Everywhere-Brand: Brands need to be present beyond website and app

A brand's website has become obsolete as the only information medium for consumers. Users prefer to search for information about local stores directly via a search engine, in their favorite social network or on special review platforms. Brands must therefore become an Everywhere Brand and publish their digital knowledge*, i.e. all publicly accessible company information on products, store locations and employees, on all external online platforms beyond their own channels. Only when brands provide consumers with consistent and correct information at every touchpoint can they ensure a stringent brand experience and more sales both online and offline.

Seven characteristics that a brand should develop in order to become an Everywhere Brand:

1. customer orientation

The Everywhere brand works tirelessly at every touchpoint to satisfy the customer and increase sales. This is only possible if marketers put themselves in the consumer's shoes. Marketers test what the customer learns about the brand across all devices and services. They carry out "near me" searches on Google. They ask voice assistants such as Alexa, Siri and others about the brand's products and locations. This gives them a feel for how the digital information about the brand needs to be created and managed.

2. activity

The Everywhere brand always retains control over its public information. Keeping this information up to date manually everywhere on the Internet is complex and time-consuming. Incorrect information frustrates customers and has a negative impact on business. The Everywhere brand therefore actively identifies and corrects incorrect information on its own digital presence and relevant third-party services. Many services such as Google, Facebook or Yelp also allow users to overwrite the information provided by companies - without checking the accuracy of the information. The Everywhere brand immediately checks such user suggestions for accuracy.

3. organization

The Everywhere Brand is well organized. It works to establish a "single source of truth" for the company's digital knowledge in order to eliminate poor data quality, duplicates and administrative conflicts. To this end, representatives from various company departments such as marketing, IT, store operations, product management and legal come together. They define a process for optimally updating digital knowledge via intelligent services, internal systems, company websites and apps. The starting point for updating and synchronizing data should be a central platform that acts as a single data source and feeds all other systems.

4. trading in real time

The Everywhere brand provides its customers with real-time information about the range of services when and where they are needed. If a bank branch is closed due to a public holiday, this information should be available online everywhere. But unforeseeable events also require the brand to act in real time, such as changes to opening hours due to bad weather, a closed company or illness.

5. granularity

The Everywhere brand provides its company-related information in granular, structured data. This is the only way to ensure that search engines and other intelligent services can read the information correctly and classify it as a relevant response to a user's search query. With the increasing importance of voice search, much more granular data is needed. After all, if a consumer asks a digital voice assistant for a pizza baker in the city that offers wholemeal dough, the user will no longer receive ten blue links from which they have to choose themselves, but just a single answer from Siri or Co.

6. responsiveness

The Everywhere brand values personal interaction with its customers, asks for honest reviews and responds to negative customer feedback. Review management is important because reviews from various platforms are now prominently displayed in search results. The latest innovation: Google's organic search results now also include first-party reviews that come directly from the company website or app. The Everywhere brand pursues review management strategically and uses all customer feedback to improve the customer experience.

7. innovation

The Everywhere brand observes trends and tries out new technologies to decide how they can be used for its own brand communication. Artificial intelligence, machine learning and voice assistants will significantly change consumers' information and search behavior. The Everywhere brand grows with the new technologies, adapts its strategies and has the courage to innovate.

In the current Yext whitepaper "The Everywhere Brand: How brands manage to be present beyond website and app", all of the above points are explained in detail. The whitepaper is available for download against contact details at: Offers.yext.com/everywhere-brand-wp-en-1.

*Digital knowledge" refers to all publicly accessible facts and information about a company, its employees, products, locations or events. In addition to addresses, opening hours and telephone numbers, this can also include the names of various contact persons, images, references or office hours, depending on the company's sector. Digital knowledge can also include information on availability, price, location, promotions at the point of sale or the ingredients of certain products.

About Yext

The Yext Knowledge Engine enables companies worldwide to manage their digital knowledge and synchronize it with over 100 platforms, including Apple Maps, Microsoft Bing, Facebook, Google Maps, Instagram, Siri and Yelp. Yext Listings, Pages and Reviews products help businesses drive personal and digital interactions to increase brand awareness, generate footfall and increase sales. In Europe, Yext currently has offices in Berlin and London and also has branches in New York City, Chicago, Dallas and Washington D.C.