Do you have the right online brand protection strategy in place for 2012?
Now is the time for you to get proactive on developing a solid online brand protection strategy that will safeguard marketing investments, revenues, and most importantly, customer trust for 2012.
1. Protect your digital content.
The proliferation of mobile devices fuels increased digital content consumption. The result is content assets are at risk for almost every business category. Every brand has digital content and, for some brands, it’s their lifeblood. As more and more content becomes digital content, every company should have a strategy in place for protecting it.
2. Follow the traffic.
The amount of online abuse targeting a brand can be overwhelming. A simple and effective way to prioritize abuses for action is by looking at the traffic volume for infringing sites. Focusing on those sites which receive the most traffic is one of the best ways to maximize impact for your efforts.
3. Measure ROI.
The Internet is inherently measurable and smart brands measure the success of their brand protection strategies. Brand protection programs are often in competition with other internal investments, so it’s important to assess the financial impact of your efforts. In addition, you’ll want to track and report on key performance indicators such as de-listings, recovered traffic, domains removed and overall compliance rates.
4. Prepare to review new gTLD applications.
2012 will usher in significant changes to the Internet with the advent of new gTLDs, or dot brands. Regardless of whether your company is planning to apply for its own proprietary gTLD, you should be prepared to review all submitted applications when they are publicly posted to the ICANN website. Brands will have seven months to file any objections with WIPO.
5. Rationalize your domain portfolio.
With hundreds of new gTLD extensions anticipated, now more than ever, companies should take a hard look at their defensive holdings and ask themselves whether or not they need all of their registrations. The single most important factor in making decisions about what to keep or drop comes down to traffic. Understanding just how much traffic is being generated by defensive registrations is essential for rationalizing portfolios, adding domains where needed or dropping domains with little or no traffic.
6. Monitor affiliates and online resellers.
Affiliates and resellers are productive partners that increase brand exposure and help drive sales, but any good affiliate or channel program must be monitored. Misguided partners can bid against brands on their most productive keywords, siphoning away high-value traffic and leading to unnecessary commission payments. Brands should clearly communicate their online advertising policies, monitor for non-compliance and address any misuse.
7. Escalate enforcement measures for cost-effective results.
There is no silver bullet for taking down infringing sites or content. The best approach for dealing with online abuse is to layer your enforcement measures, starting with low-cost, low-touch options and then escalating problem cases to more resource intensive options. The result: the greatest impact at the most reasonable cost.
8. Continue to monitor social media. It’s only getting more popular.
The number of social network and blog sites only continues to grow, along with how much time Internet users spend on these sites. Not surprisingly, brand abuse on social media is growing too, especially in the area of brand impersonation and ‘namesquatting.’ As such, it’s critical for brands to protect their identity on these sites and to continuously monitor and respond to infringing content and suspicious links.
9. Don’t go it alone, involve your colleagues.
Brand abuse is not a legal problem or an IT problem, but a business problem. Its impact is felt across the entire organization—from siphoned revenues and diminished marketing ROI to increased customer service costs. Be sure to involve departments that have a stake in the health of your brand—such as eCommerce, marketing, channel management, customer service and corporate security.
10. Leverage third-party brand protection expertise.
As Brand Protection is an emerging practice in the digital world, it’s not uncommon for large global brands to lack dedicated, expert resources internally. Smart brands leverage third-party expertise and resources to develop and execute the right brand protection strategy for their organization.
From a white paper by MarkMonitor
