Search Engine Marketing Series: Know Your Online Industry
by Daniel Shortell, Search Marketing Analyst
09/06/2006
Search Engine Optimization (better known as SEO) is the most cost-effective way of promoting your business online, while enhancing your brand identity. It is a baseline activity of any Marketing Strategy to maximize organic results in today's major search engines such as Google, Yahoo!, and MSN. Together with your corporate communications and brand teams, it is important to understand and navigate the complexities of SEO, in order to direct highly targeted traffic to your web site based on your business goals.
The goals of most web sites can be broadly defined as the following:
- Maximize the qualified traffic arriving to the web site.
- Maximize the conversions resulting from the qualified traffic.
"Qualified traffic" represents the sum total of desired visitors to your web site. A "conversion" is the completion of a desired action by these visitors. That action can be a form submission, a mailing list signup, an online purchase, a phone call, etc. A conversion need not be linked to financial objectives, but is a step toward fulfillment of your organization's goals. The success of your web site depends on the your ability to locate these qualified viewers, draw them to your web site, and convert them when they arrive. There are many avenues by which to reach viewers, and successful web marketers ascertain which avenues are key to their industries and adapt their marketing strategy accordingly.
Understanding Your Online Industry Landscape
Most companies understand much less about their industry's online landscape than that of their conventional market. The same is true of their insight into online vs. other areas of customer behavior. How large is your online audience? How do they use the Internet - are they "Googlers", or do they frequent user groups or industry blogs? The answers to such questions have important implications regarding effective web site design and marketing.
To use a maritime analogy, think of the Internet as an ocean and your audience as fish. An effective marketing strategy for consumer products with a broad appeal may be to cast nets far and wide around large "schools" of web traffic. However, consumers of high-end, 'specialty' products and services are better likened to discerning sport fish - far more precision and technique is required to land a Marlin than a minnow. The uninformed either catch boatloads of junk fish (i.e. unqualified traffic) or nothing at all.
Single or Multiple Markets
You know who your audience is - but is it a single audience, or multiple audiences? Do distinct audiences use different terms to search for your products or services? If so, address each audience using its preferred language and terminology via separate web pages. From a search standpoint, this allows keyword optimization for the preferred terms of each audience. The result will be superior search rankings for more keywords and phrases, and higher conversion rates through superior content-audience matching.
Market Size
What is the size your online market? What portion of the entire market does this represent? What is the market growth rate? Are the major off-line players the same as the on-line ones How might this affect you? Is it possible to convert customers from the conventional to the online markets? If you serve both conventional and online markets, does it matter? While online technology allows the detailed tracking the individual mouse-clicks and precise calculation of ROI, many firms do not have a grasp of market size, growth rate, and other significant market features. A solid sense of these parameters is essential to setting specific and realistic goals for the online portion of your business.
Market Demographics
Consider target audiences in terms of age, gender, lifestyles, special interests, and any other characteristics. What implications do these characteristics have for where this audience turns for information, and what information will be sought?
B2B audiences must be understood not only in terms of their organizational needs, goals, industry behaviors, etc., but you must also get into the heads of qualified viewers from those organizations. Where do these individuals qualified viewers, the purchasing agents/IT gurus/recruiters/etc., obtain their knowledge?
User Behavior and Education
Individuals use the web in distinct ways in order to conduct business, seek entertainment, and access information. However, there are behaviors that are common to certain industries and users of certain products and services. Knowing the Internet use patterns of your audience is a prerequisite for developing successful online marketing strategies and SEO.
Your target audience may be found using three classes of internet loctions:
1. Search Engines
The primary entry points for online knowledge-seekers are search engines such as Yahoo!, Google, and MSN. Industries addressing infrequent needs (e.g. one-time purchases) will find that search engines are potentially the most productive source of qualified traffic. It is imperative that your web site content is optimized for the primary keywords and phrases that your online audiences search.
Effective keyword optimization and linking from third-party web sites are both required in order to perform well on search engines. These topics will be addressed in greater detail in future issues of this newsletter.
2. Information Networks
Users more familiar with a service/product/industry may visit industry-related web sites as both points of entry and periodic information gathering (i.e. "keeping up with the times"). There are many kinds of informational sites, and a variety of them may be relevant to your industry. If a large portion of your audience frequents this type of web resource, your presence here is very important.
Some examples of these resources are as follows:
- Product reviews and comparison, for consumers who are ready to purchase.
- Career Networking & Job Recruiting sites such as Hot Jobs and Monster.com. Smaller, but similar sites exist that focus on particular careers and industries.
- Industry forums, communities, blogs, etc. You need to be visible to visitors of sites respected as authorities in your industry.
- Sites may address other needs particular to your industry - find them.
An effective linking strategy and/or paid marketing program is key to attracting traffic from informational networks. These topics will be discussed in detail in future issues.
3. Existing Vendors
If a large portion of your target audience conducts business with your competition, it may be necessary to convert customers who are not actively looking for new options. You'll need to be more aggressive to reach someone else's satisfied customers, as it is unlikely they'll be searching on Google. Depending upon your industry, satisfied clients may frequent forums and other industry-related sites. If this is the case, be sure you are visible there.
Existing competitor customers may seek different information than first-timers. An increased focus on differentiation may be needed in order to convert competitors' clients. Unique pages devoted solely to addressing this audience may be warranted in these instances, generating superior search rankings and conversion rates.
Summary
As the internet grows and technology develops, so do your options for web site development and marketing. Many opportunities may prove effective at attracting and converting qualified traffic, but many will not. The success of your web site depends on your ability to separate the profitable opportunities from the distractions. As market landscape differs for each industry, it is imperative that you do your homework.
Stay tuned for next month's issue in which we address additional Search Engine marketing topics.
