Ecordia and National Search Terms
By Sean Jackson
This white paper explores the role that Ecordia can play in a national campaign. More than 400 companies have used Ecordia to support SEO initiatives. Many see Ecordia as a local/regional search solution, primarily because of our local success. As Ecordia continues to grow, many of our new partners tend to work with large organizations with national and/or international brands. As part of their search marketing effort, these companies are more concerned with the national focus of their brands and use their agencies to support their search marketing for a very broad appeal.
Eric Picard, director of advertising strategy and emerging media planning at Microsoft Digital Advertising Solutions, wrote an interesting article titled "Why Search Doesn't Really Matter." In this article he points out the role different media play in the advertising mix throughout each stage of the purchase process and discusses the challenges for advertisers. As part of Mr. Picard's analysis he provides an excellent visualization to support his points.
Source: Eric Picard, "Why Search Doesn't Really Matter"
It is interesting that at each point in the buying processes, the cost for reaching the person within the buying stage increases, while the volume of inventory decreases. As Eric Picard states:
"The media with the greatest audience reach and highest impression volumes – TV, radio, newspapers, billboards, and magazines – are considered very effective media for driving consumers down the purchase funnel. But they aren't as good at driving a purchase, retaining customers, or creating customer advocacy. But the media that are great at driving purchases have much less inventory."
In essence, demand is higher for media that drive purchases. This media is limited, which in turn drives costs much higher.
"Do you like your Ford?"
The Ford Motor Company is a large brand name with annual advertising budgets in excess of one billion dollars. Ford is a major player in both the online and offline advertising spaces. Certainly an enormous amount of money is spent in building category and brand awareness, with local dealers focused on advertising to those within the purchase stage. But what about the last stages of the purchase process:, Customer Retention and Customer Advocacy? This is where Ecordia is playing an interesting role.
Ecordia is #1 for Ford Owner Loyalty
At the time of this printing, an Ecordia page is #1 on Google for the phrase "Ford Owner Loyalty."
One of our customers used Ecordia to capture this top spot, with very little effort. Not bad for a car dealership in Arkansas. What is interesting –- and quite surprising -- is that Ford Motor Company's own website is #4 in the Google search engine results.
For Ford Owner Loyalty, the number of indexed search pages is low at fewer than 130, 000, and the advertising spend is low -- only five sponsored ads; however, it is even more surprising that this keyword phrase is not more actively pursued. Why? Because although there are not a lot of people searching for Ford Owner Loyalty compared to Ford Cars, can Ford really afford not to own this term in the organic results?
For example, what if Ford were actively promoting its owner loyalty program? What if a disgruntled car owner had something less complimentary to say? What if a competitor had another opinion about Ford Owner Loyalty?
As the sales funnel graphic above illustrates, Customer Retention and Advocacy have lower implied inventory and a higher cost, but are extremely vital in the sales process. Yet in the case of the Ford Motor Company, issues related to owner loyalty (retention and advocacy ) are not part of the company's online presence.
The Opportunity for Ecordia Partners
Within a few hours, search terms related to Ford Owner Loyalty (including other terms related to cash back or rebate offers ), could easily be addressed. This could provide an excellent staging point to foster more interaction with Ford owners and increase the advocacy of the product lines. In essence, an Ecordia partner could easily address issues related to Customer Retention and Customer Advocacy for Ford Motor Company using Ecordia.
But What About Category and Brand Awareness?
Most large agencies love the two initial points in the sales funnel – category and brand awareness. This is where the big dollars are dedicated by most companies with promotion related to the later stages of the sales funnel relegated to other smaller shops. But agencies outsourcing or ceding the later-stage work to others can use Ecordia to capture more of the purchasing promotion.
Likewise, if a small agency is already doing the late-stage purchasing promotion, it can address the later stages with Ecordia, but also move their efforts up the sales funnel, increasing their revenue. For example, Brand Preference and Purchase Intent are also categories that Eccordia is effective with.
Conclusion
In order for a company to succeed online with its marketing message, it must address the interest of buyers across all levels of the sales process. Ecordia can play an important role in the later stages of the sales process – with minimal cost and effort.
Lead Maverick is now Ecordia
