Two online marketers from different product arenas showed online marketers their two paths to search marketing success in a presentation, “Search engine marketing: Managing search for ROI,” at the Internet Retailer conference an exhibition this week. Both Ray Allen, president of AmericanMeadows.com, and Pinny Gniwisch, executive vice president Ice.com, have found that developing a deep knowledge of the language that sells and marketing tactics beyond the obvious to be worth the effort.
Allen, whose early career was as copywriter and advertising agency owner before becoming an Intent marketer, says too much written web content is “sloppy copy.” Interfering with getting the most out of search at the lowest possible price is marketer’s obsession with page rank, and content that’s not kept current. “Writing copy that sells he says, is “had, unglamorous work. There's no button to push.”
Allen cited number of ways to boost search-driven sales that don’t involve higher bids on keywords. “Competitive copy costs not more," he says. For example, he suggests reading competitors' listings before submitting to a search engine, then writing a listing that improves on them -- "Wildflower seed sale,” for instance, instead of the less specific “Buy wildflower seeds.” Allen also suggests rewriting with wording that avoids the truncated effect of listings that may cut a too-long product description mid sentence by switching from bold type. “You'd never accept that in a print ad," he points out.
Gniwisch cites the importance of expanding keywords. “It’s the quickest, most effective way of increasing traffic,” he says. sentence mid-sentence. But before buying keywords, marketers should know how to calculate their ROI, with knowledge of margins, marketing costs, shipping costs and the cost of fraud and returns. “Monitor ROI for each keyword and compare cost versus sales. Then decide, is it worth it,” he says.
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