Millions of people go online each day, willingly seeking products and businesses that can help them. They want condos. They want wedding planners. They want shoes. They want hostels for vacations. They want advice on raising kids, the best zit-zapping product, restaurant reviews and more. Name a product or service, someone is looking for it at this moment. Search engines like Yahoo!, Microsoft’s Bing and the largest of them all, Google, are now the go-to places to find the product or service that people are looking for.
In today’s digital world, customers turn to online search engines first. Businesses should realize that acquiring customers from search engines should be a core business strategy and not ‘just one of those online things’ as one of my previous clients used to say. Search has changed Marketing forever. While the core elements of marketing remain the same (such as identifying, acquiring and satisfying customer requirements profitably) consumer behavior is changing inevitably. We now turn to online sources for product information, and more importantly, reviews and opinions about products and services. Being online for any business isn’t just about having a website – it is about getting found.
Whether you’re a mom-and-pop book rental business or a mom baking cookies for bazaars, your online presence is important.
Look at data
People searching for brands and products/services related to your business is your target market. They are telling you what compels them to buy your product or service, engage with your company, and become your advocates. Millions of people use search engines everyday and what they search for and how those searches change over time provides incredibly useful insight into their needs and wants. You have to be able to look into that data and make sense of it all. If you do not have it yet, I highly recommend getting Analytics into your website. With Analytics (I personally recommend using Google Analytics), you can generate data on your traffic sources which can be very useful when you’re planning marketing campaigns.
Another thing you should not forget is looking into what your competition is doing. Find out if they’re doing PPC campaigns, what keywords they use, and how they rank online. One of the most useful sources I’ve used is SpyFu.
Know your market
You have to know and understand your potential market. Based on the data that you have, what are these people looking for? What are they into?
Your customers will no doubt be looking for your brand online however if you are a new brand, people will not know who you are nor will they search for your brand name. If your website does not appear on non-branded searches then these potential customers will not be exposed to your product or service. Knowing your market enables you to predict what they will look for – directly or indirectly. For example, someone will most likely search for “best pain reliever” – if you’re a product selling pain relievers, you want to be found by customers typing those words on a search engine. You also want to be found by people looking for information on ‘pain relief’ and other words related to your brand or business. As such, when you do search engine optimization (SEO) and search engine marketing (SEM), you should focus on keywords that can translate to your business objectives.
Actively participate
Because of the fast changing digital world today, people are online 24/7 and your brand has to be as active as well. Customers can make or break brands with their online reviews that are publicly available. One bad review can kill your brand and your business. You have to be on top of it all.
Regularly search for your brand and product/service online. Find reviews and make comments or address issues. Look at your competition and put yourself out there in the same arena. Find related products and try to tie your brand in with
These three things are just some of the things you should remember when doing online marketing. Search Engine Marketing is a very powerful strategy if you do it right.
Search Engines created another marketing channel – a big pool where you can engage with potential customers that are largely untapped. Businesses that realize the importance of Search can connect with real revenue generating customers for long term growth and success. Now go and google yourself and see what comes up.
“Search has changed Marketing forever.” – i LOVE this line!
Great post. This is very true.. in order to do online marketing these days you really must put yourself out there.