In order for a brand or product to have its marketing fully optimized, Search needs to cease being an after-thought or stand-alone side-dish and become part-and-parcel of the entire digital marketing offering. In short, Search is Marketing and Marketing is Search. There is no separation.
I was once involved with a campaign where the goal was to merely drive traffic with larger marketing and branding concerns dismissed and not integrated into the Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Pay-Per-Click (PPC) execution. We got nice traffic, low CPCs and impressive ROI but this did the larger brand no real service because one hand was not talking to the other. The end result was empty and unqualified traffic driven by a smoke-and-mirrors numbers and technology game that missed the larger branding and marketing goals of messaging, engaging, and capturing consumers. This failure was as much a result of the tech, numbers side of Search not caring about the touchy-feely side of brand marketing as it was the creative marketing side not embracing the seemingly difficult-to-understand tech, game approach of Search. This lack of respect and integration led to both disciplines suffering.
Inversely, I had the pleasure of being involved with a campaign where PPC and SEO were guided by a larger branding and marketing agenda and strategy and our SERP, paid, and on-site results were not only fully-optimized but they gave us branding and marketing upside we could never have achieved without the full-integration of Search into our plan. Marketing had a respect for Search and Search had a respect for marketing. Job well done.
The lesson I learned was that unless Search and marketing are viewed as the same thing and have their goals aligned, both will suffer. When you realize that Search touches every aspect of marketing — MarCom, Advertising, Social Media, PR, Messaging, Sales — it’s tough to not demand that it be seamlessly woven into each of these touch points.
It is time to bring Search in from the cold.
