Customers do not believe in brands any more, they believe in what others customers say about brands.

The new rules of marketing stand for:

• Value associated with experiences
• Dialogue instead of advertising
• Active dialogue with customers and communities
• Brand advocates with active participation
• High levels of customers engagement

A digital brand must:

• Understand customer’s digital needs and behaviors
• Bring the power of real-time data to drive business oriented decisions
• Understand the who?, what?, why?, where?, how? and when?
• Offer the opportunity to connect and interact
• Tailor value proposition according to its customers
• Have a clear content marketing strategy
• Deliver one unique brand experience across different platforms

From Wikipedia, we can read: The Cluetrain Manifesto written by four visionaries that in 1999 predicted the internet would evolve to a point where the consumer holds the “power” and no longer could the corporate world continue to communicate to their markets (the people they wish to interact with) in a push marketing or broadcast manner.

Companies must first understand what their brand stands for on all levels and then decide how to best communicate those core brand values online.

Top considerations:

Targeting: you have to understand and define the who. the better you understand your target customers, the more likely it is that they will find your value proposition relevant and useful.

Social media: engage and then have a constant dialogue with you audience. you want to take your customers through a digital experience that is so remarkable and satisfying that they will want to share it to their friends

Search Engine Optimisation: you are what you publish. Many companies make the mistake of not including SEO in their marketing strategy. Research shows 42% click the first listing and 74% of the results clicked are in the top 5 positions. SEO shows to provide the best ROI over all other forms of online marketing.

If you want to review a great beginners guide to SEO read the beginners guide to seo prepared by seomoz.