Search Marketing isn’t all that different than traditional marketing. And, just like the physical market, you have a plethora of vehicles from which to choose. Optimizing your efforts can get a little confusing, so look to the traditional Marketing Mix to help a bit.
P Number 1: Product
The end-result. In the Internet world, we’ll call this the user’s interaction with the website being promoted. I want to look at it this way for sake of including all types of websites, not just ecommerce sites.
This is where conversion fits into the marketing mix. There’s no sense in wasting link building efforts or on page optimization work if the end result of this leads the user to a junky place. So many clients want their pages to be at the top of the SERPs, yet aren’t willing to make changes to their website that make them worthy of high rankings.
P Number 2: Price
How much do you spend on your website and it’s promotion? The numbers that float by my screen sometimes astound me. People and companies are spending a lot on search marketing.
Forrester has predicted 3.1 billion dollars to go to social marketing by 2014, but that’s only 1/10th of what they think is going to search marketing. These are some big numbers, there’s no doubt about it. Take a peek into your competitors search marketing and search marketing spending habits. Are you in the same ballpark?
P Number 3: Place
This P, also known as distribution, applies to how the first P (targeted website) is delivered to a potential consumer. Are you getting a lot of direct traffic? Where are you in the SERPs?
Where are your back-links hanging out? It’s essential to understand your market coverage. How often are your keywords being searched? A neat tool to check trends of keywords is Google Insights. Don’t waste money in keywords that aren’t of interest to users (duh!).
P Number 4: Promotion
Let’s refer to packaging, here. I’m talking meta description and title tag. While these aren’t on-page factors, per se’, they are so important to search marketing efforts. Don’t blow these. Inevitably, like a kid at Christmas, Googlers & Bingers will pick the box that most looks like the best present. The Red Rider.
Note: This post was written by of Kim Greuel of SlingsotSEO Zach represents here at SEJ
