Jonathan Mendez's Blog

Branding & Search - Part 2

Branding Optimization through Search

The words optimization and branding have rarely been seen together in a sentence on search engine marketing. I’m out to change that (in fact I just did).

Let’s start this conversation by understanding that Search marketers are finding a number of ways to measure branding impact in search. Myself, and others have presented research that impression volumes can go up on brand or product-centric keywords in direct correlation to an online or offline media campaign. So one easy way to optimize your branding initiatives through search by being smart with your keywords, or even just having search as part of your media plan.

Yet, it amazes me that search still does not have a seat at the media plan table. Let’s look at two new online branding initiatives. They are UGC plays looking to engage users and submerse them in some branding. One is for 3M’s Post-it® Notes. The other is for P&G’s Secret Deodorant. Both companies have spent a lot of money with agencies to craft these experiences. Neither though has invested in a search campaign to buttress these initiatives. A quick look on Alexa shows a nice bump in traffic to secret.com since the launch of “share” and Google trends shows enough queries for Post-it Notes that it registers a trend over the past three years. This tells me that there are many marketers out there that still don’t understand the value of branding through search.

But let’s take it a step further. Effective branding no longer needs to be determined by a focus group or a guy in a boardroom with cool glasses and black turtleneck. Who says that one of the 10 ideas left on the boardroom floor wouldn’t end up being the idea that resonates with consumers? Take all the ideas and put the users in control. Of course Search is the perfect vehicle to test, tweak and optimize branding. By its very nature Search provides a pathway to your brand. It also allows you to optimize this path by tailoring branding to the tastes and goals of the different segments that are interested in your brand…in effect making it more relevant to the lives and tastes of the market.

Timberland is a company that succeeds with this. A search for “Timberland” on Google yields an ad that brings attention to the official site, some promotional messaging around free shipping and returns and leads to the homepage where users can self segment further by their interest. There is of course another really large segment of users that engage with the Timberland brand in a different manner and understandably Timberland desires to have a different brand “conversation” with them. This is generally a more urban audience. Among this audience that brand is often referred to as “Tims.” Sure enough Timberland has bought the keyword “Tims.” This ad messages boots, clothing online exclusives and the always important “newest styles.” These landing pages make sure users know that Timberland is “Tough Enough to Hang Anywhere.” A much different branding message than the homepages, “Stripes, About as Dressed Up as Summer Gets.”

Timberland clearly gets it. Your brand does not have to be everything to all people. That thinking is antiquated. Your brand is most effective when it delivers relevant and engaging experiences by segment. After all, each segment likely will be engaging and experiencing your brand in different ways.

Here are my basic rules for optimizing your brand through search.

Messaging: Understand that contrary to what some believe brand is not just about images. Choose your words carefully. Search is the pathway to users furthering their experience with your brand. First impressions are meaningful.

Segmentation: You can't be all things to all people. What makes your brand resonate in the minds of your customers? Most likely it will resonate differently to different segments.

Visibility: Your brand can either be very visible in the SERP or invisible. If you are not willing to make the investment to get in the Top Sponsor results than you shouldn’t be trying to brand through search.

Testing: Testing is at the core of optimization. What titles and descriptions attract clicks on the ads? What messages and images on the landing page get users engaged in the experience? Are these different based on segment?

When all is said and done it is not your agency that will define your branding. It will be your customers. Businesses that can embrace this fundamental shift in control will achieve branding success not only in search but across all media.

I’ll be speaking on Branding and Search at Search Engine Strategies in San Jose on August 7th. Come by and say hello.

YouTube's need for Contextual Relevance

TechCrunch has a piece on YouTube reaching the 100 million videos served a day mark. I guess this is good news for YouTube however, as much as I love YouTube I fear they are bound to fail as a revenue generating business.

Online advertising success is predicated on what I refer to as contextual relevance. You get clicks only if your link (text or rich media) is relevant and in the focus of whatever the user goals are. This is why AdWords succeeds. This is why eBay succeeds. This is why affiliate marketing delivers. Contextual relevance.

Take a look at the top YouTube videos for the past week. Where are the advertising opportunities here that are contextually relevant to the content? The content is a mix of user generated comedy, young girls lip syncing, a UFO over New York City, a whale and a plane taking off next to sunbathers on a beach. The user goals here are to be entertained and the user focus laser like on the vids

Can you monetize UGC? These videos aren’t selling anything…and maybe that’s just why YouTube has become so popular. They are relevant to exactly why users are coming to YouTube. To be passively entertained, which as we know is the worst time to be trying to sell anything to anyone.

Revenue generation will be a tough nut for YouTube to crack. I wish them the best of luck.

Website Optimization Advice

I had the privilege to spend my day today doing something I love, observational research. I observed ten users spending 45 minutes each on a website. The site was a prototype that a client plans to launch soon. This is a very important launch and one that plenty is riding on. It didn’t go well. The problem was one that many organizations face.

They built a site with multiple and often conflicting goals. They are trying to get across their branding messages, build user generated content and grab leads. Each initiative obscured the other. Bottom line was that users were confused. The feedback received today is not unusual and can apply to many sites.

Users respond when you message to them in a direct manner:
Most users couldn’t understand the messages that were used to try and create emotional connections. Tell them what you have. Tell them how you can help them. Let them know right away when they get to your site. Users kept saying that they would have preferred direct messages. Give them what they want, which also happens to be what they are looking for. Simple, isn’t it?

Simplicity is of utmost importance:
Users don’t like choices. You may think that by giving them options you are helping them find what they are looking for… but you’re wrong. You may think that you are steering them to what you want them to do… but it will not happen. I’ve been successful with optimization through elimination for years and it is part of the methodology we use at OTTO Digital called Radical Simplicity. Define a single goal for each experience and build clear messaging around it and nothing else. Radical Simplicity works.

User Generated Content (UGC) should be 100% user generated:
Seems simple but I have seen a proliferation of companies trying to engage users to contribute to their site or provide viral marketing or link building on their terms or based on the businesses ideas of what's interesting. Forget that strategy. You can’t get users to generate the content that your business wants them to. To be successful with UGC you need to give users the tools and platforms to create and discover whatever they want.

Have a site that users can read:
Basic usability here but somehow this most basic of issues is often overlooked. Light text on a white background, small points and fancy fonts are going to hurt your site as will text that is part of a “design.” It’s simply unacceptable to have a site that puts ANY strain on users to read. One of the things I like so much about the Web 2.0 design aesthetic is the use of large clear points and easy to read fonts.

If you have no choice but to present multiple goals for a user what should you do? My advice is to create separate, distinct and possibly walled experiences for each goal and bypass the homepage to drive your users into one of the different experiences most relevant to them. You can direct them from search, referrer, customer lifecycle stage and of course if they do come to the homepage they can self-segment.

The users have spoken!

Synopsis of my July 11th Presentation at SES Latino

At the heart of what we do online we need to create relevant experiences. It doesn’t matter what vertical you are in. Users will engage when they are presented with data that is relevant to their goals and objectives.

When we begin to look at creating relevant experiences for an International audience this becomes more challenging. It becomes even more challenging when looking at the Hispanic market. The Hispanic market is fragmented by a large number of factors.

But rather than looking at this as a problem it should be looked at as an opportunity to create highly relevant experiences. How so?

Let’s look at what we know about the Hispanic audience…and I mean what we know when they arrive at your website.

Methodology for audience segmentation:

Geo: We know what country they came from. Possibly even what city.

Source: We know what site they came from.

Keyword: If they came from search we know not only what site but the keyword. Also, if the query was in English or Spanish.

Stage: 1st time visitor, return visitor, return customer

Self Segmentation: What they click on the site. (e.g if they click “find a dealer” you know they are close to purchase)

Once you start segmenting your audience in this way you can begin to strategize around delivering optimized relevance.

Begin by sorting and scoring these segments. What audiences have the most value to you? What audiences perceive you have the most value to them?

You may arrive at the conclusion that your most valuable audience cluster comes from Google, paid search, kw carros ustado, located in San Diego and is a first time visitor. I call this their “Goal Story”

Next step is creating an experience around this goal story.

Experience will be in Spanish not English to align with user flow
Delivery keyword reinforcement that you have “carros ustados”
Make sure the user knows you have dealers in San Diego
Provide other information relevant to a first time visitor

So, you are thinking this sounds great but how can I go and create 40 new websites and 200 landing pages? Fortunatley there is no need. If there has been one roadblock to online marketing success it has been IT. How many of you have had a good marketing idea you wanted to try but couldn’t because of your IT department? There are a number of great technologies out there that can deliver rules based targeted content. You may have noticed that I have been referring to landing pages and web sites not as such but as experiences. This is because I believe that the next generation on the web will not be as much about static pages as it will be about dynamically generated experiences.

There are a number of ASP tools reliant on javascript, to deliver targeted content and experiences. Most of these tool interface seamlessly with your CMS systems and Web Analytics. More and more however these systems can be used as a dynamic rules based CMS.

Relevance = ROI. Looking at a fragmented audience should be seen as an opportunity and there is a huge competitive advantage out there waiting for businesses that embrace creating targeted relevance and dynamic experiences not only in the Hispanic market, but in every market.

Intelligence Through Impression Data

Following my first post in the series on Branding and Search, NY Times has a piece on how Impression data can be used for business intelligence (BI) somewhere buried in this puff piece on John Battelle (who's his PR guy?) and Google.

So I've been thinking over the holiday...

Why aren’t search impressions valued more? In print, circulation has real value. On the display side impressions have value. Why can't search marketers get clients to understand the importance of impression data?

Is it because the more search impressions you have the lower your ROI? Phooey!

Does anyone know of a search contract that's performanced based on impression data? I don't believe one exists. Why not? Impressions have value. Real value.

Why does no one care about impressions in search marketing?

It all starts with impressions.

...by the way, I'll be speaking at SES Latino on the benefits of content targeting and user segmentation. Congrats to Nacho Hernandez on getting a great show together. More on Branding and Search soon.