The Brand Effect on the Search Results Page

Last week, I walked through an interaction with the search page step by step and looked cognitive engagement with the page. To understand the nature of branding on the search page, you first have to understand how we interact with brand messaging on the page.
Quick to Click
 
We left off last week as we picked up enough information scent on the page to encourage us to click on the listing. It’s important to understand that this is not a rigorous appraisal of relevance. The amount of deliberation is directly related to the amount of risk involved in a click through, determined [...]

A Cognitive Walk-Through of Searching

Two weeks ago, I talked about the concept of selective perception, how subconsciously we pick and choose what we pay attention to. Then, last week, I explained how engagement with search is significantly different than engagement with other types of advertising. These two concepts set the stage for what I want to do today. In this column, I want to lay out a step by step hypothetical walk through of our cognitive engagement with a search page.
Searching on Auto Pilot
 
First, I think it’s important to clear up a common misunderstanding. We don’t think our way through an entire search interaction. The [...]

10 Areas Where SEO and PPC Can Work Together

SEO or SEM (PPC), organic vs. sponsored? Where should your online marketing budgets go? Well the answer is both. SEO and PPC can work very nicely together depending on where you are with your online marketing efforts. We came up with ten instances where SEO and PPC should be used together as an effective online marketing campaign.
 

Preparing for a Site Redesign – when planning a redesign and making sure that all of the SEO best practice are being put in place as you prepare to launch, you’ll want to bolster your online campaign with sponsored efforts as you transition your [...]

The Customer Life Cycle Funnel – an Interview with Jim Sterne

 
I recently had a chance to chat with Jim Sterne, Chairman of the Web Analytics Association and founder of the eMetrics Marketing Optimization Summit.
Jim Sterne’s depiction of the Customer Life Cycle Funnel – four distinct funnels based on successful or unsuccessful customer acquisition, persuasion and conversion – has been widely quoted and referenced since he first presented it in 2000.  In the interview, Jim walks us through the four funnels, while also touching upon B2B vs. B2C, and social media marketing.

Picking and Choosing What We Pay Attention To

In a single day, you will be assaulted by hundreds of thousands of discrete bits of information. I’m writing this from a hotel room on the corner of 43rd and 8th in New York. Just a simple 3 block walk down 8th Avenue will present me with hundreds bits of information: signs, posters, flyers, labels, brochures. By the time I go to sleep this evening, I will be exposed to over 3000 advertising messages. Every second of our lives, we are immersed in a world of detail and distraction, all vying for our attention. Even the metaphors we use, such [...]

Questioning the Power of the Influencer

Word of mouth is powerful in marketing. In the last two weeks, we’ve seen how the opinions of others can cause us to change our own beliefs to match. We’ve also seen how the speed at which the word spreads is a function not only of the structure of the network itself, but also the value of the message and its impact on the people in the network, as well as how much they stand to gain (or lose) by spreading the word.
Influencers: Our Connection to Opinion?
 
In the world of marketing, one of the most cherished concepts has been the [...]