“If you had $10 million extra in your marketing budget to spend – but could only spend it in one area – where would you use it?

• Search-engine marketing
• Social media engagement
• Website development
• Email marketing

The response of the first panelist, Frederick Vallaeys, product evangelist for Google Adwords, surprised no one: Search.

Then it was Lauren Vaccarello’s turn. The senior search-engine marketing manager for Salesforce.com also selected search.

Next was David Hibbs, customer lifecycle director for Off Madison Ave, a Tempe public-relations firm: Search.

Finally, Al Maag, chief communications officer for Avnet, weighed in: Community relations.

“I’m a trouble-maker,” he joked.

The “Back to the Basics” panel at the conclusion of OMS Phoenix: from left, organizer Aaron Kahlow, Frederick Vallaeys of Google, Lauren Vaccarello of Salesforce.com, David Hibbs of Off Madison Ave, and Al Maag of Avnet.

The panel culminated a day of keynotes and breakout sessions on different facets of online marketing: B2B, B2C and social media integration.

Kahlow asked some questions and then opened the floor for more.

On serving the customer:

Vaccarello: Really consider custom pages. If you have a customer looking for a sneaker, don’t send him to a generic main page of products.

“Send them to a special sneaker page,” she said.

On prioritization:

Maag: Have a structure in place for information-sharing. He described Avnet’s use of annual meetings of employees, weekly meetings of teams and monthly meetings with global teams.

“We have 30 divisions and 13,000 employees,” he said. “We try to expose but not impose, in the sense of seeing what one group is doing and then showing it to others to consider.”

On immediate impact:

Hibbs: Look at your email list. Market to your current customers right away.

On change:

Vallaeys: Traditional marketing looked at wide markets. Search is more specific and more focused on behavioral characteristics, not demographics or segments.

On innovation:

Maag: Avnet has admittedly not been at the forefront of social media but it was committed to getting involved, even when the budget wasn’t there to do so.

The company envisioned differentiating itself as an industry thought leader. The solution, Maag said, was to create a video channel, Avnet OnDemand.

“We wanted to create an educational portal where we could aggregate our videos and the videos and products of our 300 suppliers,” he said.

On books to read:

Kahlow: “Social Media Metrics” by Jim Sterne and David Meerman Scott; “Don’t Make Me Think” by Steve Krug; and “One Hour a Day” by Jennifer Grappone and Gradiva Couzin.

Aaron Kahlow

The inaugural Online Marketing Summit in Phoenix attracted more than 200 search and social-media marketers May 20 to the downtown Sheraton convention space.

The all-day event, organized by Aaron Kahlow, CEO of Online Marketing Connect, featured several keynotes and then presentations broken into three tracks: B2B, B2C and Social Media Integration.

Based on the comments of attendees, the summit produced numerous nuggets for navigating the ever-changing online landscape.

This is the first of a six-part series.

Creating a ‘Center of Excellence’

For mid-sized to large companies, the social media/online department is no longer a pair of folks working in their own silo and trying to get the rest of the organization to listen to them.

Companies realize that everyone is having conversations online, and that it’s in their best interest to participate.

What Back Azimuth search consultant Bill Hunt and Autodesk senior manager Maura Ginty described, however, is the importance of bringing that communication to a higher level.

Hunt described creating a “Center of Excellence” within a company. It would comprise four “pillars”:

• Uniform KPIs: The organization determines what they will measure in terms of online participation and why. Instead of trying to gather all types of data, a company should select only those that are relative to its objective and can provide actionable information.
• Education: When it comes to search and social media, a company needs to know what it’s doing, when it’s doing it and how it’s doing it. One issue is what keywords or tags should be used across all marketing divisions.
• Force multipliers: If a company can establish some basic standards and rules, the message will be more unified. A company needs to actively manage its portfolio of brand assets for best effectiveness and analyze processes to see that efforts are not being duplicated.
• Engagement: Commonality is great but the center of excellence’s impact will rely on customer service. For this reason, a company needs to set up scenarios and document the actions expected by front-line personnel. Furthermore, if keywords being used by the online marketing are repeated by the team pushing out emails, the company’s search presence will be enhanced.

In a reply to a specific question about gaining a higher presence in search engines, Hunt recalled his days with Procter & Gamble and the importance of “shelf space.”

“You want to seek out multiple positions in search,” he said.

Ginty said one of the problems companies face in social media is “publishing without listening.”

“There’s inconsistent reporting, goals are experimental only and there is an absence of a common strategy,” she said. She showed an image of a lot of building blocks collapsed on a table.

Instead, an organization needs to coordinate its marketing efforts with the public-relations team, and with its technical support and customer-service folks. She suggests identifying one person who “listens” and then distributes questions to the individuals who can best produce answers.

Interactions may occur on a company website or blog or forum. But she emphasized that your customers are on YouTube, Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.

“That is where the party is happening,” Ginty said. “You need to go there and listen.”

This may be as simple as doing a search of the company name or product. The team should develop a template for how to interact with customers.

She particularly encourages companies to use YouTube.

“Create an advocate for the customer,” she said. “Produce a video that helps them.”

Maura Ginty of Autodesk shares some ideas on integrating a digital strategy throughout an organization. Bill Hunt looks on.

Author Bill Hunt, right, talks with Roger Willis of SEO.com after the Feb. 24 SEMPO AZ talk.

Ever use Google?

Ever end or change your search after scanning the first page of results?

Thought so.

The Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization (SEMPO) is into that stuff, and the Arizona chapter recently hosted a man they introduced as “the father of search,” Bill Hunt.

Mr. Hunt, who lives in Connecticut, spoke at the SEMPO Arizona’s Feb. 24 event at SkySong in Scottsdale. The “semi-retired” 46-year-old author of “Search Engine Marketing, Inc.” offered an easy-to-understand how-to on the intricacies of search marketing. (See more at www.whunt.com)

The appeal of search marketing is simple: It can connect you to “intent-driven” prospects. Prospects are telling you what they want, he said.

So how do you get your name or service from page 134 (or page 5,378) from that Google search to the front page?

The trick involves the keywords you use and the links you have.

Popularity

Mr. Hunt offered this analogy:

Remember when you were a freshman in high school? You didn’t know many people, and most of the school didn’t know you.

You might have played soccer, and been pretty good. But no one knew it. There was another kid who was a little bit better, who seemed to have a few more friends, and who might have even gotten the attention of some upperclassmen.

You decide to seek some attention, and bring a bunch of pizzas to the lunchroom one day. Everyone comes to your table, even the upperclassmen, and you look popular.

But the next door you don’t bring pizza, and no one stops by your table. You’re back to being a lowly freshman.

That’s today’s marketing. Here today, gone tomorrow.

In a Google world, your company’s reputation is the midpoint between what your brand says and what the world thinks of you.

What the world says is best represented in its links to you – your Google profile, your industry, the friends of your friends. Connections to the right people in the marketplace in the context of search create “linkages.” Multiple linkages represent popularity – just like high school.

Professionals in brand management need to work extra hard to make sure – on a technical level – that the service or product is on the search radar screen. An analogy is having an amazing interior to your store, with great products, but no sign out front to get customers in the store.

It’s not just maintaining a website. It’s not just sending out press releases. It’s not using Twitter. It’s not just picking out keywords to use in a paid-search campaign.

It’s actively engaging other people, who will become the “links” that boost your popularity. If your website is vibrant and fresh, it moves ahead. If the company engages bloggers or news sites in that industry, it moves ahead. If it has a presence in social media – among “fans” or “followers” at Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter or YouTube – it moves ahead. If the company actively manages keywords it wants to “own” – like generic product segments, specific product names or locations – it moves ahead.

All of these aspects create “popularity.” Guess what happens to the brand in the search world?

“You want to ‘own’ the playing field,” Mr. Hunt told the audience of about 100. “Have a plan to ‘own’ the shelf.”

Create a central theme

To be effective, the marketing team needs to include the product-development group and any new “social media” division, he added. Google algorithms will gather around keywords. If the product messaging side isn’t working with the content distribution side, too many descriptors may be diluting a central theme.

But if the team identifies what keywords will be most effective in influence search engines – and everyone is focused on relentlessly repeating those words across all media – the brand rises to the top.

Mr. Hunt shared an example. Geico’s search-engine analysts realized that customers used the word “quote” in their searches, like using “auto insurance quote.” Among insurance companies, guess which company was the only one to include the word “quote” at its website?

Some companies promote their food products as “infant nutrition.” But they fail to understand that customers search for “baby food.”

Tide believed its detergents could be found by people searching “stain removal.” But with a little more scrutiny, its marketers realized that it should be linked to searches for “carpet stain removal,” “lipstick stain removal” and even “blood stain removal.”

DuPont saw an opportunity to market its products through customer searches that began “how to … .” It decided to produce a series of videos to help customers, like “how to care for stone countertops.” With DuPont products, of course.

But this also shows that companies need to be more vigilant in protecting their brands. If some customers start linking the company with the word “sucks,” the marketing team needs to take action. Mr. Hunt said that his testing showed it takes 87 clicks on a link to move it up the Google search.

Understand the customer journey. Know their buying habits. Take advantage of periods of increased relevance, created by seasons, storms, personalities, big events or crises. Each new product you offer knocks a competitor’s product off the shelf.

Next up: Geographical targeting

Mr. Hunt noted that search is evolving, and it could have an impact on companies’ marketing campaigns. For instance, more search will involve “geographical targeting” which could give local entities an advantage.

He said some companies that have Spanish-speaking customers are exploring setting up micro-sites in specific countries of Latin America and Europe to serve 27 different dialects and provide local relevance.

Another trend will be more “activity-based” search by people using cell phones in stores or at restaurants.

Finally, Mr. Hunt urges companies to use trial-and-error to hone their strategy. They can reverse-engineer the websites of competitors above them to analyze what’s working for them, create new websites with new keywords or contexts, or change designs like header words.

Jeff Pruitt of Acendant, who is a member of the national SEMPO board, talks with Dylan Downhill of Elixir after the presentation.