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The Internet's unGlamorous Answer to Lost Prospects Search engine placements offer an effective tool for capturing qualified, online prospects. With an estimated five billion Web pages out there, it's not always easy for prospects to find what they're looking for online — including Web sites like yours. Unfortunately, when search difficulties frustrate prospects, it could mean missed opportunities for you. Here's a little test. Pretend you're a prospect and conduct a Web search for organizations like yours. How long did it take to find your organization? How about your competitors? The clock is ticking. According to one report released in 2000, prospects must be able to find you within 12 minutes before they experience "search rage." (A reliable UK-based study found that 2% of searchers got so angry they punched their co-workers.) When prospects reach the "boiling point," you've probably lost your chance to reach them with any measure of efficacy. Bottom line: to get noticed, your organization should turn up in the first 40 results of your prospects' searches. Why does it matter? While search engines generate only 7-8% of all Web traffic, they account for 46% of first-time visits to new sites. A Forrester Research study (March, 2002) finds that 73.4% of consumers say search engines are the preferred way of finding new sites. And, researchers for Jupiter Media Matrix & NPD found that when consumers look for products, they are "more likely to type the product name into a search engine's search box (28%) than browse shopping 'channels' (5%) or click on ads (4%)." Is optimization enough? No doubt you've had a team of web-heads optimize your site for search engine performance. Unfortunately, site optimization doesn't guarantee top results. The only way to do that is through paid placements. This means paying Google (or other back-end search engines, such as Overture) to serve a text ad resembling search results anytime a user looks for a particular term. For an example, see the sidebar on the Fannie Mae Foundation's KnowledgePlex site. Placements beat banners in perceived credibility. In a BusinessWeek interview, Jonathan Adams, a nationally respected media professional, commented that placement "works so well since users seem to be under the impression that all ads are graphical in nature and written word ad placements are still editorial." The workhorse. Search engine placements are advertisements stripped down — no flashing graphics, no sound effects — just a couple of lines of text and a link. Yet, this unglam advertising presents an excellent opportunity to connect with self-qualifying prospects. And to capture them before your competitor does. How Search Engine Placements Helped Increase Membership by 33% in Only 3 Months Created in 2001 by the Fannie Mae Foundation, www.KnowledgePlex.org quickly established itself as a key online portal for professionals in affordable housing and community development, who rely upon the site for reports, stats, chats, and more. But after an initial surge in visitor traffic to the KnowledgePlex site, the number of new visitors began to level off. Overall traffic experienced only modest gains. And the site remained an underutilized resource. To boost site traffic and acquire new KnowledgePlex members, MDB recommended paid search engine placements, identified likely Internet search phrases among KnowledgePlex prospects, and negotiated with Google and Overture to display a KnowledgePlex text ad among the prospects' search results. The impact was immediate. The paid placements achieved an overall click-through rate of 4.43% — almost nine times the average for standard banner advertising. Certain keywords pulled as high as a 31% response. And most importantly, the number of registered KnowledgePlex users increased by 33% after the placements were initiated. Katharine Dixon Joins MDB MDB is pleased to announce the addition of Katharine Dixon to our staff. Previously the Vice President of Marketing for AXS Technologies and the Senior Director of Operations for Marketing General, Dixon joins our agency as an Account Director. Her experience encompasses a variety of brands, including Jiffy Lube, Clarion Hotels, and Trump Plaza. New MDB Web site sports fresh design, additional content. If you haven't visited www.mdbcomm.com lately, you may not have seen its fresh new look, which not so coincidentally matches the redesign of our newsletter. Visitors will also notice that the site contains more samples in our portfolio section. If you have suggestions for further improvement, email your feedback to info@mdbcomm.com. We'd love to hear what you think. Email this newsletter link to a friend.
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