Getting Noticed: Tips for Great SEM

by Lyndi Lawson

Image via Flickr, by Chris Gin under CC

Seach Engine Marketing (SEM) is a complicated beast that requires a considered approach. Here are some things to take into account while you’re considering the best strategy to slay or tame it.

1). Make sure you stand out

Whether you’re marketing yourself on the high street or advertising small china figurines that collect dust in old ladies’ homes, it is important to make yourself stand out. It’s the same with SEM. There will almost always be advertisements for products that are similar, if not the same as yours. Essentially, those delightfully upstanding high street citizens are all offering the same thing, but it’s the one who tries to maul you through your car window at the traffic lights that you’re going to remember. Whether it’s a snappy PPC ad or optimised copy that would make Shakespeare proud, you need to make sure that your customers take note of and remember your online endeavours.

2). Strong calls to action

A great SEM campaign needs to tell its target audience what to do and how to do it. While the advertiser may know what he is trying to achieve, it is not always as obvious to the target audience. People are busy and while, getting them to actually read about your product is the first hurdle, you need them to buy it or fulfil your site goals rather than merely thinking that it looks interesting. Calls to action not only tell customers what to do but they also tell them how to do it - a good thing if you’re trying to make a sale.

3). Run an integrated campaign

Having recently integrated our SEO and PPC teams into the awesome Ministry of Cunning SEM plans, we are all about the holistic approach. This is not a new idea either – using too much of one and not enough of the other is a sure fire way to fail at the ultimate goal of dominating the SERPs. More than that, they are complementary tactics, which, when used correctly will ensure more traffic to your site as well as a higher conversion rate.

4). Landing pages matter

Do not underestimate the importance of landing pages. Think of house hunting – it involves a lot of time looking at advertisements, followed by viewing the real thing. Very often, no matter how incredible a house sounds in an advertisement, it’s the first few minutes that have the most impact on your decision to either run away screaming or investigate further. Entrances to houses are exactly like landing pages. They are your strongest indicator of whether you’ve found what you’re looking for or if you simply aren’t in Kansas anymore. Some advice for landing pages: keep the copy short and to the point, include a strong call to action and ensure that it’s relevant to the search engine result that they clicked on.

5). Focus on relevance

I cannot emphasise this enough. If someone clicks on a link that advertises pink fluffy toy elephants, they need to be taken to a landing page where there are pink fluffy toy elephants for sale. If you think this through logically, why would someone who had clicked on a link for fluffy pink elephants actually want to purchase a Russian bride? I don’t see the link and, I suspect, neither will your visitors. Relevant content, in addition to ensuring more conversions, will increase your chance of legitimately getting to the top of the organic search results and will ensure better Paid Search rankings too. And, even if you’re selling Russian brides, you can retain some semblance of credibility provided you are at least transparent about it.

2008/11/25 | permalink | comments (0) | trackbacks (0)

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Recent Comments

Kat on Engaging as a Company

I agree with you. There are some things that should ideally not be discussed by an employee in the public sphere.
Would a communications policy have stopped the said journo from speaking out? He/she must have known a huge risk was being taken? I suppose it's also an incredibly difficult thing to predict. The lack of control can be alarming.
I'm definitely interested in seeing a more specific list, so if you find it do share.
Thank you for your comments :). Here's hoping there's a good coffee shop close to you..
vincent on Engaging as a Company

I guess the mark of a well crafted brand starts at HR policy for new recruits - ensuring that they fit the brand's/corporate's persona. So in that sense yes you could argue that left to their own devices employees would, regardless of an online communications policy, communicate in a style the sponsor would approve of. Not sure if that's always the case but I'm inclined to agree with this generalization.
I think what is also important is that the individual writing within the bounds of a sponsor's site does so in a restricted locale. You can police your own domain if you're a corporate, you can't necessarily control the individuals mouth outside of it. For instance on twitter, personal blogs and forums. Owing to the nature of niche stardom you could argue that the employee comes to represent the brand, more so than that personifies the brand in organic conversation with consumers and would carry significant weight both within corporate sites and externally. Making some individuals very wary to write for their companies at all.
For instance in our not too distant past a prominent journo got the boot for publishing his gripes with his employers and their professional ability - he was promptly fired...He would no doubt have been policed on a company blog but owing to the fact that he chose to represent the company elsewhere he took his brand and the papers brand with him - dragging both through the mud as traipsed on towards epic-failuredom...
So to come back to a point, there is definitely a sense that the policies as listed above are quite ambiguous. Even you yourself suggest that requisite legalese is absent, and I have to assume that such legalese would include a fairly long list of do's and dont's. I have a list somewhere laying about which dictates in a very bland corporate fashion how to represent the brand in public - if I find it I will share it with you.
Perhaps its worthwhile to enforce points like "don't tell secrets" and my own favourite, "for the love of god don't gripe about the boss who you've publicly named online"...
That's my mental-riff for the day, I'm afraid I veered rather uncharitably off course but such is the nature of thought.
Now if only the company I worked for had some decent coffee!!
Kat on Engaging as a Company

Transparency is a key issue - as is allowing people to carve their own niche.
My thinking is that people engage with a personality - an individual personality - in conversation more than with a collective. It's just easier. A company personality surely reflects the people who work there as well as a crafted (constructed?) image that the stakeholders choose to present. While you want engagement it's not the same as speaking to an individual.
There are definite risks involved - but I would lean towards allowing people to carve a niche.
vincent on Engaging as a Company

Couldn't have said it better. Nice post, it is most certainly something corporates are going to struggle with. How much transparency is too much? Who should be allowed to represent a brand and to what extent should the individual be given the opportunity to carve their own niche rather than extol the virtues of the mother - brand?
Who knows. We shall soon see as this year pans out and we find out how the big media players tackle the rise of the cost effective digital media channel.
Kat on Engaging as a Company

It is a tough issue, and I can understand why you've never published. I would encourage you to do so though - you probably have a feeling for when your writing reflects your voice and when it doesn't - and the rewards are worth it.
Thanks for reading Wendy. :)

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Getting Noticed: Tips for Great SEM

by Lyndi Lawson

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