This week, chances are you’ve visited a supermarket. Most likely Tesco, Asda, Sainsburys or Morrisons. There are others, but as of February 2013, these 4 comprise three quarters of the UK food retail market. From 2011-2012, the revenue generated from these four brands alone accounted for over £122 billion pounds.
With the news that Morrisons has decided to put its considerable £73 million pound advertising budget up for pitch, our point of view is that they really need to allocate a great deal of this to improving their online presence.
Diamond in the rough
Many brands are making their stamp online, like Asda. However, it seems that Morrisons hasn’t really made the transition as easily as others. Remember, of the big four, they have the smallest generated revenue and the smallest market share. This means that having a large internet presence would be beneficial.
Through research however, we can see that Morrisons is sadly a less visible online entity when compared to the other three brands in terms of IP links, social shares, keyword reach and estimated visitors.
Here’s front runner Tesco…
As you can see, they have great keyword reach and a high number of visitors. Even Asda and Sainsburys have clout when it comes to online presence compared to Morrisons.
Asda…
Sainsburys…
And now Morrisons…oh.
Well that is discouraging. But let’s take a look at how Google views the overall link profiles of each brand site. Surely Morrisons have got to be leading somewhere.
Oh, right….
So what it the problem here?
Well, it’s clear they are taking great strides offline. Their successful campaign in having Ant & Dec cut through your Saturday night viewing like a warm knife through butter has meant that they are set to open another 100 stores over 2013-14.
But it’s also clear they need to take their fight to the web, which is ironic because, whilst offline expansion is being touted by Morrisons as “Stores of the Future”, they are still very much living in the past when it comes to online presence.
A numbers game
The surprising thing is it’s not like Morrisons isn’t even doing anything particularly wrong when it comes to online visibility, it’s simply the matter that they are not doing enough.
The links they do have are of good quality. But the numbers are not as high as they could be. The other brands are not finding the right balance, where Morrisons are on the right path, but they don’t have the scale just yet.
Whilst the others are way off the path, you can see Morrisons are pretty much on trend.
What is interesting to note is that our reports show the supermarket industry does have a high level of strength online when it comes to branded links compared to non-branded. That is a clear indication of the strength of the brand name offline enhancing online visibility.
Here’s Morrisons own branded link strength…
Be impressed. Currently, 85% of Morrisons links are branded. This is a very good thing as they have an existing foundation on which to build a successful online campaign.
This is because they are so good at building brand awareness offline. It simply makes sense that they need to direct that strength towards web presence now.
It’s said you can only know where you are going once you know where you’ve been. When it comes to keyword reach and social presence….
Hello Morrisons….
They’ve been nowhere. They haven’t really done anything.
Keyword reach is dominated by Tesco. They have better quality content on their site and better links than the other three. What is frightening is just how small the keyword reach of Morrisons is.
You can attribute this to the current structure of their site, which is much more informational, rather than e-commerce based.
Same again for social. Overall engagement with the Morrisons brand is negligible. As comparison, Sainsburys has a phenomenal social media presence, indicating they actively engage with their customers on a regular basis.
Offline, Morrisons are great, but this clearly isn’t being reflected socially online.
Our Point of View (aka ‘What we think Morrisons should do with some of their budget.’)
Although Morrisons has announced plans to enter the online grocery market by 2014, there are things that can be implemented now so they are not miles behind the pack:
Links
Focus on building a high quality link profile. With a strong foundation already in place, they just need to work on proving they are just as big online as they are off.
Content
A vital aspect. Morrisons need lots of unique, informative and engaging content. And then a lot more. If you’re wondering why brands such as Tesco have amazing keyword reach, it’s because they have built themselves into an online lifestyle brand. This includes content on health, family life, home and food etc….
Social
Get serious about social media. Allocate some of that marketing spend into implementing a great social campaign if Morrisons truly want to compete with the big hitters like Sainsburys in this area.
We’d love to hear thoughts on how Morrisons should progress. Especially from Morrisons. Feel free to comment at [email protected]
{Images courtesy of Neil Walker Digital & www.freakyts.com}