Check out the agenda here:

http://www.sempdx.org/searchfest/

You can also follow the conference live on twitter by following the #searchfest hashtag.

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Search and Display advertising have a stunning impact on offline purchases, which in the aggregate amounts to about 2 offline purchases for every one online purchase. When online display media often goes for $.25 or less per thousand impressions, this makes online display an incredible value in driving offline actions.

For more of the data:

http://www.comscore.com/Press_Events/Press_Releases/2006/03/Online_Impact_of_Offline_Buying

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However, for many industries, people simply aren’t searching for their products and services because:

1. They don’t know they exist
2. They don’t have an active need for the offering
3. They already know who they would like to do business with
4. They are indifferent to who is providing the service
5. They don’t anticipate that research via online will offer them any more insight  

Take for example Toilet Paper. I have never in my life felt compelled to search for Toilet Paper with the intent of researching it or buying it. I don’t read articles about toilet paper that would have Google contextual ads. Yet, our household consumes roll after roll. If I were advising Charmin on how to sell more toilet paper via the web, search would be a very minor part of the strategy.

So what other options are there? Social Media, E-mail, Video, etc… all valid. Yet for many marketing problems, good old banner advertising is the perfect solution. We don’t call it banner advertising any more of course… just like how billboards, bus benches, mall advertising and other print media can be called Display, most forms of online banners, skyscrapers, square ads etc can be referred to as Online Display Advertising.

If you measure display advertising simply by cost per click or cost per conversion, you may be missing some of the fundamental goals of a display campaign:

• Branding
• Awareness
• Messaging

Impressions have ivalue/i that isn’t directly measurable as well as the very tight conversion funnel of search. They reinforce a message that can change the mind of a prospect without them necessarily ever clicking on the ad. In many cases I find myself seeing a display ad for an upcoming movie, and rather than clicking on the ad I Google the name of the movie. Search gets the credit there for traffic to that site, but display initiated the search.

In that context, Online Display Advertising can be deployed in a variety of ways to increase business:

• Earn business from people who are happy with their current provider
• Educate or inform on a subject that is of interest to the web visitor – something they wouldn’t have thought to search for
• Build brand recall and awareness for products that can’t be purchased online/liliPromote an event or webinar to a targeted audience
• In some cases drive a direct response like search – via highly contextual, well placed, well crafted ads

Again if I were helping Charmin, I would suggest they run a display campaign across mommy blogs, celebrity news sites, and use demographic targeting to find other publishers that appeal to age 25-49 women (I know men buy toilet paper too…but men also read Perez Hilton, right?). I would develop a landing page with a coupon offer ($2 off, no strings attached) and create display ads promoting $2 savings on double-ply heaven… then craft search ads with a distinctly similar message. For good measure I would also run the campaign on their Facebook page and use Wildfire to handle the coupon logistics.nbsp; Hey Charmin, if you’re out there, let’s give this a shot, eh?

The bottom line is that consumers spend 95% of their time browsing the web and only 5% searching. Display advertising can be an important first step in the conversion funnel.

I use AdReady for rapid creative prototyping and distribution for display ads. Its a fabulous system that was brilliantly conceived by Aaron Finn. You can check out a recent article from him here. If you want to start experimenting with display ads, you can use my self-serve system at Unleashed.AdReady.com and I’ll give you some free guidance on getting your first campaign started. If this interests you more, fire me back a comment. I’ll share some of my experiences with display campaigns, show how to test color and call-to-action variations, and integrate display with your web analytics- but only if you’re interested!

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foursquare is a location-based social network that offers points, badges, and “mayorship” as an incentive for staying active with the system. It really requires a smartphone equipped with GPS to participate, though you can work with it from the web. As you go about your day, you just hit a few buttons on your phone to “Check-In” and thereby let foursquare and your friends know where you’re at. You can “tag” locations to describe them, such as ‘pizza’ or ‘airport’ and add tips like “the chicken garlic is to die for” or “I got food poisoning and so will you. “

The interface makes this kind of geotargeted update really very easy to publish, but the points system creates a larger incentive to make users excited about publishing their locations and opinions via foursquare. One can earn points for checking in throughout their day, traveling to different locations, adding new locations, and more. The most intriguing aspect foursquare the ultimate prize – becoming the mayor. Anybody on foursquare can become The Mayor of a location like a coffee shop or pub by checking in the most times at that venue. Much like king-of-the-hill, the coveted status can be easily taken by somebody else by simply checking in more often. Some hotspots have taken to offering free drinks or other promotions to The Major of their venue- creating a virtual contest to see who can frequent their establishment the most. Finally, the shout function allows somebody to broadcast a message to all of their foursquare friends. These updates as well as check-ins can be fed out to Twitter and Facebook at the user’s discretion.

I see foursquare as having huge potential for generate buzz and popularity for chic / boutique type businesses in the near term. Partially that is due to the early adopter factor, but also because the realities of the app needing a smartphone has some socioeconomic constraints built in. Clubs, high end grocers, movie theaters, coffee shops, bars, and of course restaurants are the obvious benefactors here. Necessarily, service-based (we’ll come to you) businesses don’t have an opportunity to capitalize on fourquare, but that applies to much of the local search world.

In the long term, foursquare could be a major social network for all types of businesses to need to understand and exploit. Much how Yelp reviews can make or break a business, the possibility of real-time reviews creates a whole new dimension to online reputation management. Businesses could make spontaneous events and draw larger and larger crowds through foursquare working in conjunction with Facebook and Twitter. Venues could offer special badges or points for purchasing certain items. Ultimately, the question of “where should I go out to eat?” could be less about looking for coupons and reading online reviews and more about finding where friends are and what they are saying about different restaurants via foursquare.

Many vastly smarter bloggers than I have written reams more about the possible uses and implication of foursquare for local business. I just want to note that for most of my clientel, foursquare isn’t something to actively worry about at present IMHO. The adoption is just a small fraction of that of Twitter, (admittedly, foursquare is less than a year old). It is definitely one to keep an eye on, but until you see a mass of 50-somethings posting tips about their dentists on foursquare, I don’t think it should be huge concern for the majority of business owners. That is of course, unless your blog is flourishing, you have a massive opt-in database, you’re rocking the social networks, you’re all over online reputation management, you’ve got a ton of video content flowing out there, and you have a steady diet of analytics to prove the value of your efforts and guide your next actions. If you can do all that and still have some free time, have a ball with foursquare, it is pretty fun after all.

I am The Mayor of Spokane’s iconic Parkade, a distinction I’m quite proud of…

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I definitely know the appeal: streams of new customers that are actively looking for your products and services. Not having to pay high pay per click costs. Getting quality leads into your business that are interested in researching and/or purchasing at that given moment.

Yes, SEO is great for getting new customers. Yes, SEO can make businesses a lot of money… Yes, SEO is great for branding and business owner ego.

But a chain is only as strong as its weakest link.

If your site is poorly designed, those searchers may bounce immediately. If your site doesn’t address the searcher’s interests with engaging, quality content, they may move on down the list ( think about your own behavior when searching…) If your site doesn’t make it EASY for customers to take action and contact you, they may be very interested, but not end up contacting you out of lack of convenience- remember, this is the internet we’re talking about. Attention spans are measured in nanoseconds.

The fact of the matter is: SEO isn’t enough to make a business win new customers from the web.

A business that is doing things right will dominate search engines though SEO and/or PPC PLUS:

• Have an attractive looking site
• Have relevant, fresh content that addresses the searcher’s interest (industry lists are very important – big tip)
• Be functional, usable, fast loading, and easy to navigate
• Offer a strong, clear call to action
• Have systems and incentives in place to keep prospects engaged with the business until they make a purchase
• Have positive ratings on diverse review sites
• Demonstrate many forms of 3rd party credibility
• Detail out the process of becoming a customer and what is entailed (setting clear expectations)
• Make it easy for prospects to contact the business in multiple ways
• Show leadership in fulfilling the customer’s purchase to their satisfaction
• Have a system in place to thank customers for doing business, survey their experience, and request reviews/referrals
• Continually remind the customer of their positive experience with the business and offer ways for themselves and their circle of influence to get to transact with the business again

Wheh! It is a lot. But it needs to be done in order for a business to maximize its revenue potential with each prospective customer.

I call it Sales Lifecycle Optimization. Since the web is always abuzz with the latest acronyms, lets call it SLO. Where SEO gets people to click on your web site through attempting to manipulate search results, SLO takes that customer through a sales funnel that focuses on their ultimate satisfaction. SEO sacrifices appearance to achieve results, SLO takes into account everything the customer sees, hears, and touches from your business and tries to improve the customer’s impression of your business and how it meets their needs. SEO buys lots of eyeballs. SLO buys lifetime customer-evangelists.

Maybe Sales Lifecycle Optimization is just a fancy term for “treating your customer right”- but there are core pieces of software, approaches to web usability, database marketing, phone systems, etc that go into making the process of “treating your customer right” easy and systematic. It means taking a broad view of how to integrate new customer acquisition via search, social media, offline advertising, and other channels into earning more profits from each customer by improving the way your business messages and treats its prospects.

Can you imagine the power of combing SEO for streams of new business and SLO for improving closing ratio and lifetime value?

I would love to hear your feedback about SEO (positive or negative), the concept of SLO, and what you’ve done in your business on both fronts.

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We focus on deep keyword research that produces the best results for your marketing dollar, then deliver a steady program to improve your website’s link popularity. Our clients love the monthly reports they receive just about as much as they love the personal attention we relish on them to make sure their business is getting the best results.

For the best option in Spokane for organic search marketing, be sure to give us a call. You can use us to help you kiss the yellowpages goodbye!

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