The company that I focused on this week is Nike, finding the web analytic and SEO strategies used by the company for successful monitoring of visitor traffic and customers. Some of the questions I focused on were what tools or techniques does the company use, how does SEO play into the company’s success, what keywords are they using, both paid and organic, and on a personal-use level, how could the company improve their web analytics efforts? Nike has been a company that I have been using for years, mostly with their shoes and apparel, but diving deeper this week made me have even more profound respect for the corporation.
Tools/Techniques
“A laser-like-focus on collecting customer data to utilize it for predictive analysis is Nike’s new strategy” (Biwas, 2020).
Nike’s marketing strategy has largely focused on Big Data, and with Nike Direct, the business cuts out all intermediaries to contribute $10 billion in sales in 2018 with a projection to increase 60% by 2020 (Biwas, 2020). In mid-2017, Nike announced its Consumer Direct Offense Model, providing 2x innovation, 2x speed, and 2x direct connections with consumers (Biwas, 2020). The Direct-Consumer initiative provides a better consumer experience with target offers, products, and services, and the Nike app gives increases services to customers such as the Nike Plus rewards program that offers access to sports experts and personalized workouts (Biwas, 2020).
Nike cuts out all intermediaries by using a global direct-to-consumer model:
(Biwas, 2020)
Predictive Analysis
In 2019, Nike acquired a predictive analysis company called Celect, focusing on the Nike Plus membership because members spend 3 times more than guests on Nike.com (Boyd, 2019). By having memberships, Nike can acquire more data and process it to inform decisions in a reliable and innovative fashion (Boyd, 2019).
Uses of predictive analysis can aid in:
(Boyd, 2019)
Nike now claims themselves to be a technology company that uses predictive analytics for:
Using predictive analysis, Nike requires complete data sets, but it is hard to receive these unless the consumers are all using the Nike Plus membership (Boyd, 2019). A press release from the company stated, “The more you use Nike.com and the Nike apps, the better Nike can get to know you and serve you with promotions tailored to your interests and goals” (Boyd, 2019). Nike can then use this data to segment consumers by interests and lifestyles rather than solely demographics, and by analyzing the data, the in-store experience is affected as well. For example, machine learning algorithms find that LA consumers have a positive correlation between both high fashion and high sports affinity. Therefore, the Nike Store in Melrose refreshes its products every 2 weeks and stocks Nike Classic Cortez shoes since data shows that 1 out of every 50 purchases of the shoe were made near Hollywood (Boyd, 2019).
Nike is looking to provide a superior customer experience for their consumers, and by investing in both data science and the business-driven part that links the customer with the insights team, they are able to adapt and leverage customer data to create a stronger future (Barseghian, 2019).
SEO
Nike remains the top, most-recognized sporting footwear on the market by utilizing an extensive SEO strategy to compete with brands (Ly, n.d.)
Nike dominates the SEO marketing strategy by:
Since Nike is an international company, they must choose between a single top-level domain (TLD) or multiple TLDS (e.g., .com, .co.uk, .fr, .de, etc.) (Liversidge 2015). Nike uses the single TLD approach while Adidas uses the multiple TLD approach. The differences can be seen below:
(Liversidge, 2015)
Keywords
Using SEMrush, I was able to create a new project and analyze both the organic and paid keywords for Nike. According to SEMrush, the top competitors for Nike are Foot Locker, Finish Line, Hibbett, and Easy Bay (SEMrush, n.d.). Some of the top opportunities against competitors were:
Organic Keywords
SEMrush found 1.2 million keywords for Nike that generates 58 million organic traffic visits per month (SEMrush, n.d.). The most popular organic keyword for Nike is “Nike,” resulting in 6.89% of the traffic and 5 million searches per month (SEMrush, n.d.). Following in order are “Jordan,” “Nike Shoes,” “Nike Outlet,” “Air Force 1” and “Nike Air Max” (SEMrush, n.d.). Below is a list of the organic keywords in order:
(SEMrush, n.d.)
I wanted to know why Nike Air Force 1 was such a popular keyword, generating .98% of Nike’s traffic and receiving over 1.2 million searches each month. The shoes were released in 1982, almost 40 years ago, but have found a popular resurgence due to their retro style, remaining number 1 in the most purchased style of 2020, influencers sporting the shoes, and the versatility (Johns, 2020). Young, female users including Addison Rae, Ariana Grande, and Cameron Diaz can be seen wearing Air Force 1 sneaker, and Addison’s more than 60 million followers on TikTok see her dancing in customized versions (Johns, 2020).
(Johns, 2020)
Paid Keywords
Nike has significantly less paid keywords than organic keywords at only 3.4k paid keywords, but they generated 1.4 million traffic visits with an average monthly cost of $848.7k (SEMrush, n.d.). Again, the top paid keyword for Nike is “Nike,” with a volume of 5 million and a Cost-Per-Click (CPC) of $0.47 (SEMrush, n.d.). The other paid keywords can be seen below:
(SEMrush, n.d.)
It is interesting to see the use of both paid and organic keywords and the similarities between them. However, it is evident that Nike relies on both paid and organic keywords to generate visits to their website and in turn increase revenue.
Website Improvements
Looking at Nike’s website, I think they have done an excellent job as they are the leaders in their industry. Even if I wanted to look up Nike in Spanish, it easily relocates me to https://www.nike.com/es/ and allows me to update the language to Spanish. This is particularly useful with their international consumers, as well as appealing to those who speak other languages within the United States. They also feature their Nike Air Max right on their homepage which is beneficial since this is an extremely popular search. I found the website interface easy to use, and I can even search for items in the search bar up top. I believe that Nike tracks every click on their page to find exactly what customers are looking at most and optimize the user interface. Keeping a simple yet sleek design proves beneficial for the company, and I would not change anything about their current interface.
References
Barseghian, A. (2019, October 7). How Nike is using analytics to personalize their customer experience. Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2019/10/07/how-nike-is-using-analytics-to-personalize-their-customer-experience/?sh=342cd251611c
Biwas, S. (2020, April 18). Nike – just do it with data science and demand sensing. Digital Innovation and Transformation. https://digital.hbs.edu/platform-digit/submission/nike-just-do-it-with-data-science-and-demand-sensing/
Boyd, C. (2019, June 11). How Nike uses predictive analytics - The Startup. Medium. https://medium.com/swlh/how-nike-uses-predictive-analytics-821907a90187
Johns, N. (2020, August 28). Why the Nike Air Force 1 Is winning 2020. Footwear News. https://footwearnews.com/2020/fashion/opinion-analysis/nike-air-force-1-popular-sneaker-1203046942/
Liversidge, C. (2015, March 10). Adidas, Nike & auditing hreflangs for explosive SEO results. Search Engine Land. https://searchengineland.com/adidas-nike-auditing-heflangs-explosive-seo-results-215861
Ly, O. (n.d.). Why SEO services are needed monthly to become the leader in your market. Profit Works. https://profitworks.ca/blog/marketing-strategy/538-why-seo-services-are-needed-monthly-to-become-the-leader-in-your-market.html
SEMrush. (n.d.). Keyword Gap. Retrieved April 18, 2021, from https://www.semrush.com/analytics/keywordgap/?db=us&q=nike.com&searchType=domain&keywordType=organic&compareWith=footlocker.com%3Adomain%3Aorganic%7Cfinishline.com%3Adomain%3Aorganic%7Chibbett.com%3Adomain%3Aorganic%7Ceastbay.com%3Adomain%3Aorganic
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