So Your Industry Is Boring – Don’t Let That Keep You Out of Social Media

July 20, 2010 By Nathan Blair 1 Comment

A few days ago, a client expressed a doubt that’s probably all too common. He said, “You guys recommend that I get more involved in social media, but I’m in the (insert boring industry here) industry. What is there to say about the (insert boring industry here) industry?”

Is social media stardom reserved only for the world’s most exciting things like, say, gilded yak shaving?

I think not. Just a few days ago, I watched the people in this office go nuts over a social media campaign about body wash. People around the world have been obsessed with campaigns about blenders, hamburgers, and beef jerky. There are not a lot of inherently exciting things about those products, but they were able to engage users like few things can. If they can do it, you can do it in your boring industry. Here are two things to remember:

1. It’s not about the product

Most consumer products and services are boring, which is why good social media marketing is about emotion and branding instead of the product. Your aim should be to make people laugh, shake their head in disbelief, do a double-take, etc. If you can’t do that with an explanation of your boring product, then it’s time to get creative.

Think about this – if everybody else in your industry is just sitting in front of a webcam, giving dry guarantees about how their product is the best and posting it on YouTube, then you are in a good position to stand out.

2. It’s about strengthening your brand

The goal of all things social is to get people to spend money at your store. When your brand speaks to people at an emotional level, it makes them actually want to spend money at your store. To that end, simply get social and tell people in a creative way why your brand is better than everyone else’s in your industry. At first, they might crack a smile and not think much of it. Gradually, they’ll warm up to the idea and begin to associate your brand with what they want. Now you’re building brand equity. If your industry is boring, then the bar is low and it shouldn’t be too hard to make your brand shine.

So if it’s not really about the boring product, but rather about getting your brand into people’s heads, then that explains why body wash can be so successful at social media. And if the personal hygiene products industry can do it, then the (insert boring industry here) industry can do it. Yes, you’ll need some creative people on your team to make it happen, but it has been done before and you can do it again.

Now get out there and make your boring product the next Internet sensation.

Filed Under: brand, social media Tagged With: , ,

Creating a Consistent Offline to Online Branding Experience

May 18, 2010 By Nathan Blair Leave a Comment

Many companies choose to complement their search marketing campaign with traditional offline methods. For those who use direct mail, radio, TV, or magazines to drive website traffic, care must be taken to ensure the transition from offline to online be as seamless as possible.

If you have ever received a distinct marketing piece that drove you to a webpage where the experience was different, you know why the transition matters. Tight online/offline integration tells the visitor they are at the right place, lends credibility to the offer, and encourages further clicks down the purchasing funnel.

The URL

The first and most obvious thing to remember is the URL on the marketing piece. Since it’s a given to have it present, I’ll just remind you to make sure it’s correct. A former colleague of mine almost lost her job when a very crucial marketing campaign she headed was found to have a URL without an important slash. Most people will probably know what you meant, but don’t take that chance.

Branding Consistency

You have taken a lot of care to make the offline brand visuals just right, so make sure the experience continues to the webpage as exactly as possible. The experience entails everything from color hues and fonts to the offer wording.  Whether you promote online only discounts with your marketing pieces or any other kind of lead-in, take care to implement both sides of the campaign at the same time and with consistency. Details that don’t seem like a big deal to you will reassure a prospect that they are looking at the offer you intended for them to see.

Landing Pages

Since marketing campaigns change frequently, destination webpages should too. Unique landing pages are perfect for marketing campaigns where the aesthetic doesn’t match the company website. Landing pages can be created from scratch specifically to suit the purpose of the campaign, and can be modified as often as you change your marketing message. Keep in mind that your landing page is not the end-all of your Web presence; you want prospects to be familiar with your actual website, so keep the branding of your landing pages generally consistent with your main website.

The Other Half

Once your prospects have crossed that chasm from offline to online, you’ve got a whole new set of challenges to ensure consistency within your website down to the point of purchase. But that’s a topic for another day.

Anytime you ask a prospect to spend money, trust and confidence in your company is required. If your prospect has taken the time to follow a marketing piece to your website or landing page, it’s your job to reduce as much noise as possible to get them to buy. You can do that by creating a consistent branding experience between the offline and online parts of your marketing campaigns. If you reassure your prospects that you’ll deliver the same quality experience every time, no matter the medium, they will come back again and again.


Filed Under: brand, marketing Tagged With: , ,

Google Brand Value of Search Marketing

December 10, 2008 By bryanong Leave a Comment
We now all know that there is brand increase by using Search Engine Marketing (SEM). This has been proven previously before a report titled brand lift of search conducted by Enquirosearch.com back in 2007. This year Google in April 2008 together with Media Screen has releases a study titled ' Brand Value of Search '. The study was done on the consumer packaged goods industry and proves that employing search marketing as an advertising vehicle will positively impact a brand's key metrics.

The key takeaways are: Search build brands

  • Brand presence anywhere on a search results page positively impacts key brand metrics

  • You have greater control over your message with paid search, especially on a generic search term SERP (Search Engine Results Page)

  • Paid search as a branding vehicle: --Drives top of mind awareness for your brand and negatively impacts awareness for your competitive set. --Impressions provide “free” brand lift, without the CPC investment.

I do agree that most of its key takeaways are accurate except for the last point where impressions provide free brand lift. My reasoning for that is your ad might record an impression but it does not mean that the search user will see your ad. i.e. He/she might be looking at only the first 5 listings and if your ad is on the bottom 5; the searcher will not see your ad. Therefore, this impression recorded is not true. So if the searcher didn't see your ad, why would it provide free brand lift?

Filed Under: brand, search engine marketing

Brand Lift of Search

January 14, 2008 By bryanong Leave a Comment
For us marketers, we all do know or speak about as to how search marketing helps in increasing brand awareness or ‘lifting’ your brand. For the sales guys, this has been used constantly to get prospects to advertise in the search engines. However, there has never been any research to prove that “Yes, search marketing does lift your brand”. Finally, Enquiro has proven this last year. The research company ran an online survey and interact with a mocked up Google Search Engine Results Page (SERP) in order to test the effects of branding through Search.

The results were staggering:

• A 16% increase in Unaided Brand Recall by having a brand presence in both the top sponsored and top organic listings of a SERP.

• Users are 5% more likely to recall your brand if you have a top sponsored listing in addition to your organic listing (for non-branded queries).

• The gap between your brand and a competitors grows if your brand is in both the top sponsored and organic positions and theirs is not.

• When the brand was in top sponsored, subjects spent 22% of their total sponsored fixations time on the brand.

• When the brand was in the top organic position, subjects spent 37% of their total organic fixations time on the brand.

• When a brand is in both the top sponsored and top organic listings a subject is 10% more likely to recall the brand when asked specifically whether or not they would consider it as a purchase.

• There is less brand lift from the top sponsored listing amongst subjects with a natural affinity for the brand; however, having the brand in the top sponsored listing garners a 10% lift over not having the brand anywhere on the SERP.

• There is a higher purchasing intent for the brand in the group with an affinity, by nearly 7% - and this gap is carried forward until the top sponsored listing is factored into the equation.

• A branded query seems to have a 50% brand lift effect - making the query itself the largest contributor to any brand lift via the SERP.

• There is no statistical difference between the brand recall - whether or not the brand was in both the top sponsored and top organic or top organic only - so long as the query is branded.
Filed Under: brand, search engine marketing, search engines