How Keywords Can Help Your Small Business Compete Online?

You have a business and would like to advertise online but you don’t know how you are going to compete against companies much larger than yours. Many of the keywords you would normally associate with your product have already been widely used by other well known companies leaving your search ranking position further down the page. According to a study in the Journal of Advertising increasing your search position is more likely if you are  very specific with your keywords and phrases (Yoo, 2014). Developing online branding can be helped with specificity of key word choice that leads to higher customers attraction and recall.

Small businesses have a hard time competing with larger businesses in branding. It makes little difference if you are discussing traditional forms of advertising or online advertising. As consumers look online to find the products and services they need they will use certain keywords that help them find what they are looking for.

Consumers are very specific and goal directed in their online searchers. If they live in San Diego and want to find a particular type of food such as organic tacos in downtown they are not likely to have broad searches such as taco or organic as a single keyword choice. Instead they may use a combination of words and phrases that include downtown, San Diego, taco, organic, and/or health.

To develop a brand requires creating an association in the minds of people between their keywords and the image of your business. So using a proper combination of keywords should also recall your business online creating a connection in the consumers mind. Every time they think of these keywords they should also be thinking of your specific business.

Search algorithms create a way of finding and doing business. The very first time a customer needs to find something they will use a search engine. After that they may not use a search engine again because they already have frequented the business. If the experience was a pleasurable one they seek your business again using the same method they found it in the first place.

Developing a stronger brand image is possible for smaller businesses if they successfully use keywords and phrases that have not been soaked up by larger companies. Small business often succeeds when it develops a core group of customers interested in its niche offerings. Using keywords appropriately will offer opportunities to tune into that keyword market and further develop ways of ensuring your business is easy to find and accessible. Finding a successful online strategy requires thinking specifically about your business strategy and its brand image.

Yoo, C. (2014). Branding potential of keyword search ads: the effects of ad rankings on brand recognition and evaluations. Journal of Advertising, 43 (1).

Improving Online Brands with Contextual Advertisement

All businesses must advertise to survive and those that do it effectively are likely to draw more business. Building a brand image and getting the biggest bang for your buck can be difficult in the online world where millions of companies are competing for similar markets. However, by engaging in contextual advertising it is possible to raise brand image and purchase rates through pre-selecting candidates that are already interested in your product or service (Chung, et. al. 2014). 

Contextual advertising uses content matched with an advertising display such as a banner ad, video, music, etc… to attract visitors. It is most commonly offered through companies like Google AdSense, Amazon, and others that provide contextual advertising on web pages. Those who are reading a page exposed to similar advertisements that are more likely to draw their interest.

The authors found that there are two factors in successful contextual advertising. The contextual prime and stimulus as well as the complexity of the advertisement have an impact on the ad’s success. In other words, the placement of the advertisement in a context of language and using appropriate display technology for the audience can improve consumer interest.  

Think of contextual prime and stimulus as something that prepares you to be aware of something later. For example, the contextual information primes the advertisements contain on the page. As a visitor reads about outdoor fishing (prime) and then offered advertising displays on fishing trips or fishing equipment they are more receptive to such information. They have been primed and selected based upon their interest. 

The complexity of the advertisement should also be considered. Complexity can be seen as the amount of pictures, video, sounds, etc… that attracts attention to an advertisement. Sometimes more is not necessarily better. There is a U type relationship where simplicity or complexity should be based on the target audience. Try not to stick too much into one advertisement. 

Creating brand image online is not easy. Some programs work well and others flop in our faces. Research helps us weed through all of the claims these advertisers make. Contextual ads appear to help online branding and overall sales. Advertisements should be placed well within the contextual information and have an appropriate use of technology that is not too high or too little for the target population. 

Chung, K., et. al. (2014). Are contextual advertisements effective? International Journal of Advertising, 33 (2).

Targeted Marketing or Brand Awareness? Which Works Better Online?

Online marketing has travelled a long way over the last decade and now supersedes traditional advertising media in the majority of channel categories. The online advertising world is not yet fully developed and will transform over time to include higher capabilities. A paper by Attia (2014), discusses how metrics will need to change to ensure the current click-through model is replaced by more holistic measurements. Successful campaigns have been built by adding brand image to the overall marketing plan. Is targeted marketing or brand management better?

Click-Through is the most common method of online advertising but people have become sensitized to the marketing channel. The rate uses a simple formula like Clicks/Impressions X 100 =Click Through Rate (CTR). As more people click on an impression (showing of ad) the rate moves up and is considered effective.   

When customers become desensitized to click-through ads, pop up banners, etc. they begin to ignore the display ads making them less effective in attracting their attention. As effectiveness and cost drop advertisers will view the ads as less important, putting pressure on the market to develop new channels. 

The author argues that companies may increase their effectiveness if they use a matrix of measures and focus at least some of their attention on brand awareness. Brand awareness occurs when customers understand the brand and can recall information about it. Such awareness is often calculated by polling whether or not people remember the brand. 

Trends are showing that brand management is increasing and needs better methods of marketing. Online brands are difficult to measure without an appropriate battery of marketing metrics. A single channel with a single metric skews the brands actual place and success in attracting customers. 

The study successfully explains that single channel marketing focused only on drawing immediate purchases is slowing down due to the growth in the Internet. Companies can build brand images by using both online and offline advertising. The totality of different marketing metrics is a stronger predictor of performance than a single click-through measurement. As an organizations builds its online marketing campaign it should keep in mind that brand is important in attracting visitors beyond click models. 

Attia, K. (2014). The shift from online performance to more holistic brand efficiency measurement and the need for standardized online ad formats. Journal of Brand Strategy, 3 (1).

Using Behavioral Marketing to Link to Your Customer

Behavioral marketing is the “Holy Grail” of marketing attracting highly motivated customers to increase purchase rates.  Research by Chen and Stallaert (2014) help show how small advertisers are better off with targeted marketing while larger advertisers are not yet able to fully capitalize on the benefits. The study has implications for marketing investment and where they are dollars are likely to be most fruitful. 

Behavioral marketing seeks to use technology to better understand the online behavior of consumers and reach those most open to purchase. The information is collected from webpage cookies, search terms, forums, and other behavior to build a marketing profile of customers and then display ads that are relevant to their needs. 

Businesses seek to attract customers in the most cost effective manner possible. The further the marketing reach with the least amount of investment the higher return on investment (ROI). Small businesses have limited capital to spend and target niche customers while larger companies have a broader profile to attract customers through mass marketing campaigns. 

The study helps show that small advertisers find significant value in behavioral marketing while large companies may not realize this same value.  Market leaders are able to use a wide enough net to capture a high volume of interested customers that produces a higher pay off.  

To effectively develop behavioral marketing it is necessary to find an appropriate algorithm and then collect information while updating customer profiles. It is a lot of information to handle, analyze and move. Therefore, popular channels of advertisement often do better with behavioral marketing while less popular sites do better with mass marketing. 

The study helps us think of how mass marketing attempts to reach a broad range of customers by economizing its efforts. This is still a popular and cost effective method. Even these large advertisers are realizing the benefit of incorporating features of behavioral marketing to focus their advertising dollars. The closer you can align your approach to your target market the higher your chances of successful campaigns.  

Chen, J. & Stallaert, J. (2014). An economic analysis of online advertising using behavioral targeting. MIS Quarterly, 38 (2).