The First Search Engine Marketing Method: Content That Meets Customer's Need for Information

Edward R. Hill

For your business web site, good search engine rankings and high user traffic depend on relevant content. More user traffic will mean more sales leads and then more sales. Beyond any technical tricks, content that meets the users' need for three types of information is the best guarantee that search engines and users will find your site. The Google and Yahoo page rankings favor sites that have articles of about 500 to 1000 words and that use keywords relevant to the user's search.

Once they find your site with a search engine, web users spend more time on sites where their needs are met. To understand why users come back to content rich sites, lets look at the ways that a successful website, like DVInfo, fills the three most important information needs of the website user.

Continued...

The DVInfo.net online community boasts over thirteen thousand members and a quarter million posts. What makes users of DVInfo Community come back to the site on a regular basis? The users come back for relevant content that meets their needs.

Here everyone from Hollywood cameramen to new DV camera owners in Alaska meet to discuss digital video. Online communities can build powerful loyalty in users. Some unpaid users at DVInfo.net are posting their stories and answering other forum user's questions nearly every day. What would happen to your sales if users were so loyal to your brand and your web site that they showed up every day to read new content?

At the Digital Video website (DVInfo.net), the presence of experienced video creators who can offer detailed explanations gives the site credibility. In this forum a rookie video camera user can learn from an experienced Director of Photography like Charles Papert, who has worked on TV shows like "The West Wing" and "Buffy the Vampire Slayer". Because of its highly relevant content and numerous links from other Digital Video content sites, the DVInfo.net site has a Google page rank of 6 out of 10.

For your business web site, the presence of reliable, helpful content builds the user's confidence that they can trust your business. Reliable content and links from other relevant content sites also build the page rank of your business web site.

Now let's look at what this means to a business web site that also wants to build more user traffic. Users have three major tasks they perform when using a content rich site like DVInfo.net Community or your business website.

Customer Need 1: Learn Enough About the Topic to Identify Needs

How does a new video camera user approach the DV INFO web site? A beginning video camera user may not even realize that the video he shoots can be edited to remove bad video shots, or tell a story. The new video camera user reads about the way more experienced users shoot video and edit video. Gradually he realizes that he can do more than just shoot home movies. He begins to want a PC that can edit his video. He learns because the web site community has rich content.

At first, your business web site customer may not even know he has a need for your service, or may not understand that need. Your website content should first focus on helping people understand their need without pushing a particular product at this point.

Customer Need 2: Learn About Alternative Solutions

Next, the DV INFO user studies the different ways to edit video. Should he get a PC or a Mac? He learns about video edit software by reading about other users and their experience with different brands of edit software.

During this middle stage, web site customers look for possible solutions and then narrow these down to make a decision. Website users need both rational and emotional reasons to make their decision, but content at this stage generally shows the benefits of a solution or compares it to other solutions. Many websites focus on the rational, technical description of a solution, although a study of Amazon.com's product reviews found that the more subjective product reviews were as helpful to customers as the more objective reviews. This testimonial-style content helps alleviate fear and lets customers learn from other peoples' experience with your product.

Commercial web sites, like Amazon.com, have User Reviews to allow purchasers to see how others liked a certain book. This reduces the customer's fear of the unknown. The buyer at Amazon.com feels more confident buying a book about cave exploring, by Michael Ray Taylor, if 30 other users also liked the book. Good reviews or testimonials on a business web site overcome the buyer's fear of the unknown.

Customer Need 3: Choose the Best Solution and Feel Comfortable

The DV INFO user settles on 1 or 2 video edit solutions and needs to learn more. If other users write about good experiences with the same hardware and software choice, the aspiring video editor starts to feel more comfortable. Especially if the cost is great, the good experiences of others reduce the user's fear about making the wrong choice.

Finally, your business website customer chooses a solution, by purchasing a product, or choosing a service. Content at this stage helps people learn about their chosen solution and adapt to working with it. Technical support or sharing experiences and advice with other people who have also chosen this solution can help the customer use the product successfully. Good content at this stage strengthens the relationship with customers. This stage is ongoing and sometimes leads to more questions. This may mean additional sales for your web site.

This understanding of content could be the guiding force in creating different parts of your web site. Your website selling business services could have a web page that educates clients about the different problems that they may have in their business. Your second web page could offer several possible solutions to these problems. Finally, you could build consumer confidence in your services by showing user testimonials or case studies.

By writing your website content from these three client viewpoints your web site meets the three most crucial information needs of clients. This is the first step to earning good Search Engine rankings for relevant content.


Ed Hill does Search Engine Marketing and website promotion using PR methods. He works mainly with businesses, PR firms and web design firms.
Search Engine
Marketing or Search Engine Optimization is available through
Atlanta SEO Firm, Ed Hill PR.

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SEM- Agencies Direct Over Half of All SEM Spending

JupiterResearch Report Finds Search Engine Marketing -SEM- Agencies Direct Over Half of All SEM Spending and Gives Advice on How to Choose an Effective Agency

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 7, 2004--JupiterResearch, a division of Jupitermedia Corporation (Nasdaq: JUPM), reported today that Search Engine Marketing (SEM) agencies now direct the majority of SEM spending in the United States. Just a few years ago, most SEM spending went directly to the search engines. Today, SEM is becoming a more mature market like traditional advertising in which agencies play a substantial role. Indeed, while just 31% of search marketers use an agency to manage their SEM campaigns, those marketers account for 51% of the total spending on paid search, according to a recent JupiterResearch survey of search marketers. This marks a significant increase in the spending directed by agencies over the past 18 months.

The data was released in JupiterResearch's Search Engine Marketing Agency Constellation report, which reviews and rates fourteen leading SEM agencies on market suitability, overall business value and agency size. According to the JupiterResearch report, Decide Interactive/24/7 Search, Did-It.com, Impaqt, Performics and AvenueA/Razorfish Search are closely grouped for top ratings in paid listings management. iProspect and Impaqt outpace all the other vendors in organic optimization.


"As search marketing grows in complexity and advertisers increase their search budgets, we expect the market for SEM agencies will continue to expand," said JupiterResearch Associate Analyst Nate Elliott. "With so many agencies offering search engine marketing services, it can be hard for advertisers to choose the right firm. The SEM agencies that have built their own bid management and campaign tracking tools, and that use extensive data to create campaign strategy, are typically able to generate better results for their advertisers," added Elliott.

The complete findings of this report are immediately available to JupiterResearch clients online. For more information on the report or JupiterResearch's Online Search research service please visit www.jupiterresearch.com or contact Kieran Kelly, Vice President of Global Sales and Client Service at 1-800-481-1212 or researchsales@jupitermedia.com.

About Jupitermedia Corporation

Jupitermedia Corporation (Nasdaq: JUPM) (www.jupitermedia.com), headquartered in Darien, CT, is a leading global provider of original information, images, research and events for information technology, business and creative professionals. JupiterWeb, the online media division of Jupitermedia, operates four distinct online networks: internet.com and EarthWeb.com for IT and business professionals; DevX.com for developers; and ClickZ.com for interactive marketers. JupiterWeb properties include more than 150 Web sites and over 150 e-mail newsletters that are viewed by approximately 20 million users and generate over 300 million page views monthly. Jupitermedia also includes: JupiterImages, one of the leading images companies in the world with over 4.0 million images online serving creative professionals with products like Comstock Images, Thinkstock Images, Thinkstock Footage, Photos.com, HemeraImages.com, Ablestock.com and Clipart.com; JupiterResearch, a leading international research advisory organization specializing in business and technology market research in 18 business areas and 14 vertical markets; and JupiterEvents, which produces offline conferences and trade shows focused on IT and business-specific topics, including Search Engine Strategies and Wi-Fi Planet.

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Ken Burnhardt of Georgia State University Talks About Blogs and Consumer Generated Media

Ken Bernhardt is Regents Professor and Marketing Department Chairman of Mack Robinson College of Business at Georgia State University. We spoke about the value of blogs and product rating sites on the net. Bernhardt has definite ideas about the value of blogs to manufacturers and marketers.

"Blogs are most effective in consumer’s hands. They are consumer generated media.
Normally marketers control the message about products. The great thing about blogs is that consumers control the blogs. It changes the balance of power," said Bernhardt.

"The real issue is that blogs are word of mouth generated from consumer to consumer.
Intelliseek has developed a white paper called Consumer Generated Media 101 available from their web site at www.intelliseek.com," said Bernhardt.

Bernhardt gave me several examples of consumer feedback sites like;



Consumerrevenge.com
Complaints.com
Mythreecents.com
Planetfeed.com
and Bizrate.com.

Bernhardt explained, "Consumers trust these websites more than they trust corporate websites. The benefit of this is that you know somebody else in the same situation.
If Kodak, for example, sells a digital camera and the zoom sucks, then its easy to complain on the web and a lot of people will know about the problem.
If I’m thinking about buying that camera and I read a review where some one talks about the zoom problem, then I’d think twice before buying it. I’ll hear nothing negative from the marketer about the problem," said Bernhardt.

"This started with Amazon.com and their reader reviews. If a number of consumers like a book and tell you why they liked it, you’re more likely to buy the book. If you’re a manufacturer, you’d better be going to the sites and see what people are saying.
Blogs and consumer communities are a valuable resource for consumer intelligence.
You can find out exactly what customers are saying about your product. Microsoft did this better than any one else. They studied phone logs from Microsoft customer support and they continuously fixed defects in their software," said Bernhardt.

Bernhardt sees blogs and online communities for consumers as vital sources of
information for marketers. He believes that few companies are taking advantage of this opportunity to learn what features consumers like or dislike.

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Finding Blogs Used in SEO and PR

Lately I have interviewed PR and Ad professionals at 8 firms in Atlanta.
I am seeking examples of recent projects that used weblogs or Search Engine Optimization methods in a PR or Ad campaign.

The interviews will appear over the next few days here at the ATL PR Blog.

Meanwhile here is the first example of a weblog used for PR or Ad work:
My favorite is the Nike Art of Speed weblog. This Nike PR blog had 15 filmmakers interpret the idea of speed.

This is the actual film location


This weblog only existed for 20 days and exhibits the characteristics we would want in a PR campaign tool.

• Entertaining message that gives the campaign viral or pass-along value. Art of speed has enough WOW factor that you might e-mail a friend about the blog. The blog provides a handy email form.


• Limited campaign life of the blog. This gives the PR Blog a finite budget and a finite amount of content to be created.


• No comments so that spam artists and the criminally insane are prevented from distorting the corporate message.


• Focused life style entertainment piece to help convey the brand story.

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Ed Hill PR Gains two new Clients for Search Engine Optimization

Nickel and Dime Studios and the new Docudrama DVD "On Our Way Up" Both Select Ed Hill PR to Optimize Websites and Increase Web Traffic

Ed Hill will completely optimize the Nickel and Dime Recording Studios website to increase web traffic.

Nickel and Dime Studios owner Don McCollister has recorded and engineered music for many notable recording artists like the B-52’s, The Indigo Girls, Johnny Colt of the Black Crowes, Shawn Mullins, Sister Hazel and Third Day.

Studio Manager Jim Pinkstone felt the Nickel and Dime web site wasn’t bringing them the traffic and business referrals that they wanted. Pinkstone hired Ed Hill PR to rewrite the web copy, add more content pages and perform a complete search engine optimization of the website.

The optimized Nickel and Dime Studios web site will be re-launched by December 29, 2004 with the new domain name:www.makearecordatlanta.com .

Three C Studios of Atlanta – Hustling in the Street DVD docudrama, “On Our Way Up” To Launch with Direct Sales Web Site Designed by Ed Hill

Atlanta brothers, Anthony and Emmanuel Clark grew up in the roughest Atlanta neighborhoods, but went on to become businessmen in real estate and the owners of Three C Entertainment.

Their new docudrama DVD, “On Our Way Up” is the real life story of growing up among street hustlers, drugs and violent crime. Three C Studios needed a web site for the new DVD docudrama that would also contribute to publicity and sales of “On Our Way Up”.

Three C Studios has hired Ed Hill to build the website
and conduct the marketing campaign for the new 1 hour DVD program.
The Three C Studios web site will be launched in mid January 2005.

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Advertisers Will Spend $4 Billion Dollars in 2004 on Search Engine Marketing

Advertisers Will Spend $4 Billion Dollars in 2004 on Search Engine Marketing According to the Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization (SEMPO)

Advertisers Expected to Spend on Average an Additional 39% in 2005 on Their Combined Search Engine Marketing Programs Compared to 2004

Chicago, IL - December 14 2004 - The Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization (SEMPO), a non-profit professional association working to increase awareness and promote the value of Search Engine Marketing (SEM) worldwide, today published a research paper, "The State of Search Engine Marketing 2004," which concludes that in the U.S. and Canadian market, advertisers will spend $4.087 billion dollars this year on search marketing programs. That figure comprises payments to search engines and search-related media companies, search engine marketing agencies as well as in-house expenditures in support of such programs, including "paid placement," "paid inclusion," "organic search engine optimization" and "search engine marketing technology platforms".

from the SEMPO press release.

Here is a summary of major points in the SEMPO report:

• "The research also suggests that marketers are using a mix of internal and external solutions to deal with the high level of complexity of the search marketing space. SEMPO expects increasing competition among marketers to drive significant growth in Search Engine Marketing and related services over the next several years."
  
  
• The research report is based on an extensive survey of 288 search engine advertisers and marketing agencies, executed via IntelliSurvey, Inc.
  
  
• The final report breaks down US advertiser spending for 2004 in several areas:
  
  
  
  
  

  Amount	SEM category
  $3.342 billion	paid placement campaigns
  $492 million	organic search engine optimization
  $182 million	paid inclusion
  $72 million	SEM-related technology services.

  
  
  
  
• The return on investment of SEM paid placement advertising continues to stay ahead of price inflation: advertisers said on average they have witnessed bid prices rise 26% in the last 12 months for keywords they commonly buy ...
  
  
  
• Only 41% of advertisers reported that SEM budgets were newly created funds for this purpose; the rest said SEM budgets were coming in whole or in part from shifts away from traditional or Internet marketing programs.
  
  
  
• The biggest shift in terms of share of budget was transferred from paid listings on shopping directories, e-mail programs, web display advertising, and print magazine and newspaper ads.
  
  
  
• Brand awareness was overall the #1 objective advertisers set for search marketing programs, just beating out sales and lead generation initiatives.
  
  
  
• 50% of advertiser respondents said that their senior executive staff considered the company's search marketing initiatives a "high priority" (although that figure dropped to 32% of companies with staff sizes larger than 500).
  
  
  
• Advertisers expect to spend, on average, 39% more on all search marketing programs (organic SEO, paid placement, paid inclusion and SEM technology) in 2005 compared to 2004; smaller firms projected 32% more while larger firms (larger than 500 employees) projected a 43% year-over-year increase. Meanwhile, SEM agencies optimistically projected budget overall gross revenue increases for 2005 of 79% on average.
  
  
  
• Most advertisers plan to manage the majority of their search marketing spending in-house as opposed to via an agency: 52% of advertisers said they would manage 100% of their 2005 spending on both paid inclusion and organic SEO in-house;
  
  
  
• Advertises said they would outsource 28% of their spending on paid placement and 29% of their organic SEO through agencies. Large advertisers were likely to outsource more of those budgets for both organic SEO and paid placement.
  
  
  

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Ed Hill Launches Web Marketing Blog

Ed Hill PR


I do online advertising and search engine marketing consulting for companies in
Georgia, Florida and North Carolina. This blog covers a wide range of topics in
online PR, online sales and search engine optimization. It also gives me a chance to
find cool entertainment as advertisiing web sites, which is one of my favorite topics.

Here are contact details if you have online marketing or search engine marketing
related information. Especially contact me if you have info about cool entertainment web sites that are actually advertising.

Ed Hill Public Relations, 1404 Chastain Dr. NE Atlanta GA 30342
Contact: Ed Hill 678-754-5181

The Marketing Hotline is suspended.

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The Rise of Content as Advertising

The Rise of Content as Advertising

Pamela Parker's article "Amazon Debuts Short Film Series for Holidays"
describes how Amazon.com launched a short film series starring well-known actors.

The crucial elements of creating these kinds of entertainment films with massive product placement are:

Name stars and feature film / commercial directors Ridley Scott and Tony Scott.
Amazon teamed with agency Fallon Worldwide, which also created BMW's groundbreaking online film series, "The Driver".

The major sponsor is the Chase-issued Amazon Platinum Visa card, with a product placement promotion where cardholders get additional reward points when they buy film-related content.

The content as marketing theme is growing. Last year Amazon hosted a two month long promotion featuring content by authors, musicians and actors.

The last part of the article describes the mix of stars and product placement.

"As the credits roll on each film, users are presented with various links to other places on the Amazon.com site. Each actor and director will have a "boutique" on Amazon.com, where people can buy items associated with the individual, or donate to their designated charities. Actors involved include Daryl Hannah, Chris Noth and Blair Underwood. Products that appear in the films will also be linked, so viewers can buy the featured furniture, apparel, cosmetics, electronics and jewelry."

Bravo, Pamela Parker for an excellent article.

I wonder, how could this trend be used for regional advertisers?


See the entire article at CLICKZ
Amazon Debuts Short Film Series for Holidays

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Monthly Online Ad Spending Increases to $ 684 Million USD

AdZone Research Reports Web Advertising Climbs Again for Third Straight Month
SOURCE: Adzone Press Release Dated Thursday October 21, 9:36 am ET

NEW YORK, Oct. 21, 2004 -- Advertising spending on the Internet grew for the third straight month according to figures for the month of July, the last month for which actual figures are available, according to the Adzone Research Internet Advertising Report. AdZone Research is an advertising research firm that tracks advertising on some 2,700 Web sites worldwide representing more than 95% of all Internet advertising revenue.

The value of Internet advertising in July was $684.2 million, up 2.2% from June, and 6.1% more than in the month of May. ``In analyzing these trends,'' said AdZone's Chief Operating Officer, John A. Cardona, ``technology again emerged as the top advertising category, with more than $195 million in online spending.'' Cardona said companies such as Dell Computer, Hewlett Packard and IBM are consistently among the top advertisers online.



In addition to the technology and finance sectors, the other top online ad sectors for July, in descending order, were retail ($84.2 million), business ($84 million), automotive ($57 million), health ($31.3 million), sports and leisure ($29.8 million), entertainment ($27.9 million), travel ($19.8 million) and home merchandise ($18.1 million). As the economy strengthens, the online marketplace will continue to be a dominant force in the advertising arena,`` the COO concluded.

About AdZone Research:
AdZone Research specializes in automated retrieval, classification, analysis and delivery of worldwide Internet data for global defense as well as media metrics. http://www.adzoneresearch.com.


Analysis:
Placing the top ad sectors in a chart reveals the relative strength of each industry's online ad spending:
Top 10 Advertiser Categories September 2004

Industry	Online Ad Spending
technology	$195 million
finance	$104 million
retail	$84.2 million
business	$84 million
automotive	$57 million
health	$31.3 million
sports & leisure	$29.8 million
entertainment	$27.9 million
travel	$19.8 million
home merchandise	$18.1 million

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