Swamp Head Brewery - Website Analysis

To follow up on my post from last week, I'm analyzing Swamp Head's website and how they incorporate brand consistency within this particular platform.

I find their website has leveraged a nice blend of push and pull marketing techniques. While on their homepage (and with minimal clicks), you are able to access their list of beers, get information about the brewery and find the latest posts to their company blog, "Swamplog."

There is obviously a lot of push happening on the website. The amount of information you can derive is almost overwhelming. An example of how the website allows push and pull to happen simultaneously can be found on their list of brews in the tasting room. The consumer gets multiple things at once - displayed information about the products and pricing (push). Meanwhile, the map in the corner, operating hours and address provides the information the consumer needs in deciding whether to make the trip to the brewery (pull). Combining push and pull in this way "reinforces key branding and retailer objectives" (S2 Customer Insight Blog).

It's interesting how they also use the site as a touchpoint for e-commerce. On the same page as their brew list, you can find out about purchasing Swamp Head merchandise like t-shirts and hats.

The content on the website is fresh. It lists their latest blog posts and upcoming Swamp Head events they'll be attending, sponsoring, and serving their craft beer. Within their blog content, they include share buttons, but an RSS feed option is not available. This leads me to believe that their blog updates are not as consistent as they are on other social media channels. They include outbound links, but there is a lack of categories and labels being used to assist in finding similar posts in their archive. With a quick Google search, I did find a Wordpress blog by the same name, but the content on the Wordpress blog was inconsistent to the Swamplog that's made available on their website (the last post was in March). Although there is a follow button available, no categories or labels are used. This explains why the Wordpress blog was found on page two of the Google search. A little help with keywords in either blogging platform could fine-tune SEO and help them show up for the right search terms. Since blogs are a great tool for pull marketing, I would especially like to see them improve in this area.

I was initially concerned about how mobile-friendly the website would be because of all the information that is packed on the full site. Luckily, the mobile site is very user-friendly. It allows for easy navigation, integrating scrolling features and swiping options throughout (see photos below). There were more photos than text which is always helpful with shorter attention spans, and they provided easily-digested answers to consumers' questions. You can access all of the same information and social buttons as you could on the full-site, too. 

One feature I touched on in my previous post, is Swamp Head's brand consistency throughout their design and social media content. According to the Brand Consistency for Website Navigation, Social Media and SEO slideshare, incorporating brand consistency means they're working toward an honest identity and being consistent with that identity. The desire for consistency in customer service, product quality and marketing practices is apparent from the owner, Luke Kemper, in this interview where he attributes success to "running a business that is ethical." He says, "...[when you] treat people fairly and try to do the right thing, people notice." His mindset and passion for brewing a high quality beer set the tone and personality that comes across in the brand on their website and other platforms. 

If there's anything that I learned from this analysis it's that no matter how great their social media engagement is, Swamp Head still has areas that can be improved upon. Its push and pull marketing techniques help visitors find valuable content on their website and contribute to their branding. Their website's navigation, consistency in information across its blog(s) and website, and SEO keywords could all be fine-tuned to make them more visible in the right places. 

Sources:
S2 Customer Insight Blog: Push and Pull Maketing (graphic). (n.d.). S2 Customer Insight Blog. http://s2customerinsight.com/blog/push-and-pull-marketing/

Brand Consistency for Website Navigation, Social Media and SEO. (2011, July 26). Brand Consistency for Website Navigation, Social Media and SEO.  http://www.slideshare.net/lizhenderlong/brand-consistency-for-website-navigation-social-media-and-seo

Richardson, W. (2013, March 19). Luke Kemper - All About Beer. All About Beer. http://allaboutbeer.com/luke-kemper/