Search Engine Marketing

With the down economy a continuing issue, marketers must make integration a top priority. By fully integrating search engine marketing (SEM) with all other marketing channels, you can squeeze the most out of your media and marketing spend.

I had an interesting debate with a client the other day about internal site search failure rates for B-to-B catalogers. He asked me what I thought the acceptable rate of internal site search was. He suggested that 15 percent, 20 percent or even 25 percent was “normal.”
B-to-B marketers know the ease with which customers can find the product(s) they want when shopping on your site is key. Unlike their B-to-C counterparts, B-to-B marketers often have more than 100,000 items listed on their sites. Large B-to-B catalogers can have more than 500,000, and I know of at least one who has more than 1

Search engine marketers today must be mindful of the legal issues surrounding the medium — click fraud, copyright infringements, consumer privacy regulations, to name just a few. While an effective and efficient means for acquiring customers, the vehicle has its perils. In a session at last week’s Search Marketing Expo East conference in New York City, a panel of legal authorities led a session aimed at educating search marketers on the latest legal developments in their industry. When it comes to search today, behavioral targeting and privacy issues dominate the legal landscape. “There’s a general squeamishness about behavioral targeting,” said Mark Rosenberg, counsel at

With more and more catalogers transitioning online, search marketing, in particular pay per click (PPC), has become essential to their marketing plans and budgets. At last week’s Search Marketing Expo East conference in New York City, a panel of search experts led a discussion on how to revive a failed PPC campaign. Here are some thoughts/observations/tips gleaned from that session. * Many sites aren’t lacking for traffic, noted Alissa Ruehl, manager of paid search services at the online marketing services firm Apogee Search. But for the most part, it’s irrelevant traffic. The first step is to find irrelevant search terms in Google’s search query

Despite reports detailing the strong power of integrating search marketing and offline channels (go here for an example), 45 percent of search engine marketers who responded to a recent Jupiter Research survey said they don’t integrate their search marketing efforts with offline channels. The online survey was completed by 289 search marketers. Here are some more findings of the report. * Of the 55 percent who do integrate their search marketing efforts with at least one offline marketing channel, direct mail was the favored channel (34 percent), followed by magazine/newspaper advertising (29 percent), and television and radio advertising (both 12 percent); * 19 percent

Customer Engagement: Solid product discovery and site navigation are key to engagement. The MarketLive Performance Index v5: Focus on Engagement is now available! Refine familiar tactics to yield greater results. * Improve internal site search capabilities * Navigation that sells * Relevancy strategies * Better engagement and conversion Get your free copy!

PATIENT: Doc, I’m a longtime catalog marketing pro running a multichannel business. But between the down economy and the expanding Web, I’m depressed and confused about how to get my business back on track. With all of today’s changes, are there any prescriptions you can give me? CATALOG DOCTOR: You’re suffering from a recent affliction called Lost-Boom Syndrome, or LBS. It’s been sweeping multichannel businesses since this economic malaise set in, creating anxiety and despair. LBS exhibits multiple symptoms, requiring a multiple therapy approach. Let’s look at each symptom and its therapy. Symptom 1: Sloppy Marketing The most recent economic boom allowed

A recent whitepaper from the search engine optimization and marketing firm MoreVisibility, 10 Critical Elements to a Successful Google Adwords Campaign, provides tips for multichannel merchants to help them realize the full potential, and profitability, of a properly managed Google Adwords account. Here are five pointers to take away from the report. 1. Keep your campaigns and ad groups tightly themed. Keep your campaigns and ad groups as relevant to your business as possible. Without tightly themed ad groups, you run the risk of Google not being able to determine the context of your groups, the whitepaper cautions. This results in Google misinterpreting

Although we’re in the midst of summer, it’s time to start thinking about your company’s paid search strategy for the upcoming holiday season. Some of the most critical holiday search strategies require months of serious preparation. So take the time to start planning your fourth quarter holiday search now. While there are many holiday search issues to address while the weather’s still warm, it’s best to focus on the following three: 1. quality score; 2. mining last winter’s data for this winter’s search campaign; and 3. e-mail loyalty programs (yes, that’s a search issue, too). Quality Score Search prices skyrocket during the holiday

If your Web site doesn’t rank in search, then it really doesn’t matter how it looks. But once it does rank, how good it looks and converts visitors to buyers is critical to acquiring new customers online.
These days, with constantly rising postage rates and mailing costs, finding new customers online is mandatory. It’s no longer a “nice to have” option. Smart online marketers realize their Web site’s search engine optimization performance is key. They also know it’s not just about how your site looks and performs, but also how your site ranks in Google and other leading search engines. It’s all about potential