As a member of the Triangle Chapter of the American Marketing Association, I enjoy a monthly opportunity to hear local CEO’s and CMO’s discuss their Marketing strategies. The June event, focused on Search Engine Marketing (SEM), was a lively panel discussion moderated by the hilarious Neal Lancia; and ably staffed by three local business leaders. The line up looked like this:
- Michael Hubbard, CEO & Media Director, Media Two Interactive
- Sally Lowery, Director of Demand Generation, Bronto Software
- Mark Rockett, CEO, Rockett Interactive
- Moderated by Neil Lancia, Partner Relationship Manager, iContact
The wide ranging discussion narrowed in on how to compete as a Small/Medium Business (SMB), and also touched on the impact of Social Media on Search.
Reacting to a question about competing, as a SMB, against the big guys in SEM, Michael Hubbard responded that “search has become the great equalizer.” Local businesses he said, should learn to leverage the unique knowledge they have and develop a customized message. Maximize your results by using the tools within the Search Engines to your advantage.
Sally Lowery, herself a small business executive, reminded us of the power, and flexibility, of great content. “Create content,” she said “and repurpose it in all of the methods you can.” A successful blog post becomes content for an email campaign. That great webcast becomes a whitepaper.
Mark Rockett urged us to “understand what is driving conversions on the back end.” Dig deep to understand how each of your tactics impact the other, and which are driving conversions. The other panelists agreed. Understand which paid search terms are working best for you, then make sure to integrate those terms into your website and other online content. Do this right and you can greatly improve your organic search rankings. And, we were reminded, there’s a strong correlation between paid and organic search results: if both show up on the same results page, you can expect up to 14% better results!
An interesting point of discussion for me concerned the common mistakes marketers make in Search Engine Marketing; there are three:
- Leaving your SEM campaign on autopilot. Sally urged the attendees to monitor and adjust DAILY.
- Trusting Google. Michael pointed out that the default settings from Google are set up to optimize Google’s profit, not yours.
- Lack of tracking what people do once they have interact with your advertisement. Back-end tracking is critical to understanding and improving your results.
The panelists did not agree on everything, however. Concerning the impact of Social Media, one called it “chasing the next shiny object” at the same time another praised Social’s dramatic ability (if done well) to improve search rankings.
Parting thoughts? Outside factors impact search. The panelists encouraged us to try our best to comprehend what triggered a persons’ thought to search, and to think about the full marketing-mix, as search is only one piece of the puzzle.
What do you think? Are there other common mistakes marketers make with search? Compared to the rest of your marketing-mix, how important is search for your organization?
6 Comments
14% improvement in results for being on page one organic and paid?!! That's impressive! I did not know that!!
I am new to business so I appreciate the information you bring here.
I have learned a tremendous amount since starting my business and I can say that I agree with a lot of what you mentioned here, such as repurposing content and monitoring your campaigns - both very important.
I look forward to more great information from you guys. I believe you should never stop learning.
Thank you again.
Thank you for the article. Yes, search is very important in our business. Another reason to have an organic search strategy is that it shows authority if you show up in organic as opposed to paid. You are right, content is king!
I totally understand the three mistakes that SEM practitioners make. In fact, it is totally an understatement to say that most do not do that. In fact, I am guilty of that.
Thanks for opening my eyes.
Content is king, or content is key? Haha
Thank you for the recap Deb - I did an additional follow up on our own blog at http://www.mediatwopointoh.com/triangle-ama-recap-search-without-social-is-just-wrong/ - but one additional comment I'd like to add to your post is the "do it right the first time" comments I made during the panel. Too often clients or agencies don't know how high the bar can be set with search, and they settle for good rather than great. If the campaign is incorrectly set up from day 1, even though you're getting good results, if you ever want to push for better, your quality score is going to be very difficult to improve on. We recently took over a clients PPC account on Google only to learn that even if we scrapped their campaign and started a new account, the history will follow the domain - not just the account! In other words, you can never start over fresh - so make sure you are confident in the person running your SEM campaigns. Thanks again Deb for the recap! ~Michael Hubbard, AMA Panelist and CEO of Media Two Interactive.
Here's my two cents.
Fresh and powerful content still makes a great impact.
Google can be beneficial if you "really" understand how it works.