Had to write a quick post about a post saying Branding is Dead; Long live SEO. The argument behind it is that people are now searching for the product/service they want and then follow the search results. Therefore it is assumed branding isn’t such an issue any more as people will follow the links listed highest on the search engine even if this isn’t for the actual branded company.

To me this is totally back to front. SEO is only a tool in my opinion. A very powerful tool especially when it come to that of brand awareness but a tool none the less. Branding is important online and offline but you can’t have one without the other.

So no branding is not dead, it’s fit and alive. I can’t deny that SEO however is increasingly important to protect a brand online.

I spotted an interesting article today that references a study that relates online advertising to offline results. It’s pretty obvious that the effects of advertising online aren’t going to relate to results just online however I don’t think I’ve actually seen any figures relating to this.

So then now we know the following about online advertising:

• Online results are easily measurable.
• >80% of transactions initiated online are completed offline.
• The new study found an 3 month online advertising campaign increased online sale 40% and offline sales 50%!
• Online advertising increases brand recognition.
• Online advertising doesn’t clog up my letterbox.