Can Big Brands Benefit from Search Marketing? - Who's Doing It Right?
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So now that you’re just as horrified as I am about some of the big brands that are missing the mark when it comes to search, I want to name a couple of companies that are going about things the right way. Godiva is #1 and #2 in Google for the keyword “chocolate,” a term that received 161,000 searches in Overture in April 2005. Godiva products also show up in Froogle when you search for “chocolate” and they are present in the Chocolate & Sweets section of Yahoo! Shopping. Another top brand that’s clearly benefiting from search marketing is Starbucks.com, which is #1 in Google, #2 in Yahoo and #7 in MSN for the term “coffee.” A Google ad for StarbucksStore.com also shows up in the search results for “coffee.”
There are other examples of top brands that show up in search results for the generic terms that they’re well known for, but it is difficult to find a big name company that truly takes advantage of all the possibilities of search. Since new search marketing opportunities crop up practically every day, it seems, this can be a difficult undertaking.
In addition to search engines, directories and shopping engines, there are other search marketing opportunities that are fairly low-cost and provide excellent exposure to a company, brand or product. Different types of search such as local search and international search, press release distribution, link placement and article syndication are all closely related to search in that they either directly show up in the search results in one way or another, or they help boost organic search ranking. Contextual ads placed through Google or other channels such as Quigo.com distributes text ads on topically-relevant websites (e.g., a Godiva ad might show up on a cooking website or blog) is another venue that falls within the scope of search marketing.
Conclusion
Big brands can benefit from the increasing number of search marketing opportunities by employing a cohesive search engine marketing strategy and simply paying attention to opportunities that are both obvious (e.g., Godiva for “chocolate”) and not so obvious (e.g., Godiva for “sugar free candy”). Your brand can also demonstrate leadership in the market by appearing each and every time someone searches for what you are known for (Pepsi SHOULD be there for “soda”, Bic SHOULD be there for “pen”).
The beauty of search for a big brand is that, in most cases, the very popular generic terms are attainable because you have the money to spend on SEO and link placement. Even so, search budgets are relatively small compared with other marketing channels. Whether you’re peddling underwear, computer networking or soda, it just doesn’t make sense not to be there when someone is searching for something you’re selling.
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