I could think of two, maybe three. This topic made me question the true value of marketing, and how positive marketing plays a role in branding, especially in the online space. How do you develop a brand that consumers find true value in, and what efforts does it take to get there?

For starters, The Center for Positive Marketing defines elaborate, positive marketing is a mutually beneficial relationship between marketers, customers and anyone affected by the marketing efforts.  Simple enough.

Positive marketing aims to keep the consumers’ lives in focus, while maximizing the impact a brand has on the consumers in a meaningful way. The use of positive marketing has a substantial effect on the consumer, the marketer, and society, while also having a positive correlation to a firm’s bottom-line.

As a digital marketer, I could not help but to relate this concept to the online space. How can we effectively leverage positive marketing in the digital world?  Here are a few key factors that I consider to be crucial in building positive marketing efforts online.

Go positive online: six suggestions

1. Ensure a seamless user experience.
Consumers prefer simplicity. An online experience needs to be easy. Beyond the importance of a general online presence, it’s imperative to optimize your website. This means across all browsers, including mobile platforms. In many instances, a website is the first impression a user will have of a company. An experiential site will make users more psychologically engaged with the brand, often resulting in a positive connection.

2. Show customers you value them as individuals.
The relationship between consumer and brand needs to be a two-way street. It’s important to reiterate that you value your individual customers whether it is through responsive customer service, a customer-centric campaign, or even a ‘thank you’. These efforts will not go unnoticed.

A great example is Wal-Mart’s recently created localized Facebook pages for 3,500 of its stores.  The pages allows users to receive special offers from their local Wal-Mart, helping the large corporation build a more personalized relationship with its customers.

3. Make Them Smile.
The power of happiness should not go unrealized by marketers.  It is no surprise that positive messaging often has a more positive reaction by consumers. From making a consumer laugh to making them feel good about themselves or others, they will associate this feeling with your brand.

4. Make Your Brand Matter.
Having a product or service that meets the basic needs of a consumer will result in a more positive association with that brand. When possible, try to address your consumers’ basic needs in your positive marketing efforts. If your product or service improves the lives of the consumer, show them how.  Nothing is more powerful than a brand that makes a consumer’s life better. Ask yourself how you can make your brand relative and important in the daily life of the consumer directly through the online space.

5. Always Ensure Consumer Protection and Trust.
In the digital age people are losing trust in brands. From recent email database breaches to spam and viruses, and even issues with types of online payments, it is important to ensure that brand and customers not be subjected to these types of  problems.

At Blue Fountain Media we have reiterated the need for credibility on landing pages and websites through items like using known and trusted affiliations, customer testimonials, and contact information, to name a few. Think about how you can build further trust in your brand, or how you might address it if there is a high-level issue.

6. Customer Service and Communication Are as Important as Ever.
With social media, email, and mobile growing faster than ever, communication among people is not slowing down. Stay in communication with your customers and also make sure it’s easy for them to reach you. Use social media channels to keep contact with consumers, by listening, responding, and sharing valuable news.

At the conference, David Neeleman, former CEO of JetBlue, expressed just how valuable he finds customer service in building a brand. In an industry known for low quality customer service, Neelman recognizes the importance of using social media in leveraging quality service. He explained that when launching an airport hub for his newly launched Azul Airlines, his social media team is one of the first business groups he contacts because of how quickly consumers will react to the news on social sites.

So Make It Happen
Having a positive effect on customers, let alone society, is not something that is going to happen overnight. However, the companies that provide a positive impact and use positive marketing to build their brand will more likely than not be the ones that flourish.  How can you be positive?

In a rational world, the Fortune 500 list, Fortune magazine’s list of the 500 highest-revenue companies in the US, would also be a list of the 500 most awesome websites. That’s not always the case;  every Friday we’ll be picking a company off the list and weighing in on their website, with everyone commenting on an aspect of the site, be it design, usability, search engine friendliness, etc.

To kick it off, last Friday we took a look at Walmart.com, which topped the 2008 list. Here are our first impressions:

Gabriel | Creative Director | Founder

“I think Wal-Mart’s website suits their stores and needs. The website itself doesn’t feel high-end, and maybe a little cheap. It is definitely user friendly, huge and feels impressive at first glance. But is it a pleasant shopping experience like Martha Stewart? I think not! It also lacks stickiness unless I am already looking to buy something.”

Roman | VP of Developement | Co-Founder

“From first impressions the site is very narrow, which makes it look busy and boxy. I also think the logo doesn’t stand out or pop; the banner on top stands out a lot more to me. I also don’t understand why the boxes towards the bottom of the page are a different width than the boxes on top of the page. They are narrower and it doesn’t look like a part of this website.

“Lastly, it’s very busy and it seems difficult to find the product that I’m looking for. They have way too many banners. They also have a lot of links in the footer. On the homepage, specifically with connect and share area, there is a lot of text that I think looks like they were just trying to fill up space, and the average user would not read.”

Lonnie | Designer

“Aesthetically the look and feel of the site is nice and consistent, but it feels very safe and maybe a bit boring. I do like the search and narrowing down layout for products, and how it shows a thumbnail, rating, facts of products, and availability options.

“I agree that this is a very accurate representation of what it feels like to be in a Wal-mart in the sense that I feel overwhelmed with products; products and categories of products within a huge and sprawling entity, which could lead to choice paralysis. I feel some consumers will navigate away from the site because there are too many choices.”

Alhan | Director of Marketing

“To start off, their homepage doesn’t have a single H1 tag. All Google sees on their homepage is a menu, an enormous menu. Moving on to their product pages, the first thing that Google sees is their advertisements and menu, which is optimized somewhat. They could make better use of CSS to push some of their content up higher over their menu.

There are category landing pages, but they have 4 different designs.  Some of the landing pages have flash banners with scrolling products and some only list products; it lacks consistency.

They could also make better use of internal linking, and many products aren’t linking with any anchor text. Some products that could be a great landing page for certain keywords on Google aren’t being optimized with H1 tags, which could lead to smaller sites stealing that traffic for those certain keywords.”