Search / Online Marketing

The Panini Marketing Team recently read a book by Aaron Goldman called “Everything I Know About Marketing I Learned from Google,” stimulating interesting discussion, discovery and planning related to the topic of Search Marketing. I thought I’d share a few of our conclusions with you.

3 Parts Marketing, 2 Parts Bridge
Outstanding marketing teams execute on three core dimensions; 1) offline marketing to create demand and brand preference, 2) online marketing to ensure your solution is presented when a prospect or customer enters relevant search terms, and 3) response channels for a superior customer experience when they contact your firm. Just as important are the connections, or bridges between these dimensions, from 1 to 2, and from 2 to 3. Neglect these bridges or connections and the best execution can be derailed.

Content is King (or Queen)
Content, along with the links and references to that content, is the key to SEO optimization to ensure your site consistently appears in organic searches on terms relevant to your company. You must have a well organized and methodical approach to content creation. Just as important, the content must be valuable (as perceived by the user) and in digital format (to enable efficient deployment, access, and measurement). Be a factory of high value content and distribute it broadly to optimize SEO.

The New Retention Marketing
The rules of retention marketing changed. Our team perceives three key steps in the new world are retention marketing; 1) build an online community via web and social media channels, 2) “ladder up” the level of member engagement, and 3) provide value to members (i.e. discounts, benefits, content, etc.) in exchange for more detailed information and deeper engagement. This is the new path to retention marketing.

Interruption Marketing Doesn’t Work
With an ever growing barrage of messages and communications channels, simply yelling louder to be heard over the crowd is not a very effective marketing strategy. In fact, customers have come to resent messaging that “interrupts” their world in an attempt to get their attention. Effective search marketing (display and organic) puts your message in front of the customer at a time they have self-opted into a decision process by initiating a search. Providing messaging that acts more like content and less like advertising delivers immediate value, while branding efforts help provide the legitimacy to survive early screening.

I hope these insights are useful to your own marketing efforts, and that you will take the time to share your experiences and advice!