A couple of weeks ago, I urgently asked one of my new interns to find a list of banks who could help us with some very specific trade financing and banking needs in the UK. In true ‘Malaysian towkay’ fashion, I didn’t give him any instructions on how to get it but really stressed that I needed a list of 10 banks operating in the Southampton area within the hour.
Relishing at what he thought was an easy opportunity to impress his new boss, he set out to look for the information with the eagerness of a young German shepherd on his first hunting trip. After 45 minutes, I proceeded to check on his status, only to find him close to tears, clicking wildly on his mouse and opening up every possible browser – Chrome, Firefox, Explorer. “Semua ada.”
He confessed he could not find what I wanted. I asked him where he’d started looking for the information and he said, “Google la, then Yahoo, then MSN.”
I then proceeded to console the stressed-out fellow on how completely acceptable it was to not know how to use a search engine in this time and age especially when he was working in a firm which relied on search engines to make a living.
The boy was in tears.
After (kindly) convincing him that he should ask for his money back on his university education and how he should have read more ‘Peter and Jane’ books – I proceeded to teach him how to use the search engine. Funny, I thought these things only happened to ‘old people’ who thought Ipods were a type of vegetable and not 23 year olds who were supposedly bloggers, Web 2.0 experts and social media junkies – the anointed future of the new economy.
I shuddered at the thought, but what if this problem was not just prevalent in young people but in everyone online? If people don’t really understand how search engines work, how in the world can companies market themselves online effectively?
So after I spent another 30 minutes doing what my intern set out to do, here is what marketers can learn from my Google search tutorial with my Lee Hom-loving friend. Sorry brother, I just have to tell the world.
1. Multiple entries – Many users today go straight to the search engine as their first port of call for any information and go on to key in at least 3 or 4 queries before they get what they want – so position your ads across different keywords as if you are the user – you actually get more than one chance if you know how to take advantage of this.
2. Think local – Search engine sites have their destination websites localised automatically (eg: www.google.com.my) and place more importance on localised content for results, especially if they have localised URLs (eg: xyz.com.my). If you’re looking for information specific to a country, always use the localised version of their search engines for more relevant results.
3. Lack of presence – Banks and trade financers in the UK were pretty clueless in establishing a presence online thus far for their trade finance business; a pretty important presence to have online given it is a billion dollar industry. In fact, there was not even one high street UK bank on the first two pages of the search results. It’s not that they didn’t have sites on trade financing – they were just badly optimised and had been overrun by bit players and spam sites.
4. Credibility -Search engine results play an important role beyond driving traffic for leads in a direct response marketing sense. It builds credibility and branding as a reputable service provider. It was unfortunate I could not find The Royal Bank Scotland or HSBC on the front page and I would have definitely called them if I actually did and what’s worse – I now have a less than favourable impression of them.
5. Be omnipresent – List yourself or your clients on directory sites or neutral-looking review sites for effectiveness and ubiquity and also to ride on their SEO efforts. A neutral-looking and highly SEOed website finally gave me the information I needed and I proceeded to call the ten banks with the most complete contact details. If you can’t find a directory site, get a third party to create one for you – this is very popular in the US where comparison sites are set up by ad networks to drive traffic.
6. Language and location matters – If you’re targeting overseas traffic, try to dominate more generic keywords you find constantly coming out from your web site analytics reports from specific countries. If you have Malaysians like me who never learnt math or science in English keying in queries in English, the search terms are mostly short keywords rather than long tails.
7. Ponder PPC – If you are not able to get positioned highly on the search engine, try Google Adwords or any of the search engine pay-per-click (PPC) services to have some share of the real estate – albeit for a price – like how Barclays UK has done so effectively. Again, there is no guarantee you’ll be placed well unless you understand how to do this well.
I also urge you to check out the help pages on these search engines to learn a thing or two. I am quite certain 99% of you out there will be intrigued by what you can learn there.
That’s all for now. I need to get Mr. Intern to work on his new Trade Financing Directory site. Oh well, at least he has redeemed himself.
By Chu Tzu Ming