1to1 - Spring 2009 - (Page 41) hot topics DATABASE/ANALYTICS | SALES | CUSTOMER SERVICE | MARKETING Getting More Than You Searched For A strategic approach to search engine results can lead to a deeper understanding of customers and prospects. For any company with an online presence, a search engine strategy is essential for attracting the right prospects and customers. But as search engine marketing and optimization become more advanced, so do their benefits. Today, companies that examine the resulting data from their SEM and SEO activities can enhance their understanding of their customers. According to a recent Aberdeen research study, What Does It Take to Create Best-in-Class Search Engine Marketing?, 71 percent of respondents’ companies have implemented a formal search engine marketing initiative, and an additional 15 percent expect to implement search engine marketing efforts within 12 months. This includes paid search, organic search, and paid inclusion activities. Most companies are still very tactical when it comes to leveraging their search engine program data, says Steve Lawrence, customer management research associate at Aberdeen and author of the report. Website impressions, clickthrough rates, cost per click, and conversions are some of the most popular metrics, he DATABASE/ ANALYTICS says. For the most part, search engine activity data is composed of aggregate, general behavioral data. Basic Web analytics tools provide campaignrelated data such as number of visitors, top referral sites, and search results on particular search engines. This data can be valuable when understanding the immediate impact of a search engine program or keyword campaign. But new tools are giving companies access to a wide breadth of search data. With Google Insights for Search, for example, companies can compare search volume patterns across specific geographies, categories, and time frames. It shows top related keywords and rising related keywords; search volume trends by category, such as finance or sports; and countries, states, and cities where a keyword query is most popular. It’s also possible to mash-up data points, like “celebrity searches in New York in the past 30 days.” A deeper look at those metrics can result in a stronger understanding of customers. “You can’t do SEO in a vacuum,” says Blake Cahill, senior vice president of marketing for search optimization company Visible SEM SEO SEO SEM Technologies. “It’s important for a company to align its search strategy with other data sources,” like CRM. “A lot of times SEO is viewed as a promotional tool, but the data collected from it can be mapped against customer behavior data and other known data you already have.” The Aberdeen report recommends that leads driven through search engine marketing efforts should connect into an organization’s CRM database to close the marketing loop and improve conversions. For example, if a company measuring hits on the keyword “purple toothbrush” sees a high number of visitors referred from a dental organization website, that company can adjust its copy to cater more to dental professionals and analyze the behavior, history, and value of lookalike customers already in the database. “You want to try to understand that group of users better,” Cahill says. “You can certainly learn a lot about groups in aggregate.” Aberdeen’s Lawrence agrees that data integration is important. “The best-in-class organizations are the ones I see that are tying back search data to their overall marketing Technologies That Support Search Engine Activities Companies are seeing value in tying search engine activities to other marketing systems. Here are the top integrated functions. Campaign management 73% 64% 44% 73% 64% 42% 71% 63% 59% % of respondents Best in class Industry average Laggard Website keyword density analysis Customer relationship management Source: Aberdeen Group, October 2008 Spring 2009 41 http://www.aberdeen.com/summary/report/research_previews/5536-RP-search-engine-marketing.asp?rss=y
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