We all have a handle on what marketing is - although this is debatable as we rarely practice it according to the definition - but what exactly is Search Engine Marketing (SEM)?

Definitions are Important

What does it mean to the business? Does it mean simply some technology and process that finds products, services and providers of things the buyer wishes? Does it mean something more advanced that enhances either profit-making or better communications or both?

It is worthwhile defining exactly what we need in marketing terms before we think about either what SEM is or what it can do for us.

It is all very well examining a technology or new process to see if it has any inherent value that could presumably be brought to bear to help communications with the customer. It could also help perhaps make, or at least try and make, the increasingly multi-channel and multi-message world we live in a lot easier to navigate.

SEM is defined in terms of: “The act of marketing a website via search engines” …. “marketing techniques required to make a website visible on search engines” …. “the function of locating, researching, submitting, and positioning a web site within the proper search engines” …. “the practice of marketing and advertising through the search engines” … etc.

But, if we look at those SEM definitions, does the impression offered by this interpretation suggest that this is sufficient, is actually 'marketing' at it best and most modern, or is it simply another means or excuse to fire more messages to poor unsatisfied prospects?

SEM and Marketing - how they relate

If marketing is all about definition of customer need and resolving them, and SEM is all about advertising through search mechanisms, then is the processes that SEM encompasses really 'marketing' at all?

So, yet again, have the 'muddle-monikers' struck - and given it the wrong name? Muddles abound in marketing, thanks in part to the wrongful notion of what marketing actually is and the fixation - or addiction rather - to 'creativity' and advertising. SEM as it stands and is currently defined, is narrowly seen in this way.

The counter-argument is of course that SEM was only ever about advertising, one-way albeit with some pull as well as push. Then perhaps, it should have been called SEA - Search Engine Advertising?

What SEM is supposed to Do

If SEM is all about targeted advertising, then lets say it – it should be SEA. That gives it the appropriate status and lets us perhaps look at what SEM should be. SEA gives us an evolution in advertising – targeted activity that relies on push and pull, often targeted in a very precise way to get down to the granular level profile, and perhaps even getting down to that 1-to-1 level to which we all aspire!

SEM and the Future

That is SEA. If we are talking SEM, then what need to happen is to use the whole process as a two-way communication process – not just sensing who may need our product or service at that time, but to instigate a more evolved connection between us and those with whom we would wish to sell to.

Instinct warns me that this is not simply just making sure that the SEA process is complimented by ‘enquirer-acquisition’ processes at the back end which capture data relating to a click-through or some other activity identifying an interest. What is needed is a more holistic approach which examines how the enquirer / prospect would come through from an SEA activity, and would subsequently be handled by ‘the system’ and put on the path of forming a true relationship.

Of course, the enquirer could be placed into the standard ‘marketing’ process afterwards – placed in a CRM system of some kind and contacted / developed thereafter in a ‘traditional’ fashion. But surely this is missing an opportunity as well as making semantic mistakes? You have used a novel way to bring in some perhaps highly targeted and ‘needy’ prospect – one brought in by the application of some great new technology – then perhaps a novel approach should be applied to how we handle it and subsequently build upon it?

Surely an enhanced proper SEM approach would see an enquiry – any enquiry – as a possible profit making opportunity that not only needs early assessment, but could be placed on the path of a customer development and/or product-service development process in a more direct way. In a way that builds on the fact that the enquirer has used the digital platform-path technology that enabled the enquiry in the first place and may therefore be willing to be engaged using technology that would improve their ‘experience’ of the enquiry-to-sale process and beyond?

What it Could be used for

1. Market Sensing

A step forward for SEA which would truly make it SEM and therefore more profitable, could be to allow it to develop as a lead tool (or hook) to sense the market. This could either be to assess the current market or obtain information about a potential market. Proper SEM, as a market-sensing tool, could be used in the following fashion:

• As an early, aggregated new product or service development idea generation mechanism
• To collate and analyse market dynamics – who is buying from whom, why and where markets are moving (and where customers are to be found in larger or sufficient numbers)
• Determine aggregate demands for certain product or service categories
• Use as a highly effective promotional trial tool to ‘dip the toe’ into certain markets

2. Customer Sensing

This activity, process or orientation, is to the ‘organisational capacity to differentiate customers, detect their needs, tailor information and offers for them, and ultimately develop products and services in real time’. Wow – we now have some powerful real-time tools like never before. A click from a prospect can become an enhanced real-time engagement.

We have to be careful of course – to not over-egg the opportunity with requests for too much information or to ask the enquirer to do too much at the outset, but with the enhanced technologies we now have at our disposal, we need to make sure that this ‘real-time’ characteristic of the technology and interaction is not lost.

This of course is more than just the usual profiling mechanisms and criteria - their individual characteristics, beliefs and other profile-building items – but also the early detection and definition of how MUCH profit can be made for BOTH you and the prospect.

Customer sensing is of course, arguably the first stage on that proverbial road to ‘customer insight’ …. and if it is practised appropriately and effectively, can really leverage profits from all subsequent activity.

3. Product, Service and 'Offer' Sensing

As argued before, proper SEM can help speed new products or services down their development track. True SEM could identify early stage ideas, concepts and future options for new product or service development (NPSD). Why go to all the trouble of canvassing opinion, undertaking widespread competitive evaluations, ‘manufacturer-active-paradigm’ NPSD, etc when you could start the next round of NPSD from initial enquiries?

Also – there is scope to sense how current products and services (your and others’) are performing in the marketplace, at time of enquiry. Intelligence that is worth its weight in gold. It would be wonderful to enhance SEM with a means to define what the prospect or customer thinks of you – in terms of whether they would be likely to recommend others to you due to their initial experience of how you handled the enquiry, or subsequently served them. What a great opportunity to really leverage the initial enquiry and turn the enquirer into a promoter for your firm!

Conclusion and Improving use of SEA/SEM

In an age where we focus on creativity rather than creation, telling and selling rather than communicating and sensing, where we still 'push' rather than 'pull, search engine based advertising and marketing activities (or rather their next- generation incarnation) offer a marked opportunity for real profit improvement.

Search, is the nearest thing to real pull in modern business. Rather than the customer - whether in a b2b, b2c or public sector sense - stumbles across 'targeted' messages and opportunities to find out about the product or service, they actively seek it out and have a surrogate to do it for them and supposedly to short- circuit and better inform the buying process.

David Hood
Community Director,
The Marketing Leaders
davidh@themarketingleaders.com