BLOG ABOUT SEO, ADVERTISING & LIFE OF SEO MAGMA

09.01.2009

What's the purpose of website positioning?

Let's begin by stating that website positioning is a form of internet marketing. The most important question of every marketing campaign is (or at least should be) "why are we doing it - what's the purpose?".

All marketing managers should ask themselves that prior to deploying their ads over the radio, TV or internet. Without asking "why are we doing it" we won't know what the goals of the campaign are, we won't be able to measure its effectiveness, nor justify the use of one medium (radio, TV, web) over another.

It may be that asking "what's the purpose" sounds silly. Maybe. But, if marketers had answered this question initially, we wouldn't have witnessed so many spectacular marketing disasters time and time again. Consumers wouldn't have scratched their heads wondering "what's this product for" or, "why is it directed at me".

There are numerous examples of failed product launches and marketing fiascos, but lest we forget the importance of asking "why" we'll mention just a few:

• Edsel - by Ford
• New Coke - by Coca-Cola
• Aztec - by GM
• Apple Lisa - by Apple computers
• Iomega zip disk - by Iomega

So, why is this important and why are we spending so much time driving this point home?

Because, in a day and age when the cost of a second of TV advertisement can hover around $30,000 and those same commercials are practically, wholly ignored by viewers, it is uncanny that corporations still spend so much money on promoting their brands, also online, without asking themselves "what are we trying to achieve here" and without demanding more bang for their buck from advertisers.

Having recently read a study by Ephron and Pollak that examines the ROI of TV ads, it has become noticeable that conventional media no longer function as effective marketing tools. In fact, the study proves that each dollar spent on TV ads brought back less than a dollar of revenue! Yet corporations still spend millions on commercials in wane attempts to reach clients.

So, before you embark on the next marketing, SEO, website optimization campaign, it may prove valuable to consider the purpose of all such endeavours as well as the effectiveness of all available media you plan to use.

It may be useful to first ask oneself "why are we doing this?".

08.01.2009

Few words about effectiveness of advertising

Regrettably, only too often businesses deploy badly optimized websites, or internet marketing campaigns that aren't really well thought out. If only they had asked "why", "for whom", "for what purpose" they were created...

Observing many ads it isn't difficult to come to the conclusion that there are marketing departments, and even creative ad agencies, which draft mediocre campaigns solely for the purpose of using up residue budgets. Others do so to keep themselves busy and create work for themselves, thereby justifying their existence (i.e. cost) to management.

Some advertisers and creative ad agencies follow the notion that 'art' is the intrinsic objective of all ads. They create beautiful, creative, original, funny ads for creation's sake showing off creative-awards they won in the process. Oh how creative it all is.

That's all fine and dandy, but that's not the purpose of advertisement. If you want to create something beautiful, go paint a landscape. If you want to create an ad, then make sure it sells.

In advertisement, originality and 'artistry' should be a by-product of the ad, not its goal.

Thanks in part to such campaigns, ROI and sales effectiveness of TV ads has almost hit rock bottom and a similar fate awaits internet marketing (due to pop-ups, banner ads, etc.) and 'creative' websites. TV commercials' appeal was destroyed by marketers, those same marketers that now offer their services in e-marketing!

It seems that marketers forget that their sole role is to sell a product/service or brand. Instead, they suffocate viewers/web-users with redundant, repetitive and annoying emissions of their banally original ads - yes it's an oxymoron and, yet a tendency so often present in current advertisement.

If you never came into contact with such a contention, then you're lucky. However, we dare say that observing the advertisement industry (especially in Poland) only too often do we notice highly-creative ads influenced by outside trends, which are rarely suitable for foreign markets.

Ideas in ads are copied from local markets, pasted blatantly into foreign ones because their creators think it looks 'cool and new' and they want to be the first on the block showing off new fashion. To what purpose? Don't know. Because of cultural differences, not every idea drafted abroad but blatantly copied at home will be just as effective. Seems logical, yet somehow they miss the point.

07.01.2009

SEO as a trend

Some time ago we met with a marketing director of one of the world's largest corporations (Global 500, no. 2 in their industry). The director wanted 'website SEO services' because he was advised that SEO services are a new trend in the USA and an effective way to increase web sales.

We spent a greater part of an afternoon with him trying to examine "why" does their company need SEO services. What for? In what direction is their marketing strategy targeted? What purpose would SEO serve them and wouldn't it be better to focus on SEM or consider other e-marketing activities?

Thanks in part to these questions; we managed to point out that SEO would probably not help reach their objectives. Their company was such a key, large player both in their industry and beyond, their presence was strong in all mediums, that SEO services would not augment their brand in a dramatic way.

What is more, during our meeting we surveyed their website and pointed out that it was already well optimized, their code clean, their content filled with keywords, their navigation intuitive and their position in SERP (search engine result pages) for many terms exceptional.

So we inquired: why did the idea for SEO services come about? The response was foreseeable "because we've noticed a trend here that we'd like to exploit". While we were uneasy upon hearing SEO be defined as a trend, we were very pleasantly surprised in that even a Polish branch of their corporation saw value in search engine positioning tactics.

While our counterpart couldn't explain the difference between SEO, SEM and online advertising and didn't know, which service he was truly searching for, he was aware of the impact that search engine positioning can play in driving their sales revenue.

We don't believe that every marketing director must know everything about SEO, SEM or even online advertising. But, we do recommend that those who are inclined to devote large budgets to these activities try to learn more about them and the difference between them ahead of time. This way one could notice whether, for instance, website optimization isn't already inconspicuously, yet autonomously, being introduced by their employees (to the greater good of the company).

Getting back to our story, we recommended him that SEO services are useful when optimizing new web pages aimed at search engine positioning. However, in their case, we explained that it would probably serve a better purpose to focus on SEM activities and increasing the effectiveness of their online ads. They could also potentially use SEO services to enhance their brand recognition. After a prolonged discussion, the director was happy that we helped him find a path that would lead him to his goal.

By the way, we noticed that the budget assigned to 'SEO' consisted of a few hundred thousand dollars. Must be good to work in a large corporation where hundreds of thousands of dollars can be allocated somewhere, based on someone's assumption or hunch.

In any case, we recommended them creation of an SEM campaign composed of a few hundred most relevant phrases related to their services and products, giving them also contact information to a foreign company specializing solely in SEM services.

If you are interested in SEO Magma's consulting services, or have a website but don't have the time to manage all SEO/SEM efforts inhouse, then contact us today!