"He hath swallowed down riches, and he shall vomit them up again: God shall cast them out of his belly."...Job 20:15
Recently, during timeouts at Portland Trailblazer basketball games, the team has been entertaining the crowd with something called the Regurgi-cam, consisting of having Trailblazer employees film members of the crowd eating and then playing the tape backwards, making the people look like they are pulling digested food out of their mouth. This entertainment never ceases to draw a bunch of laughs and hopefully, it will to be part of their entertainment rotation for a while.
Yet, somehow watching this silly stunt multiple times somehow triggered a powerful insight into search marketing from which I can draw out the following concept:
Online conversions need to be regurgitated in order to properly learn from them.
When I talk to SEO or PPC prospects, they almost always ask questions about analytical metrics that exist at the top of the sales funnel whether they are keyword rankings (SEO) or bid prices (PPC). In my humble opinion, thats a bass-ackwards way to begin a conversation about search marketing. Search marketing clients need to focus on the conversion metrics (Cost Per Lead / Cost Per Sale) at the bottom of the sales funnel and work backwards to get to how the top funnel metrics might fit into fulfilling their revenue goals.
The core of any search marketing effort is web analytics. I dont run into too many prospects that dont have any analytics installed on their websitebut I run into plenty that havent configured it to quickly and easily show conversion metrics. Even worse, Ive seen plenty of analytics setups where the checkout system breaks the visitor path funnel, rendering any conversion analysis impossible.
If conversion tracking is properly setup, the search marketer can isolate the commonalities of website conversions and come up with plans to exploit them. On the paid search side, it might involve creating unique campaigns for certain keyword subsets, really fleshing out the relevant long-tail keywords in the campaign, and bidding aggressively on converting terms / ad groups. For SEO, it might involve pushing link-juice towards highly performing pages and adding some long-tail focused copywriting. Another relevant tactic might involve optimizing the sales path on the website itself to make the conversion process more seamless. If the company is doing email marketing or database marketing, the same principles applyone can track the sales / leads back to the relevant lists / groupings of people and determine common tendencies that can be accentuated on future campaigns.
I think some prospects Ive talked to might be put-off when I guide the search marketing conversation towards ROI metrics and Im OK with that. After all, their Google Rankings arent going to pay their billstheir corporate revenues will :.)
Great analogy Todd. It’s difficult to determine where to start if you don’t know where you want to be (or where you’re going). If you don’t have a goal/target in place from the get go, you’re aiming at nothing – and often that is comparably w/ the end result.
The most successful campaigns are those that include analysis of prior time frames, current performance & a thorough understanding of what’s driving ROI.
Now let me go stuff a sandwich down my throat.
Todd,
Call me a “whiner”, but of anyone at SEMPDX, you’re experienced in domain investing and why. Your bio says “you know domaining”, yet I didn’t find ANY Searchfest sessions on this most important part of MARKETING and positioning of a company’s website, either through their initial brand labeling of their company, or backbranding their company name with generic descriptive domains.
Did I miss something on Searchfest promotions? Domains are clearly one of the top three strategies (I’ll be nice and not place domaining within those top three strategies numerically) of successfully promoting, marketing, and investing in your own company’s website.
One fact is clear: Buy a domain, it’s an “appreciable marketing asset” that never loses value and works for you nonstop. There is no “ad fade” or SEO requirement costs for monthly “updates” and “reviews”. All other website investments into marketing and advertising your website require continued expenditures, and these will definitely “fade” within just a few weeks to a few months, unless an injection of more cash is utilized to extend the process. Domains don’t need that.
If you have a session on domain investing already, I missed it on your site, and I apologize. If Searchfest failed to include domain advice as a session — they should apologize to their attendees!
Domains are the easiest to understand for ROI and how they bolster, even increase substantially a website’s brand. Seems like a no-brainer to me to have a clear domain investing session at Searchfest.
Stephen, you won’t get an argument from me about the importance of domaining. However, (speaking for myself only) I don’t believe the great majority of attendees would attend such a session (even though perhaps they should). At Pubcon, a much bigger & diverse conference that I attend, the domaining session has never drawn much of a crowd…though I offer kudos to Brett Tabke for keeping it on the roster every year.
That’s the reason why you don’t see domaining at SearchFest.
Hi Todd,
Domain investing has always been a “misplaced education” for online marketers, which includes anyone who has a website. Just because “PubCon” doesn’t have a large turnout for their domaining sessions doesn’t mean SEMPDX has to cower in telling their clients, fans, and SEO experts the truth. You stated twice publicly that you know this “truth”.
Domains don’t take anything away from SEO services. In fact, SEO experts should be working with domainers to broker relevant domains for their clients. (Yes, a brokering is a value added service for SEO experts).
I would be happy to head up a solid crew of 4- 5 very successful domainers and host a session at the next Searchfest to bring the simple education of domain investments to your attendees. I think they would get it, because they’re pretty smart people. Just turn their focus to a different path that moves their clients to the same destination — website success.
Agreeing to the power of a successful marketing path for SEO clients (domain investing), but failing to explain it to your attendees, regardless of what you think your attendees “want to hear”, is not a great utilization of Searchfest, or any website marketing conference’s opportunity to educate their attendees fairly.
Tell me I’m wrong, but be gentle. 😉