Online marketers are
busy mapping that magical space where the overlap between real life and
the internet is at its most poignant. Where else would they be looking
than where real people are actually s p e l l i n g out what they are
planning to purchase - searches on the web? Every online
marketer does it. purchaseing keywords like crazy. But that is just
about how much you hear when you try to focus on this area of internet
marketing. It's a wild goose chase and it's unlikely a method will
materialize in any recognizable form until the dust has settled. If it
ever will.
The keyword business is about the most competitive
business transacted over the web, so -as with most of the information on
web related business- it's unlikely you will come across any lengthy
piece with a comprehensive overview of what's going on where.
It's
somewhat ironic that it's live and learn because in theory, the
marketing community should be in its walhalla with the arrival of the
internet. Hasn't it been the marketing dream for centuries to get to the
stage where a potential customer takes an action? At the end of a
marketing ploy, in offline terms it's called the hit, the transaction,
the sale, closing the deal.
The specifics of keyword purchaseing
may be intransparent, but slowly more information is being gathered
about the process of online purchaseing. It is striking that this is not
exactly a reversal, from the offline process, but slightly. From the
beginning onward, the marketer can count on a lot more commitment from
his potential customer simply because targeting is so much more specific
if the process kicks off with the customer's action.
Keyword
marketing is much more powerful compared to the offline marketing
techniques, simply because it is the customer's actions that set off the
spiral.
To forego the keyword search as a marketer means you
miss out one vital element in the communication cycle your client goes
through before purchasing a product. Inefficient marketing was mainly
the issue leading to the demise of the dotcom sector earlier on and,
having learnt their lesson the hard way, marketers are now finding out
more about what customers really want before launching campaigns. From
the customer's own words. Sounds great in theory. In practice, the
landscape is bewildering to say the least.
Having the rights to
certain keywords means you are dominating the results that search
engines will present to people who type in those words. What is so great
about this is that unlike in the real world, online marketers have way
more insight into what makes people purchase. Because they have access
to what actions customers take even before they would be onto them had
they been in the offline world.
Mountains of gold on the
horizon. But the sector is still showing a lot of vulnerability and
online marketing is in dire need of improvement simply because the
phenomenon is so new. The big advantage to customers is that people can
find what they are looking for faster and more efficiently than on any
other medium. But still the gap between what customers are specifically
looking on the web for and what they are offered is considerable.
Customers
are too often puzzled, searching a product on the web and finding lists
of items with brands totally alien to them. If an online campaign is
not backed by offline action, its chance of survival will drop
dramatically. Many product campaigns are faltering because adverts are
simply being thrown in a surfer's face in irrelevant contexts, they are
annoying or ill timed.
ONE big area where online marketers are
not taking enough heed of the expertise of their offline peers and where
they might lose the battle, is branding. Too much direct mail-type
marketing means that credible, trustworthy branding is unlikely to
occur. Type in a generic search term for a product and find yourself
amazed at the outcome. Reading the results, you'd think you'd landed on
Mars.
Branding the old fashioned way is a lot more time
consuming than any internet marketer will naturally be inclined to
think. Branding is an exercise of timing, planning, researching and
optimised launches. It takes time before people are used to new
products. Psychological studies confirm time and again that we purchase
what we think is safe, comfy, familiar, nice, soft, handy, easy,
whatever the word to indicate a certain comfort zone that creates an
entry for marketers. It's a known fact that you first need to see a
product about umpteen times before it has become a part of your
reference frame. If you don't believe this, move to a foreign country,
visit a supermarket and try not to feel totally lost. It's impossible.
Only
if we are familiar with a product brand, we think that purchasing it
will better us. If we don't have at least a vague positive idea when we
purchase a product, no brand building has been done or not enough or it
has not connected with us.
Although branding of products offered
online is something quite new, it is quite amazing that outright stupid
mistakes are made here. Where online marketers are often wrong is where
they are measuring search engine advertising the way they would direct
marketing. True, much of search engine advertising resembles direct
marketing, but realistic measurement of people's attitude towards the
products advertised, should include more than only whether or not they
purchase it. Brand measurement takes place when all the responses are
analysed, even why a product is not purchased or not immediately or not
at a specific platform.
In forgetting to measure any customer
behavior outside the conversion rate, they completely forego the power
of branding. They don't realize how much greater click through and
conversion rates would be if their brands were recognized and trusted by
that same audience.
Here is an example of just how effective a
campaign can be when branding's taken seriously. The marketers have got
it so right, that their campaigns themselves have become an overnight
brand known for controversy. Called Gatoring, after the company that
made the software enabling it, this advertising has come under scrutiny
of the courts. What people are upset with is that popup ads are thrown
on competitors' sites. If are looking for a particular brand of car for
instance, a popup of a competing brand would pop up. Despite its
dubiousness, gatoring shows just how effective online marketing can be -
when marketers do their homework.
About the Author
Angelique van Engelen is a writer at www.contentclix.com, a
Netherlands based content writing agency. Email her at
AngeliquevanEngelen@contentclix.com |
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