.)
News Sites
You can usually search for the name of your company and find mentions or references instantly.
You may need to dig deeper on certain channels, like news websites.
Why is Brand Monitoring Important?
Brand monitoring gives you valuable insights into what customers think about your business.
It is useful to know what people think about your brand for several reasons.
Customer satisfaction
Are your customers satisfied with your products and service? What are the most common complaints?
You can avoid negative reviews by addressing the problems that people keep mentioning.
Brand Loyalty
Consumers are more likely to remain loyal to a brand they connect with if they have a strong connection to it.
Brand monitoring helps you find new fans and convert them into ambassadors.
Damage Control
You want to be ahead of any crisis that may affect your brand.
Brand monitoring helps you identify any issues that may arise and take action before they spiral out of control.
When does brand monitoring matter?
It would be best if you always were on the lookout for new opportunities to improve your brand.
You can create a schedule to check the mentions of your brand on different websites, blogs, and social media platforms.
By scanning these channels on a regular basis, you can avoid being surprised.
Some of the most critical moments to monitor a brand include:
New Product Launch
What are your customers saying about your product or service? You may have missed some issues before the launch.
New Market Expansion
You can monitor the reception of your brand in real-time when you enter a new market.
Press Releases and Announcements
You can use big company news to create buzz about your business.
How to Monitor Your Brand Effectively
Understanding the importance of brand monitoring only represents the first step. It would be best if you learned how to monitor brands effectively.
Here are some tips for a successful process.
1. Automated Alerts
Later, we’ll discuss specific tools that can alert you when your brand is mentioned on the Internet.
It is much easier to keep track of things when you have automatic notifications.
Alerts allow you to anticipate potential problems before they occur.
2. Create a Brand Monitoring Plan
It is only useful if you use the information.
Be sure to include action lists in your strategy for each opportunity.
If you see a complaint from a client, for example, you could ask someone in the sales or support team to reach out and offer a solution.
You can thank the person directly, or you can ask for their review to be used in your marketing material.
3. Do not respond to everything
It’s simple to interact with anyone who mentions your business if your brand is relatively new.
As you grow, it becomes increasingly difficult to reply to all situations. In some instances, saying anything may be inappropriate or insensitive.
Some people will leave bad reviews to receive free items. It’s important to know how to play the game.
4. Search for misspellings, variations, and other errors
Remember that your brand name may not be used correctly when searching for mentions.
Users may misspell words or leave out certain words (i.e., The).
By checking for these variations, you can be sure that nothing is missed.
What about monitoring the competition?
Competition research is one of the most important elements of any strategy.
How can you know where you stand with your customers if you don’t even know what your competitors do?
You can use brand monitoring tools to find similar brands and businesses.
This can provide you with valuable insights into what they are doing right and incorrectly and how you can surpass them.
It is important to look at your competition for several reasons.
Spotting Market Trends
Adaptability is key to staying ahead of the competition in any industry.
You don’t want your business to be caught in the middle of a sudden and dramatic shift in consumer tastes.
You can learn a lot by looking at the mentions of your competitors.
Targeted marketing campaigns
You can improve your marketing strategy by analyzing what mistakes are being made by competitors.
You can highlight your features and benefits over those of the competitors.
What Brand Monitoring Tools should you consider?
Technology makes it simple to find out what others are saying online about your brand. You would otherwise need to hire a full-time staff member to search the Internet.