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SEM VS Traditional Media...part one |
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SEM (Search Engine Marketing to the lay person) is about the greatest advertising and marketing invention ever created. (I love starting articles with blanket statments..set's the tone for everything). Let's look at Traditional Marketing vs SEM and see how they compare. Traditional Marketing, for the sake of this arguement, will include Television, Radio, Newspaper, and Direct Mail. Let's start with the TV. How many stations were there in 1984? In my hometown, if you weren't one of the lucky ones to have a 50' antenna attahed to you house, there were 5. (NBC, CBS, ABC, PBS and WHME) Believe me when I say this, but when the President was on, he was on all of them and there went TV night. Fast forward just 24 years and look at the TV scene. Basic cable is 25 channels, extended cable over 70 and satellite TV has hundereds! We won't even discuss TIVO and the DVR, which happen to be the best invention since the remote control was invented. No one like commercial (except at Super Bowl parties) and no one watches them. It's over guys, give up. Move on, really. Radio is another dinosaur. There are not only 25 or so stations in and around Indianapolis, but you also have XM, Sirius, I Pods, I Tunes, the internet etc. Radio advertising has it's place, if you have a boat load of money, an ego and patience (you have to have at least 2 out of 3 or it won't work). I know a company that just spent over 25K in under 1 month of radio ads and got almost zero return from it...ouch. They would have been better of to give me the 25K, where as I could have given 2,500 people $10 each to purchase one of their products for free! If your not going to own it, stay away....radio advertising is not for the faint of heart. And don't fall into a trap to by banner ads on a radio station website, they have miserable click through rates and even worse conversion rates. If radio salespeople ever learn how to sell measured impressions though, watch out (jab). Speaking of dinosaurs, here comes Newspaper. As old as "traditional" gets, nothing says help I am dying quite like the subscriber list of the local paper. With ad rates off the chart and readership numbers plummiting, I can't understand how anyone can justify the cost / ROI of a newspaper ad. Seriously, unless you have just dumb money, which apparently cell phone companies and car dealers do, why would you advertise here unless it is some robotic habit you cannot kick yourself of. I read that in the 50's, the average US household subscibed to 2.1 newspapers, today less than 20% of all US households get a paper (the graveyard is 3 blocks down to the left - obscure Caddyshack reference) And last, but not least, is SPAM on 4 wheels. Yes, I am talking about Direct Mail. Each day around 2pm, I get SPAM and I hate it. No matter what I do, it keeps coming. I didn't ask for Chase to send me a credit card offer, or Estridge to send me a postcard, but they do....ALOT. Researchers say that men dislike direct mail more than women. My take here is that women actually think that people sending direct mail to them possible care more?? Most men look at it as a waste of time and money, not to mention all the trees killed each month to let me know I am pre-approved for a loan I don't need or want. Even if you can get a .005% conversion rate, Direct Mail is still expensive and SPAM (listen, just because you put a stamp on it and let Uncle Sam delivery it doens't mean it isn't unsolicited). Ok, stay tuned for Part II of the seriers where I will go into SEM and the benefits of measured marketing. |
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Google Cleans House - "Silver Bullet" SEO companies in trouble |
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I say it all the time, "You can't fool Google." I can add to that, "If you do, they will get you back!" Google has just made yet another upgrade to their famous "search algorithm" that excludes and even penalizes directory link sites and other pay-for-links strategies. Now many companies who claim to sell a "silver bullet", where you pay a monthly fee to get top rankings, are going to see their product disappear. I can't say it enough, to be a top ranking website you have to actually maintain a great website. Google and other search engines are selling a product too: relevant results. That means they will always be finding ways to raise well-maintained websites to the top, and sending wanna-be, cut-corners websites to the bottom. A real Internet marketing strategy takes some hard work. To get to the top of Google, you need a website that is updated regularly (at least bi-weekly), links to your website from other legitimate websites that are related to your industry, and a well-organized site layout with clean well-labeled pages. Even with all that, if your website isn't involved on the Internet, such as blogging and forums, search engines will see you as an island. Don't be fooled by SEO companies promising top rankings with no work on your part. Internet marketing is a dual effort between us (the Internet Marketing company) and you. Click here to read more here: http://searchengineland.com/080107-160520.php |
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Last week, 1-800-Contacts announced that they are suing their competitor, LensWorld, for bidding on trademarked terms such as “800 Contacts.” The case is being highlighted on University of Santa Cruz law professor, Eric Goldman’s blog. Trademark infringement is not new as Google has been sued many time before – successfully winning all suits. The premise behind the previous courts is that someone searching the phrase “Geico” is looking to either purchase or learn more about coverage. Therefore, a reseller, agent or information provider should have the right to bid on that trademarked term.
When it comes to keywords, Google will allow advertisers to bid on a competitor’s trademarked term. They do however, offer protection for trademark holders by allowing them to file a trademark complaint. Once enforced, Google will still allow companies to bid on a trademarked term, but will remove any ads that are using that keyword within their ad copy. Their rationale is that while you may not own the trademark for "Kleenex" someone searching for that term is interested in tissues. If you make or sell tissues, you are not misleading the searcher and have the right to appear for that phrase. Since it is a trademark though, you do not have the right to use it in your ad copy.
Yahoo! and MSN differ in that they will only allow an advertiser to buy a trademark term or use it in their ad copy if they are a reseller or a non-competitive information site. MSN offers a complaint form and, similar to Google, will allow an advertiser to bid on a trademarked term, but not use it in the ad copy. Yahoo! will accept screenshots of ads that you feel are in violation of their policy and review them for compliance. If an advertiser is in violation, Yahoo! will remove that keyword from the violator’s campaign.
Marketers still struggle with the “moral” debate of buying their competitors’ trademarked terms. If you make tissues, and 90% of the world refers to tissues as “Kleenex”, it would certainly make marketing sense to buy that term. However, Kimberly-Clark may have a problem with that.
What is significant about this case is that it an advertiser is suing another advertiser instead of the engine. As mentioned in the past, advertisers would file their complaints against the engines for allowing trademark terms to be bought by competitors. In almost all instances, the court rulings have favored the engines. This case will push the boundaries because 1-800-Contacts is asking the court to enforce their trademark regardless of the policies that a search engine has in place. Marketers are simply looking for the same trademark protection that they receive in the offline world. If the courts were to side with them, it would set a dangerous precedent that could trigger many lawsuits.
Regardless of how the court decides, this is a reminder to advertisers that bidding on competitors’ trademarked terms is a legal gray area, and may incur costly consequences....let the buyer beware! Original article appeared in SMTrends issue 79, by Megan Dallas and Matt Greitzer. |
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 Plan B Marketing, Inc. is an Internet Marketing company based in Indianapolis, Indiana that brings effective and affordable Internet Marketing to small and medium sized businesses.
Marketing is often a very ambiguous business, but it doesn't have to be. The rise of the Internet has brought with it the capability of 100% measurable marketing. Plan B Marketing, Inc. is a marketing company that uses the Internet to create marketing strategies that are effective, targeted, affordable and most importantly, measurable. Doing business with Plan B Marketing, Inc. is simple: if we bring you more $$ than you spend - then you keep doing business with us! There is no guess work. Everything is reported and accounted for, so you will know how much Plan B Marketing, Inc. brings to your business! Beyond the math, Plan B Marketing, Inc. specializes in all forms of Internet Marketing such as email marketing and search engine marketing (SEM), which includes organic content optimization, Pay-Per-Click (PPC) and banner/affiliate ad campaigns. However, the goal is to use the Internet as a central hub for a company's entire marketing strategy. That means all the print ads, brochures, business cards, video, etc., that we create are coordinated with a well designed website and Internet Marketing strategy. We can adapt a company's current marketing strategy to an Internet-centered strategy, or help a company build an entire marketing strategy from scratch. Whatever your marketing needs are, if you are ready to move into the new era of Internet-based marketing, then you need to contact us. ...isn't it time you switched to Plan B? |
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