by Sitelynx

This CIM quote is a general ambition for marketing, but for search marketers it is a statement of fact. It captures the ability of search to pinpoint and satisfy customer demand with effective measurement accountable to the last penny. This promise of ‘marketing nirvana’ is within reach, but only if you develop a search marketing strategy that is underpinned by solid consumer research.

Research your search landscape

The foundation to any successful search marketing strategy is keyword research. Focusing on what keyword terms should be included in your campaigns puts you in your customers’ shoes as you consider what ‘search terms’ or ‘keywords’ typed into search engines could potentially put them on the path to your brand.

Consumers make three distinctive types of search:

• Navigation (domain names, company names etc)
  
• Information (the bulk of all searches)
  
• Transactional (“cheap microwave” etc)

Are you visible for each type of search relevant to your company? It is common sense to ensure that you are highly visible in search listings for your own brand or company name purely so you can be found. However, also consider that this can also be important for supporting offline marketing campaigns- especially when it features a URL and you are actively driving people to your website. Visibility in listings for information searches can also be excellent for brand related campaigns that are focused on owning a specific issue therefore positioning that brand “front of mind” when people are interested.

There are online tools that can help further with your keyword research. Your site analytics should list which keywords your customers are using to help locate your website. In addition to this, typing in your brand name, products or related information into online search tools reveals how people are looking for you, in what variations and volume and, perhaps most importantly, the language they are using to do so. Use the keyword assistant in the online Yahoo! Resource centre to help with keyword suggestions. WordTracker, HitWise and KeywordDiscovery.com can give a more sophisticated insight into search terms.

Once you have compiled your list of keywords, segment them into appropriate topics according to your objectives as they might require a different campaign strategy. For example, the topic ‘travel’ will include the popular 1 and 2 word phrases with highest volume of searches (eg: cheap travel, travel abroad). This is the ‘Head’ of your searches and where you are likely to face the most competition. Looking down towards the ‘Tail’ of searches relevant to your company will be more specific phrases made up of a number of keywords (eg: budget travel to Cuba, Orient Express to Paris). Tail terms or phrases suggest a more focused customer who is perhaps further down the consideration process and thus more likely to have a higher conversion rate.

The search behaviour of your target audience is an important factor to build into your keyword research. How people search, and the keywords they use in their search queries can be influenced by where they are in the purchase process. Also, when analysing the words used in ads that encourage most click-throughs, ad performance can be influenced by seasonal issues. For example, at Christmas the search listings that mentioned “free delivery” or “guaranteed delivery” are likely to generate a higher click-through rate as customers are anxious about gifts bought online arriving on time. On the other hand, words that are used in ads after Christmas that mention low prices might be more successful in encouraging searchers to click.

Using this insight you can group your keywords to match content to customer intent and ‘turn up’ campaigns on specific keywords at key times of the year. To help with this task you can use an agency or specialist research company such as Hitwise to monitor the search market, emerging trends and competitor keyword activity.

Key performance indicators

It is important to assign KPIs (key performance indicators) to your objectives so you can monitor their success on an ongoing basis. Some are simple; such as increased volume of sales or unique visitors coming from internet searches. Other objectives may need further consideration early in the process. For example, a communication objective, such as changing an opinion about your brand, is not an action to measure but an effect you are having on someone which is harder to gauge. This is where a specialist agency can help as they can draw upon their broad experience of campaign measurement and the tools available in the market.

Setting the objectives

Developing an effective and efficient search marketing strategy is a lot more complex than just bidding for the number one position on Google. Consider first what you want to achieve from your search marketing.

Common objectives include:

• Driving more unique visitors to your website (publishers)
• Driving sales (e-commerce)
• Gaining an online element for your cross media strategy (brand advertising)
• Being poised to respond to negative opinions (consumer / media communications)
• Researching your market (new product testing)