Where is Search Going

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Search Engines Build Momentum

Search engine marketing is not something that just happens by chance. It is an art, a science, and a lot of work.

Many clients think the old ways of adding meta tag descriptions, or key words and submissions to all the search engines will get results. Not true anymore.

The search engine (SE) battle to be the biggest and best is heating up again.

More companies are finally realizing they can build an ecommerce web site while maintaining a traditional storefront. With this attention, the SE’s are getting more sophisticated on how they list a web site.

I saw an article by Kevin Ryan titled "Search and the Brand". He mentioned a lot of interesting things, besides the awards stuff for this event.

For example, at the Advertising Week event, Mr. David Verklin, CEO of Carat Americans, pointed out a study that was completed in December of 2004 showed 92% of consumer electronics and other computer purchases. This is only one category. But it illustrates how consumers are using the net for more ease of purchasing. That means they will be using SE’s more often to find products, companies and places to make purchases.

HP saw their click volume increase 45% and the transactions increased 65%.

At this Advertising Week event, it was noted that keyword purchasing hit an all-time high as well. Some advertisers were now purchasing odd words, like "possum". Popular words such as "automobile" or "Honda Element’ are still expensive.

So what’s the other solution to fighting this marketing battle? Try "street smart marketing". By this I mean it’s time you have a plan that includes a blog site with back end tie-ins. Publicity should be part of that overall plan. Together, these become powerful marketing tools and can build a brand name within a few months.

Press Release Distribution

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Get your release to the media

Writing a press release that has newsworthy information is a task. Once accomplished in developing this newsworthy bit of information, you need to get the word out.

Not as simple as many thought. Yes, there are a lot of Internet companies claiming to send out releases for you. And yes, you can look up all the reporters and create a database of media yourself.

The cost needs to be evaluated in these different processes.

For example you can join organizations such as Business Wire (which was bought by Warren Buffet’s company about a month ago) and pay their yearly dues. On top of that it will cost anywhere from $300 to $800 to send out one press release.

Other companies like Mass Media Distribution will send your release to 100 newspapers for about 100 bucks. But these are limitations, restrictions; you need to read the tiny print and what you are getting.

Don’t misunderstand me, these are good places to get the news sent out, but that’s all they do. No follow-up, no help in getting you a possible article, or even get the release published as written.

Whatever path you take, it requires a lot of follow through, relationships with the media, and creating the releases/articles that are written to their audience.

The solution is to get professional help in getting that news into the hands of the media. And those pros will work to get articles, follow-up stories and do a lot more than just being a glorified mailing source. A good pro will develop a pr plan that will include press kits, event planning, interviews with the media, press conferences, distribute kits and attend many trade shows in your industry to arrange for reporters to meet with you, among many other services.

You will actually save money this way, which will be a better investment than trying to go the other routes.

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The Search Race

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Publicity needs search engines

If you dig deep enough you can find studies on most any subject, and topic.

That’s the great part of being in this era. Internet searches have helped publicity people contact the media easier, find data about specific subjects, or to gather information to write a better article.

And studies of most recent, are about the search engines. This little survey can help pr companies and clients who are in specific markets know which search engines are the most popular in their field.

This doesn’t mean you should just assume that a particular engine is the one to use, it shows the activity of the different search engines.

For example, a study from Research Brief, titled "Pick Influential Search Engine By Category, But Yahoo! Safe Bet", shows that Yahoo! is the number one overall choice for those making a purchase. But when you see the different categories, the results change. In electronics, Google is #1, followed by Yahoo!, then MSN and 4th is AOL.

To see a completely different order, look at Car/Truck stats. MSN is #1, followed by Yahoo!, then Google, Ask Jeeves and finally AOL.

Doing the proper research in all areas can benefit Pr clients and publicity firms. Make sure when you send your releases to the media, you keep these search engines in mind. They can help your visibility when your site is listed higher with them. Make your pr campaign part of your search engine strategy.

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Blogging as a College Course

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More than a fad, blogging is a business tool

It is still amazing that clients tend to back off when they hear the word blogging. Why? Probably because they recall stories about bloggers writing about their jobs, venting about bosses, or friends.

Most company CEO’s and presidents do not yet understand the power of this marketing tool. And by the time they do, some other techno development will become the new marketing tool.

For today and many more years ahead, in my opinion, blogging will be the exciting marketing tool to help companies gain awareness faster than traditional publicity.

Don’t get me wrong; you still should maintain a solid pr program contacting the various media. But you should include a blog program to enhance the efforts.

To prove my point that blogging is a serous business tool, look at the University of California, Berkeley’s new course. It is "Blogging". The course is incorporated into their journalism classes. Now you know the world of blogging is part of our lifestyle.

In addition, pitching publicity is being done through blogger’s writing about company’s products, or the company themselves.

An article by Loyd Trufelman and Laura Goldberg, titled, "Pitching Blogs: Latest Type Of Online Media Vehicle May Provide Valuable PR Opportunities", discusses the ways bloggers are being called by journalists, reporters about story’s. In the article Loyd and Laura state:

"…many bloggers have no experience at being pitched by publicists." And continued saying, "What was striking throughout the pitching process was the discovery that most bloggers were rarely, if ever, approached by PR professionals."

The article is a good read, so check it out. And remember to give blogging serious thought as how it can impact your company. Contact us if you want to discuss this marketing tool.

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Press Kit on the Web

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Make Your Web Site Newsworthy

Many companies are posting their press releases inside their web site. Few are including a complete press kit for reporters to download.

Is this what you are doing? If not, maybe it’s time to re-think how you communicate with the press.

Technology has changed how we interact with the media. The positive to this, it becomes easier and faster to update your media information and to post a new release about the company.

Bill Stoller, a publisher, wrote an article about this topic. He points out that although the "printed" press kit has not died, it is important to put the material online for reporters to download. But where to put your link to this information is up to you. Some believe it is best to have a link visible on the main page; others will create an entire section within the site for all press media to view and download.

The choice is yours.

Mr. Stoller gives a few tips on the Do’s and Don’ts about letting the press know about your pressroom site.

One of the most important parts to the article is what you need to put into this newsroom. The obvious, which is the contact info, press releases, and executive bios/photos. But what companies neglect to add is the "search tool". The worst thing a reporter hates is getting lost inside your site, not knowing how to get back, or find what they were just reading.

For those who are proactive in getting a pressroom online, Mr. Stoller provided these web sites as examples of how to build your pressroom:

www.microsoft.com/presspass/default.asp
www.google.com/press/index.html
www.crayola.com/mediacenter/
 

Publicity as Inserts

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Publicity is everywhere

Time to get back to my theory that "publicity is everywhere’.

I read a good study that talks about the influence inserts have on the Internet Age. Come to find out, inserts seem to be a major marketing tool that gets higher results than many people previously thought.

The study by Vertis, states the following:

"Heavy Internet users are even more dependent on newspaper inserts than the average consumer. Also, women of all ages are an increasingly important demographic to target through inserts due to their purchasing power and retail decision making."

The study further tells us that consumers use advertising inserts to help make all types of buying decisions.

So why is this important, and how does it relate to publicity?

It’s a matter of knowing the power of all media. By realizing the importance and influence insert advertising has, we can direct a pr campaign to be tied into this type of promotion.

Remember, publicity is best when it works "with" your overall ad campaign. Making them be independent can be costly, and in some cases, be confusing if the messages are not clear that are being sent to the potential consumer.

Getting back to the study for a moment, it also provides a lot of good stats on the buying of various groups, women, grocery insert ads, home electronics, furniture and home improvement, among others.

Use these types of studies to better understand your market and the customer. Then incorporate this knowledge into your PR campaign, and you will have a winner.

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Support Your Blogging

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A PR effort is needed

It is always interesting to see that what you have been telling clients finally gets support in the media.

Publicity is and will always be the backbone to gaining any recognition (favorable, not favorable) for a company or its products.

I was reading a posted blog that supports one of my many convictions. It was titled "Power Law Blogging". In this short blog, he states that another article he read, the writer had this to say about blogging:

“The good news is that it’s still possible to create a top-ranked blog,” says Shirky. “The bad news is, the way to get into the top ten now seems to be public relations.” Just posting witty entries and hoping for traffic won’t do it. You have to actively seek out attention from the press. “That’s how they’re jump-starting the links structure. It’s not organic.”

As you can easily see, you need a strong media mix to become successful. One marketing tool is not enough. Starting a blog is and should be on your list of good resource tools. Be sure to add, or expand further a publicity program. Together these will help your company get noticed!

Take it a step further and make sure you have a complete marketing plan. The plan does not need to be complex. It can be designed to work within a limited budget. The plan will give you a direction and establish guidelines. After a few weeks, review the plan. See if it still meets your goals and objectives.

Now back to blogging.

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Publicity Isn’t Free

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Know your media

Clients always refer to publicity as FREE. How does it become free when you need to hire someone to either write the release, or article, or hire a publicity firm?

The definition of free means that you didn’t have to pay for the space you got in that particular publication, or mentioned in a news report.

You’re thinking, hey, that was already known, so what’s your point?

It is the knowing how to get that free publicity. Depending upon your industry, the limited space and airtime the reporters have means a lot of companies are fighting for it.

To get a successful pr campaign you need to know the media. Trade journals are in a narrower field and require the writers of your release to understand the mix of each publication. Some publishers in narrow niches like case studies with the releases, or articles. Others prefer bylined articles, also known as white papers (in the tech industry).

The more general the media, the less likely they are in using your bylined or case study, without them re-writing it from their perspective.

To get favorable publicity, you need to stay in touch with the media, reporters, and publishers. This close relationship will pay off in the long haul of a campaign.

Most companies are not staffed to handle a full time pr person. For this reason, you would be best in hiring a pr agency, or a freelancer. The disadvantage to a freelancer, is they may not always be available when you need them

Now you can see that publicity isn’t free. Eventually you need to pay someone (an in-house person, a pr firm, a freelance pr writer) and then when you see in print or hear on the radio about your company or product, it becomes that free publicity you always hear about.

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Keyword Prices

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Up or Down?

A follow up to yesterday’s blog, I thought it would be of interest to know a little more about keyword prices.

An article in the Research Brief appeared today that listed the top browsers and top categories in the financial industry. It identifies the number of unique audience (visitors, users). This in turn is one of the sources that companies use to gauge the value of key words in an industry. Then the bidding begins.

In another article by the Research Brief dated Feb 2, 2006, it mentions that keyword bidding prices are on the decline.

Hold up, you need to really read the full article. Only segments within an industry might be less costly. They based this report on the fact that more keywords and phrases are being developed by companies and are used in the bidding process, which in turn means more specific choices for customers to type in the search engines.

In all, costs are not really going down, just more choices. More targeted words are being used.

An example shows that in the automotive market, from Oct 2005 to Dec 2005, the average keyword went from $1.30 to $1.52. In contrast, such as a saturated market like Mortgages-Finance went from $3.66 to $3.30 (in that same period).

This further reinforces my point from yesterday. Keywords are good sources to build traffic, but can you really afford it?

I guess it all depends on your outlook, your budget and how aggressive you want to be.

The best way to get positive results is with a mix of keywords (if you are a believer in this media) plus a solid publicity program and a good web marketing campaign. This will build the image and branding you need along with qualified results.

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Are Keywords Important?

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Buying Keywords, is it for you?

Companies are always trying to get more out of their web sites, and they should. But too many times, when the site isn’t generating enough sales, or leads, marketing executives turn to buying of keywords.

Is it right for you?

You need to seriously think about this before putting marketing money into these types of programs. Yes, it can bring "people" to your site. Notice I said people, not customers, or clients. There is a BIG difference.

The search engines make their millions, or billions on ad dollars. One of those ad dollars is the purchasing of key words. Google has a program called AdWords. It is a bidding process that you do when you want a key word.

A good article explains this in more detail from MarketingProfs.com. They tell you that you need to be careful in selecting, or choosing a word to bid on. If it is too general, such as coffee (let’s say your company sells something like this), then you don’t want that keyword. Of course a lot of people will be typing that word into the search, but that means this word will be very expensive. You need to find a niche or specific coffee that cost of your competitors would not purchase.

After you do all this experimenting, and buying different keywords (hey, did you think you’re going to get a lot of business buying only one keywrod?), you need to track your results and compre it to the sales.

That’s just one thing to consider. Read the article to get the full scoop and then decide.

My reason for bringing this to your attention, is that keyword bidding can be good, but it can be costly. The return can also be good, but at what cost?

I suggest that if you really believe in this media, then be sure to follow it closely.

I also recommend that you have a strong media mix in your plan. Let’s day blogging! I like that suggestion, or other web marketing strategies.

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