Transform Your Brand With Search

Last year, brand awareness replaced sales as the top objective for advertisers’ search efforts, according to a recently released survey by the Search Engine Marketing Professionals Organization.

This is no surprise. After all, natural search optimization (NSO), or search engine optimization (SEO), has been changing the marketing game for years.

As awareness of its strategic value continues to rise, organizations are focusing efforts to increase their brand’s visibility and dominate search engine results pages (SERPs). Marketers now view search as the first line of offense, versus the last line of defense.

Consider two recent high profile examples in which the strategic power of search convinced organizations to undergo major brand transformations to gain an NSO advantage.

Syentifically Speaking
On Mar. 16, the Sci-Fi channel announced it was “evolving into Syfy on air and online beginning July 7 …” The second paragraph of the full press release explains some of the strategic advantages this new identity offers. It “positions the brand for future growth by creating an ownable trademark that can travel easily with consumers across new media and non-linear digital platforms, new international channels and extend into new business ventures.”

Although the name change has encountered some dissenters, Sci-Fi focused its larger marketing strategy around a significant opportunity to gain mindshare through organic search, a decision many marketers will track moving forward. In addition to capturing branded search traffic more effectively and efficiently, the move could also increase the visibility of the group’s social media efforts on sites like Facebook and Twitter, ultimately helping SyFy dominate search engine results pages with its own Web site and other branded properties.

An Encroaching (European) Union
SyFy isn’t the only brand embracing search at the core of its strategic marketing efforts. Consider a Times Online story from Feb. 25: “Tourists miss out on town of Eu as it does not appear on Web searches.”

Eu, a small Normandy town with a 1,000-year history, has been inadvertently muscled out of searches by the European Union (EU) as well as the past participle of the verb avoir, to have, according to the article. The town’s rich history reportedly includes visits from William the Conqueror, Richard the Lionheart and Joan of Arc. Unfortunately, according to the Times, “… tourists are passing it by – and it is all the fault of the Internet.”

The town’s plan of action? Change the name by adding extra syllables. It will reportedly “take four years to make the change, however, because it requires a council vote, a referendum, a parliamentary Act and Cabinet approval.” In the end, the town hopes to recoup hotel visitor taxes lost in recent years, and its plan to boost online visibility seems to sit squarely at the center of the marketing and branding strategy devised to take it there.

The Best Defense? A Sound Offense
Often, the best defense consists of a proactive search offense. These high profile brand/name changes illustrate a growing understanding of this among marketers. Search, less frequently considered as an afterthought, is more often being considered as part of the most fundamental marketing decisions, including brand name selection. Social media and efforts to encourage more brand/consumer interaction can also boost visibility.

Embracing social media can significantly help marketers dominate search engine results pages for branded searches. Simply incorporating social toolbars empowers readers to distribute content from a marketer’s site through resources like Delicious, Digg, Facebook and others, and the minimal effort required can return big dividends. Marketers can also expand their brand’s online presence beyond its own site by creating branded Fan pages and profiles on Facebook, Twitter and other social media sites.

Encouraging consumers to interact after the purchase can also boost a brand’s search engine and social media agendas, and marketers increasingly implement this approach. When consumers complete a purchase, marketers can provide links to encourage them to read the brand’s blog, follow the company’s CEO on Twitter, become a fan of the brand on Facebook or engage in some other type of interaction. The simple effort can expand a brand’s social media presence and create content that earns good will from the engines.

Michael Kahn ([email protected]) is senior vice president of marketing at Performics.