Search Matters Search Marketing Blog

Optimize Your Digital Assets

May 2, 2008 – 8:22 am

Are you familiar with the term “Digital Asset Optimization?” If you are, you may know that it is the natural evolution of search marketing. If you aren’t, you’ll want to learn how to leverage this new opportunity for competitive advantage. Here Catalyst Search Marketing Strategist Eddie Emmanuel discusses this relatively new practice and how — and why — you can get on board.

Q: What is Digital Asset Optimization?
Eddie: The idea of digital assets expands beyond the normal text-driven pages that are synonymous with Search Engine Optimization. Digital assets include video, images, animations, and even audio files. These files have become assets because the Internet is no longer a text-only environment and search engines are adapting. With the introduction of Google Universal Search (GUS) last year, these files now appear alongside links to text on the Search Engine Results Pages. When optimized properly, these files are as important as text in driving traffic to your website.

Q: Why is it significant?
Eddie: Digital Asset Optimization is a more holistic approach to search that makes it easier for people to find the content they want via search, in the format they prefer, rather than relying on text documents. It is significant because consumers’ expectations are higher now, and searchers expect to find video. There’s a growing demand for multimedia web content. Internet users actively search videos, music files, podcasts, images and other digital media.

What makes it even more significant is that search engines are starting to give these pages equal weight and authority with text and they’re being included in the regular results if they’re optimized correctly. Prior to the introduction of Google Universal Search, which has inspired Ask, Yahoo!, and MSN/Live to provide their own “blended search,” you’d have to go to a specific video property like Google Video, Metacafe or YouTube to find these types of files. They would not come up in the regular search results. Because of GUS, you can now go to Google and it is not uncommon that one of the top five results is a video.

Q: How do Digital Asset Optimization and Search Engine Optimization work together?
Eddie: They are essential to one another and they operate using the same basic principles. You still need the content to differentiate what the page is about. It still has to be relevant to what the video or image or audio file is about. One difference is that there are more opportunities because video has multiple tags and attributes to optimize in order for users to find them.

Companies need to figure out how to best adjust their search marketing strategies to maintain a competitive advantage. One way to do that is to focus the right proportion of effort on standard text optimization as well as the optimization and promotion of all other digital assets. You want to give consumers the option to engage with your brand in the format they choose, not what we as marketers choose. Consumer empowerment will only improve the brand affinity.

Q: What is the most important facet of Digital Asset Optimization?
Eddie: The most important facets are engagement and brand protection. Optimizing these assets allows you to engage with consumers using new formats. Each asset, if leveraged properly, is another opportunity to engage a consumer. Secondly, you can maintain a position of credibility by having these assets listed in the search engine results pages. For example, a pharmaceutical company needs to be the authority on what its medication’s indications, side effects and treatment options are. We’ve seen negative videos put up by competitors and unhappy consumers. Posting a video allows you to protect your brand, promote a positive, consistent message, and differentiate from the competition. If you have videos that are important to your product or message you should optimize.

Q: What are the first steps of Digital Asset Optimization?
Eddie: Optimizing starts with an inventory of your company’s digital assets. You need to identify and categorize all of your multimedia, images, audio, video and any other relevant files.

The next step is to optimize the assets that you have using the same best practice SEO techniques as for any other website. The approach is not that much different from regular html-driven content – you still want relevant file names, browser titles, and appropriate content actually on the page with the video. If you have many videos it is a good idea to create html and xml video site maps for both users and search engine spiders to crawl, as well as an RSS feed for video sharing so that your videos can be found more easily.

Continue to link to other credible and authoritative sites relevant to your video. And find influencers – bloggers — to review your videos.

Third, create a digital asset strategy for your organization. Bringing your website up to speed with Digital Asset Optimization may take extra time in the beginning, but you will be providing both search engines and customers with the information they’re looking for — in the formats they’ll respond to.

About Eddie Emmanuel
Eddie Emmanuel is a Catalyst Search Marketing Strategist who is dedicated to A&E TV, Novartis, Diomed, and RainSoft brands. He has five years of experience in Search Marketing. Before joining Catalyst he worked as a Marketing Consultant at Shoebuy.com and an SEO Marketer at iProspect. He has a B.A. from Emerson College in Communications.

By Ginna Hall | Posted in Digital Asset Optimization, Internet Marketing, Newsletter, Online Advertising, SEO, Search Marketing, Search Matters | Comments (0)

Outrank Your Online Competition

April 1, 2008 – 12:23 pm

The steady increase in search engine use is rewriting the rules of marketing as organizations decide how best to incorporate the realities of Web 2.0 into their plans. One effect of search is that dissimilar entities become competitors when they are listed alongside each other on the Search Engine Results Pages. Now being competitive requires that you position your brand properly – not only against companies in your traditional space — but also against those who appear in the results of Google and Yahoo. Here Catalyst Search Marketing Strategist Sarah McCracken answers questions about defining your online competitors.

Q: What is the difference between online and traditional competitors?
Sarah: Traditional competitors are those in your market space. They are companies in your industry that provide the same products and services as you do to your target market. An online competitor is very different. This is actually an entity that is competing with you for the top 5 to 10 spaces on the Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs). This may be an organization that does not share your industry or your target market.

For example, the Discovery Channel is one of the History Channel’s biggest traditional competitors since it offers similar programming. On the other hand, online competitors of the History Channel are government sites, educational sites and Wikipedia because they contain historical information and appear when a searcher is looking for that type of content online. The global nature of the Internet and the fact that control has shifted from advertisers to consumers are factors that allow non-traditional competitors to move into new spaces online.

Q: Why is it important to differentiate between online and offline competitors?
Sarah: Many companies are so focused on conquering their offline competition they don’t realize they’re being ambushed online. An organization that does not properly identify and differentiate between these two will lose qualified website traffic and potential customers. Online competitors may be companies that you would not consider as being in your space and therefore not a factor in attracting customers. But although they may not be your direct competitors for revenue they are your rivals for visibility, which ultimately impacts revenue.

One example is the competition between Coke and Pepsi. If you search for “soft drinks” online you expect to see Coke and Pepsi at the top of the SERPs, but that is not the case. Instead the SERPs include informational sites, health sites discussing the effect of soft drinks on our overall health, and educational sites. While these organizations are not competing in the soft drink industry with Coke and Pepsi, they are gaining prominent online visibility, pushing Coke’s and Pepsi’s rankings lower, and possibly redirecting potential customers.

Q. How can you find out who your online competitors are?
Sarah: The first step is to search on any major search engine for keywords that relate to your core business practices and see who comes up on the first page of the results. Companies selling products should search on the names and types of high converting products. For example, if you are a company that sells Red Sox memorabilia you could search on “Red Sox t-shirts.”

Q: What is a pitfall you should avoid?
Sarah: People tend to search for problems online, while companies tend to optimize around the solution they offer. If you are looking for competitors in your space, you also need to search on the problem, not only the solution. For example, if you spill red wine on your shirt, you may search for “remove red wine stain” instead of a specific product name. If you are a company that specializes in stain treatments and laundry detergent you want to make sure your pages are optimized beyond the terms “stain treatments” and ”laundry detergent” to include tips on how these products can remove specific stains. One of the best reasons to work with a search marketing firm is their expertise in figuring out what the consumer is searching for on the SERPs and defining the proper search terms.

Q: How does knowing your competitors influence your keyphrase strategy?
Sarah: We use online competition as one input into designing a successful keyphrase strategy for our clients. The first step is to identify your competitors in order to analyze their sites. This analysis reveals the keywords they are targeting — terms that relate to your business that you might not have considered. These are particularly important if they are high volume keyphrases. In addition to identifying your competitors, you need to know how they describe their products and services, as well as the amount of content they have on their site, including the keyphrase density and whether they use keyphrases not only in the text on pages, but also in optimizing images and videos.

Q: Is this something a brand manager can do or do you recommend professional help?
Sarah: A trained brand manager can absolutely do it; however, in order to maximize visibility and really understand what’s going on in the online space it is beneficial to get assistance from someone who specializes in search. People trained in search are taught to think about the Web in a way brand managers might not be used to. They also have access to tools and studies that may not be available to brand managers.

About Sarah McCracken
Sarah McCracken is a Catalyst Search Marketing Strategist who is dedicated to The History Channel, Iron Mountain and Biogen Idec. She has seven years of experience in Search Marketing. Before joining Catalyst she worked as a Marketing Manager for Shoebuy.com and as an Algorithmic Team Leader for iProspect.com. She has a B.A. from Susquehanna University in Corporate Communications.

By Ginna Hall | Posted in Internet Marketing, Newsletter, Online Advertising, Search Marketing, Search Matters, Web 2.0 | Comments (0)

Reputation Management in a Web 2.0 World

March 3, 2008 – 11:41 am

Reputation Management in a Web 2.0 World

Finding out what is being said about your company, its brand and products is becoming increasingly difficult as it becomes easier for your customers to voice their praise, or complaints, online. In the world of online marketing, social media and blogs, an organization’s reputation can be enhanced or tarnished in the time it takes a post to spread across the Web.

Hoping that negative or positive postings will come to your attention simply isn’t enough anymore. Online reputation management requires an understanding of how information is posted, shared and tracked on the Internet. In this issue, Catalyst Director of Project Management Jennie Bendowitz answers questions about protecting your brand in a Web 2.0 world.

Q: What is the difference between SERP brand monitoring and reputation management?
Jennie: Brand monitoring simply means scrutinizing the Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs) to identify positive, negative and neutral uses of your brand name online. Reputation management refers to proactively engaging with what you find online. Being able to be responsive to negative postings is very important. You want to be able to respond to the writer, get them to retract or, even better, update or correct their posting.

Q: What are the benefits of reputation management?
Jennie: Reputation management is essential to protect your brand on the Internet, strengthen customer relations and outpace the competition. In general, marketers have a natural tendency to think only positive things of our products. Monitoring the SERPs also provides us with a holistic view and high-level market research. For example, we recommend analyzing tagline searches prior to launching a new campaign to see what results you get.

Q: Does reputation management vary across industries?
Jennie: Yes, it has different applications depending on the industry. For example, in the consumer packaged goods arena, online brand monitoring can be an extension of influencer and brand advocate discovery. You can find out how people feel about the brand, and engage with them and their peers. A second option is market research, gathering feedback for future product development.

In the healthcare space, reputation management has a different use. Because of regulatory oversight, pharmaceutical companies are required to respond to postings regarding adverse effects. Reputation management takes on a more proactive role in which companies prepare legally approved website content with which to shape the message and respond to any negative buzz online. They also prepare unbranded landing pages for people searching on “[medication] reactions” so searchers hear their message instead of a competitor’s (or anyone else’s for that matter) on the topic.

Q: What’s the difference between monitoring Paid and Organic search results?
Jennie: In the sponsored, or paid listings, it is important to identify anyone who is misusing or abusing your trademark or brand name to prevent infringement, inappropriate use or worse, brand-jacking. One example of domain hijacking is “Swiffer.” If you type “Swiffer” into Google, there is a URL with three Fs — swifffer.com. Most searchers don’t look at the URL to see if they are linking to the legitimate company.

On the Organic side, you want to monitor select keyphrases for your brand to be vigilant for any posted threats, boycotts or other negative publicity. You can then evaluate the risk and determine appropriate action for both positive and negative postings.

Q: What should brand managers monitor?
Jennie: At the very least you should track your brand name in the SERPs, including variations on brand, to protect your brand equity. The brand manager or the company should come up with a tolerance level to establish what percentage of negative messaging the company will tolerate.

Q: What can a brand manager do if they do uncover negative postings online?
Jennie: You need to investigate the facts internally before taking action. Be honest. Explain what you have done to rectify any issue and offer to resolve any complaints personally or have a senior-level staff member offer to try to continue discussion offline. Rally friends, clients, peers and utilize your allies. You should always optimize your online assets – web pages, videos, press releases, and images – and obtain third-party links to reputable sites to get higher rankings and push negative postings down.

About Jennie Bendowitz
Jennie Bendowitz is the Director of Project Management dedicated to Biogen Idec, Novartis and Proctor & Gamble. She has seven years of experience in project management and nine years online marketing experience. Before joining Catalyst she worked at ACIS (American Council of International Studies) managing all aspects of the ACIS and divisional websites. She has a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration (BSBA) degree from Boston University’s School of Management.

By Ginna Hall | Posted in Healthcare, Internet Marketing, Newsletter, Online Advertising, Search Marketing, Search Matters, Web 2.0 | Comments (0)

Social Media and Healthcare

January 31, 2008 – 8:41 pm

Social Media and Healthcare
Social media is a phenomenon that can no longer be ignored by today’s competitive companies. Last year, 73% of advertising and media executives surveyed said up to 20% of their marketing budgets are allocated to using and experimenting with new media platforms such as blogs. In 2008 pharmaceutical marketing professionals are looking for creative ways to tap into online media to gain a competitive edge in the marketplace. One of the most effective ways of engaging physicians and consumers is through Web 2.0 social networking tools. In this month’s issue, Catalyst Search Marketing Project Manager Dan Ouellette discusses these tools.

Q: What is “social media?”
Dan: Social media, also called social networking, involves all of the shared aspects of being online, including blogs, forums, message boards, newsgroups, news feeds, bookmarking sites and sites like Facebook, MySpace and YouTube.

Q: Why is Social Media important?
Dan: Consumers – including physicians — are spending more and more time online and less and less time reading, listening to the radio, or watching TV. Media spending by all advertisers – not just pharma – needs to shift to new channels that consumers are using.

Social tools can improve multiple types of relationships for pharmaceutical companies. Patient-based social networks can help companies understand and react to patients; opinion leader blogs and forums can allow interactions with healthcare providers; and internal blogs can help leverage in-house knowledge to improve best practices.

For example, one of our clients is using a non-branded site with many social networking tools to engage consumers and help patients manage their high blood pressure. Companies can also brand a forum with advertising or become a member to raise awareness or share success stories.

Q: What are the benefits of social media?
Dan: Social media engages consumers on their terms and adds a new dimension to pharmaceutical advertising: engagement. Reach and frequency are the traditional factors used to measure marketing effectiveness and ROI. Social media can build brand awareness and strengthen connections with patients, physicians and healthcare providers. These tools can be used to create vertical communities around specific conditions. Linking to or from a blog can sometimes improve search rankings and increase web traffic. A blog that is updated frequently, with high quality content, will also boost site authority and rankings. Read More »

By Ginna Hall | Posted in Healthcare, Internet Marketing, MySpace, Newsletter, Online Advertising, Pharma, SEO Tips, Search Marketing, Search Matters, Social Media, Web 2.0 | Comments (1)

Search Marketing: The Last Mile

January 7, 2008 – 11:45 am

Whether you call it Closing the Loop, The Final Leg, or The Last Mile, the process of getting any deliverable – including information – to the final consumer is challenging. For marketers, The Last Mile means getting our message in front of customers, in a way that is relevant and timely, wherever they are – outdoors, at the movies, watching TV or on the Internet. In this interview, Catalyst Search Strategist Ann Kane tells why search marketing is “The Last Mile.”

Q: Why is search referred to as “The Last Mile?”
Ann: Search is considered a “Last Mile” vehicle as it is an interface that connects brands to consumers. Not only does it establish a direct line of communication, the connection is initiated by invitation of the consumer. Consumers are searching for solutions to a needs state, condition or problem. For marketers, this means they are receptive to messaging that provides them with a relevant solution. Both sides benefit when the outbound messaging from the brand complements the inbound line of communications by the consumer. Brands can also learn how to better deliver upon solutions to consumers needs with thoughtful analysis of the volume of data search marketing makes available.

Q: How do search marketing and offline marketing connect?
Ann: The basic tenet behind holistic marketing and campaign integration is that offline messaging drives consumers to search. The ever-growing reality is that consumers react to advertising and messaging from traditional communication channels like television, magazines and radio by going online and searching for more information. From our experience, we see offline messaging generates measurable increases in search queries and clicks.

The key to capturing this boost is to integrate messaging and timing from the traditional channels into search marketing plans. For marketers already running search campaigns, this could mean simply budgeting for incremental demand. For marketers who are new to search, we recommend testing a paid search campaign around offline activity.

By Ginna Hall | Posted in Internet Marketing, Newsletter, Online Advertising, Organic Search, Paid Search, Search Marketing, Search Matters, Search News | Comments (0)

Channel Integration: How to Maximize Your Marketing Investment

December 3, 2007 – 10:54 am

Marketers now have opportunities – and challenges — we’ve never had before. With the diversity of channels and media, consumers have so many more options. Marketers must be prepared, no matter how a customer expresses interest, to respond to that intention. Search engine marketing is the vehicle for not only responding appropriately, but also converting that customer, tracking that customer, and gathering an incredible load of data on that customer’s behavior. But often this opportunity isn’t leveraged because of a simple lack of communication between web, print and broadcast marketers. Below, Catalyst VP Lee Tuttle gives his insights on how to improve communication between the online and offline teams.

Q: Why is it important for offline and online marketing teams to communicate?
A: The offline team is responsible for a multitude of channels — TV, direct mail, newspapers, yellow pages, magazines, radio, podcasts, and more. The online team manages paid search engine advertising and website optimization.

There are three main reasons you want these two teams to communicate well. 1) To ensure the brand delivers consistent messaging and user experience; 2) to maximize brand exposure; and 3) to make best use of your marketing investment.

By Ginna Hall | Posted in Internet Marketing, Newsletter, Online Advertising, SEM, Search Marketing Conferences, Search Matters | Comments (0)

Paid Search Q&A: How to Get the Best CPV

November 1, 2007 – 12:51 pm

Here Tim Breen, Catalyst’s Director of Paid Search, addresses some frequently asked questions about Cost Per Visitor.

Q: What is the difference between Cost Per Visitor and Cost Per Click?
A: Many advertisers aren’t aware that there is a difference between Cost Per Visitor (CPV) and Cost Per Click (CPC). CPC is what you get charged by the search engine – Google, Yahoo!, etc. – when someone clicks on your paid search ad. Cost Per Visitor (CPV) is what you pay for each prospect that clicks on a paid search ad and comes to your site. Someone may click on an ad but move on before they get to your site. You get charged but you don’t actually see a visitor. When you look through your analytics reports you may have more clicks than visitors. It can be a difference of up to 10%. This may have to do with the quality of your ad. A searcher may click but then see something else on the Search Engine Results Page (SERP) and decide to go there instead. CPC is what you get charged but CPV is what you need to know to determine the true ROI of the campaign.

Q: What are the key factors that influence a keyword’s cost?
A: There are two main factors – keyword competition and Quality Score. The level of competition for a keyword is a primary factor. If you have a lot of people bidding on the same term it can drive up the overall price. Search engines are continually adjusting the bidding process and criteria. You used to be able to see the top five bids of your competitors when you set your bids. You had a good idea of what you should bid and could buy a term by bidding only .01 more than the advertiser in the #2 position. These conditions are continually changing and require daily monitoring to ensure that the advertiser is bidding appropriately.

Q: What is Quality Score and how does it affect cost?
A: Many search engines, including Google, Yahoo! and MSN Live, assign a Quality Score to every ad. Three things determine your ad’s score: ad quality, click through rate, and landing page relevance.

By Tim Breen | Posted in Adsense, CPC, Click Fraud, Internet Marketing, Newsletter, Online Advertising, Overture, PPC, Paid Search, SEM, Search Marketing, Text Ads, Uncategorized | Comments (1)

Four Steps to Better Campaign Tracking and ROI

October 1, 2007 – 3:30 pm

Ever wondered why that well planned (and expensive) online or offline campaign fizzled and you didn’t realize your return-on-investment? Well, maybe it wasn’t such a bust after all. But how could you know, either way? The answer is tracking. Well, it’s not all tracking, but it is setting yourself up for success so that the tracking you use can tell you whether or not you are reaching your goals. Here are four steps you can take to improve your campaign tracking, and your ROI.

Step 1: Define Campaign Conversion Events
Step 2: Set Up Campaign-Specific Landing Pages and Unique URLs
Step 3: Use Search to Capture Motivated Consumers
Step 4: Track and Mine the Right Data

By Francis | Posted in Analytics, Internet Marketing, Newsletter, Online Advertising, SEO Best Practices, Search Marketing, Search Matters | Comments (0)

Top 8 Wordpress Plugins

August 22, 2007 – 10:07 am

If you’ve come in through search, or feed and you haven’t read the 6 Tips to Boost your Blog then you should start there. Or if you’re just interested in these awesome plugins, then read on.

This is a evolving, regularly updated list of essential Wordpress Plugins, many of which aid in boosting your blog’s SEO friendliness. And who doesn’t want to be friends with a Search Engine? Read More »