CReATION: Combine SEO with banners for a bigger bang for your buck

<p>The past two months' activity in the MEDIA letters section seem to </p><p>show that Asian marketing professionals are starting to see the </p><p>incredible potential of search engine optimisations (SEO) for their </p><p>online promotional campaigns. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>I think that Gerald Alleva from OBI and Eddie Ngan from TWC have done a </p><p>fine job of explaining the benefits of SEO, but there are a couple of </p><p>areas that we have found to be very important from our experiences, that </p><p>I would like to add to the forum (MEDIA, July 7 and August 4) </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>We all agree that search engines are important promotional tools and </p><p>sources of information. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>In fact, Jupiter Communications reports that more than 70 per cent of </p><p>the Internet population finds new websites via search engines, while the </p><p>industry average banner click through rate is just 0.36 per cent </p><p>(Neilsen/Netratings, April 3, 2000). </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>At SubmitAsia, we have found that by combining these two tools - </p><p>keyword-driven banners, and optimised search engine submissions - the </p><p>results can be incredible. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>In a recent regional campaign for Hewlett-Packard, working together with </p><p>Blue Sphere Interactive and iPlanners, we saw daily click-through rates </p><p>of up to seven per cent. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>This reinforces our belief that the various online marketing tools, </p><p>including SEO, work best when integrated strategically. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>The second important point to consider is "knowing the </p><p>neighbourhood". </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>Mr Alleva mentioned in his letter the complexity of understanding how </p><p>each search engine works and indexes the Web. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>Even more important we believe is a firm understanding of the </p><p>positioning and strengths of each search engine in the local </p><p>markets. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>Submitting to Yahoo is a no-brainer, but if you are targeting an </p><p>IT-specific audience in Taiwan, you need to decide which local sites can </p><p>provide enough return to justify spending the time/money on a SEO </p><p>campaign, and that doesn't always mean Yahoo, in the same way that a </p><p>publication like Computerworld may not be the best choice for some of </p><p>our B2C clients like Discovery Channel. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>Each search engine has its appropriate audience and advertisers. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>Knowing that audience, and being able to submit, optimise and track in </p><p>the market's local language is vital. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>The globalisation of the Internet should not be ignored; more than 49 </p><p>per cent of the Internet is now "non-English", (GlobalReach, June 2000) </p><p>and more than 30 per cent of ecommerce sales on US sites comes from </p><p>international customers. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>If you are not attracting and servicing those customers in their </p><p>preferred manner, they will click on another link to someone who </p><p>will. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>Yes, SEO is a complex process, but no more so than developing an </p><p>intelligent media plan, or a well-crafted PR campaign. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>Much like these more established practices, we believe SEO will come to </p><p>be appreciated in the same way. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>I know that our agency clients (and their clients) already value the </p><p>increased awareness that a quality local SEO effort brings to a </p><p>campaign. </p><p><BR><BR> </p>