Benefits and Drawbacks of Search Marketing

Search Marketing is the process of acquiring traffic or customers via search engines. Search Marketing involves two disciplines

1.       SEO (Search Engine Optimization) – the process of acquiring customers via natural/organic search

2.       SEM (Search Engine Marketing) – the process of acquiring customers by placing paid ads on Search Engine Results Page (SERP). SEM usually involves the marketer to Pay Per Click (PPC) when the customer lands on its website by clicking on the ad on SERP.

Benefits of using Search Marketing

Benefits of SEO

1.       Once your website is developed, it will have the long term benefit of featuring in the organic search

2.       There is a limited direct cost other than paying someone to develop and maintain it

3.       The opportunity to beat the competition by outsmarting and not necessarily outspending them

4.       The higher the website ranks for the keywords, the more traffic it will attract

5.       Increased brand recognition and credibility

6.       An SEO optimized site with higher Quality Score may rank higher even though its bid price may be lower than competition

7.       An SEO optimized site could also be a user friendly site

8.       It allows the marketer to remain competitive its web space

Benefits of SEM

1.       Campaigns can be launched quickly

2.       The results of the campaigns can be viewed instantaneously and in real time. It can be optimized continuously to achieve better results

3.       The campaign can be turned off instantaneously in case of bandwidth or other technical issues

4.       Multi level targeting – Location, Age, Gender, Day Parts, Behavioural patterns and many more

5.       The opportunity to test the market before launching a big campaign

6.       The ability to keep adding or removing keywords

7.       Budget can be set and managed easily. Hence Businesses of all sizes can use Search Marketing to drive traffic to their website

Drawbacks of using Search Marketing

Drawbacks of SEO

1.       Implementation is time consuming

2.       Results may not be immediate after implementing improvements on the site

3.       Changing algorithms can affect the Quality Score

4.       As the websites are increasing, the competition to rank high increases as others are also aiming to achieve better ranking

5.       Since the algorithms used by search engines are closely guarded, there’s some trial and error required to have a good ranking

6.       If there is no in-house expertise in SEO, then the cost to hire an expert may be quite high

Drawbacks of SEM

1.       The cost of advertising can be very high especially in highly competitive industries

2.       In order to attract high traffic, a large bank of keywords may be required to be used. Here again the cost can drive up with more keywords and especially commonly used keywords

3.       Certain industries (such as drugs, ammunition etc) are not allowed to advertise on sponsored links and because of this related websites (pharmacies, for example) are also disallowed from advertising using sponsored links

Benefits and drawbacks of Search Marketing

There are currently 2.5 billion internet users according to the latest 2014 global digital statistics! It's not surprising that digital platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and Search Marketing have become vital to a brand's online presence. With over 94% of Internet users using search engines to find what they’re looking, Search Marketing which comprises of Search Engine Optimisation (Organic/ Unpaid Search) and Search Engine Marketing (Paid Search) has become an important part of a company's marketing plan.

Advantages of Search Marketing:

Targeted - While traditional advertising essentially try to convince people who may not be interested, search marketing targets people who are interested in a specific product or service, thus making it easier to convince consumers to buy the product or service.

Cost effective - With 2.5 billon users online, the ROI is higher as compared to the costly traditional advertising platforms like televisions, radio, etc. 

Credibility - Also, users in general feel that organic search results (non paid) are credible, hence they are very likely to click on these search results, which in turns drive traffic to a business website.

Disadvantages of Search Marketing:

Competition - While users feel that organic search results are more credible, 75% of these users will not click beyond the first page of the search result. Thus, It is highly competitive and extremely important to be at the top of organic search results. This will be a tedious process, which includes daily updates, constantly analysing & improving on key phrases and so on to outwit the ever changing algorithm.

Uncontrollable cost - Although business can have the option of paying to appear at the top of the search result via Search Engine Marketing (paid search), this can be costly when there's a bidding war occurring between competitors and may in turn may drive up the cost significantly and lowering the ROI.

Long term investment - The time between the launching of the initiative and achievement of profits could be long as it takes some time for traffic to actually pour into the website. 

Benefits and drawbacks of Search Marketing

From the perspective of the marketers, search marketing enable them to know the effectiveness of their online campaign which traditional offline campaigns cannot do. By measuring the number of views to their websites, for example, marketers can now measure the ROI of their online campaign.  Such measurements enable marketers to know which online media is most effective for their campaign and where to channel their budgets to. Many of the online media also incorporate features and tools which could provide useful information to the marketers to make this decisions.

From the information gathered of impressions to their online advertisements or websites in the various digital platforms, marketers can profile consumers and their consumption patterns, and come up with the right marketing mix to reach out to their target audience. Online media also serves as platform for marketer to engage and connect with their consumers and marketers.  Another benefit is that digital advertisements can be launched quickly compared to traditional advertisement which take time to design, print and circulate.



There is inter-link relationship between marketers, medias and consumers.  Any abuse to the relationship will have drawbacks. There are many instances of companies embarking on mass advertising campaign hitting everyone whom they have contact details. As a result, consumers are flooded with information that they either do not need nor interested in. A recent case in mind in the sms fiasco in Singapore. Consumers are flooded with information vie sms on properties, spas, etc.  Consumers certainly are not happy and this prompt the authority to step in and came up with the Do-not-call Register. Some online medias (eg Youtube) are either difficult to control or uncontrollable. Any comment form individuals, be it true or false, negative or positive, can viral quickly out of control and marketers scrambling to do damage control.

Apple and Sumsung decrease in market share

Samsung’s share of the market has receded slightly, going from 32.2 percent last year to 30.4 percent in Q2 2013 while Apple sees 13.1 percent share of the market, which is down on 16.6 percent in Q2 2012. In contrast, LG, Lenovo and ZTE saw greater year-on-year growth and quarterly growth than Apple or Samsung.

The consequences for Apple and Samsung can be far reaching as mobile devises account for major part of their businesses. iPhone and iPad account for two thirds of Apple's overall sales. A decline in market share will have substantial negative impact on its bottom line. Possible reasons attributing to the decline in the market share are products innovation, marketing strategies and responsiveness to consumers' ever-changing demands.

Innovation has been the competitive advantage for both companies The companies attracted new customers mainly because of attractive features and apps, and locking them in with must-have services and companion gadgets. Of late, this leadership position has been challenged. Apple is simply not catching up on innovation. The company hasn't launched a new smartphone or tablet in about a year before coming up with the iPhone 5S and 5C, while competitors are releasing new devices far more frequently.  If this advantage is eroded, then it has grave consequence to the company.
 
Both companies need to do more in developing markets such as China, where affordability is a major factor. Samsung’s smartphone market share in emerging market such as China is dwindling.  Xiaomi dethroned Samsung in December 2013 as the most popular smartphone brand in China, simply because it is more affordable to the locals. Although Apple launched the lower-cost iPhone 5C last year, the price of the product is still considered high to many.  To compete on price, Apple and Samsung may have to produce devices in the local market, taking advantage of lower cost resources.  If not, they face the consequences of losing more market share to local competitors.

Do Apple and Samsung know their customers well enough to enable them to response quickly to their changing needs?  In the digital age, both companies can certainly do more to profile and engage consumers through the various online platforms. Considering their cross-boundary businesses, this is crucial to come up with the right marketing mix for each of the markets.

Apple and Samsung both announced a decrease of market share yesterday, what are the consequences of this loss of market share for themselves, competitors?

Apple and Samsung both announced a decrease of market share yesterday, what are the consequences of this loss of market share for themselves, competitors?

The loss of market share for Apple and Samsung can indicated that there are lots of substitutes going into the market. Consumers are able to accept the substitutes due to lower costs and better quality than Apple & Samsung. The increasing of Chinese products brings the threats to both brands. For instance, Huawei for the same period kept a market share of 4.7 percent and Lenovo had an increase from 3.9 to 4.7 percent. As such, Apple introduced a lower cost Smartphone, iPhone 5C that tries to dominate back the market share. However, the price and spec doesn’t really appeal to the consumers and they would rather go for other substitutes.

The consequences of loss of market share can bring bigger competition among the existing and as well as new competitors. With the technology that is improving every day, it can reduce the barrier of entries of producing low cost and better quality smartphones. Some of upcoming Smartphone makers like Xiaomi and from report it indicated that revenue was up by 150 percent from the same quarter a year ago.

Another consequence will be retrenchment may occur in both brands if the market share continuing to decrease significantly.  Apple & Samsung will have lesser profit, thus, to reduce the high cost they may take consideration of retrenchment and result it may also affect their research & development as there will be lesser budget and talents for it. When lesser budgets are given to research & development, it may affect the quality of smartphone making them losing more market share.

In order for them to stay as leaders in the market share, Apple may look into producing a lower cost & good quality phone that pricing can fight against Huawei & Xiaomi Smartphones and having bigger screen size. In this way, Apple may able to capture new customers or retain existing customers.  Samsung may look into apps that are more unique to just Samsung users and not as Android user, since, they are quite a number of Smartphones maker are using Android as their operating system.

What are the benefits and drawbacks of Search Marketing?

Search Marketing = Search Engine Optimisation (organic) + Search Engine Marketing (paid)

Benefits:

1.  Amplify branding efforts:

Search Marketing helps amplify your branding efforts on digital media (e.g. website, Facebook page). Your brand may not be enjoying maximum visibility when you are not buying  related keywords on Search Engines like your competitor does. It helps protect your brand against competitors who may likely bid on your brand terms to increase their own brand visibility.

2. Maintenance of quality site for consumers:

Search Engine Optimisation forces you to think from the perspective of your target audience and guide us throughout a specific path on our website. E.g. using relevant keywords for site and hence maintaining a quality site for consumers. In addition, the constantly changing algorithms and criteria by search engines forces us to continuously improve and maintain a quality site that provides relevant information for consumers.

3.  Targeted marketing

Marketing dollars can be spent efficiently through Search Engine Marketing as it can be targeted at audiences with a specific set of demographics and behaviour. It is then only shown to captive audience who are actively searching for goods and services that your brand offers. E.g. A pregnant woman is more likely to see your product's ad on Google results page compared to a 15 year-old teenage boy as they search for different categories of information that are of interest to them.

Drawbacks:

1.   Reduced brand value:

Not all consumers fully understand how Search Marketing works and tend to assume that it is for companies with big marketing budgets (i.e. that there is no consideration of website quality). This reduces brand value in the perspective of consumers who don’t trust paid advertising and you're likely to lose this group of customers if your brand is not turning up also as an organic result.

2.   The Internet remembers everything:

Search Engine Optimisation produces truly organic results that can be contributed by other sources. This means that consumers can also easily find other sources of information through organic results that might be detrimental to your brand (i.e. past history).

3.   Challenge for Small Start Ups

Assuming that every brand in a reasonably competitive industry is on the same starting line for Search Engine Optimisation big companies with big marketing budgets are more likely to dominate advertising spaces on search engines through search engine marketing compared to smaller entrepreneurs.

Mabelline Tan

• Apple and Samsung both announced a decrease of market share yesterday, what are the consequences of this loss of market share for themselves, competitors??

Apple and Samsung are both market leaders in the smartphone market share. However, it appears that they are losing the market share to lesser known players like Huawei, Lenovo and LG.

I think Apple and Samsung are losing market share because consumers are looking for quality phones at a cheaper price. 

For Apple, it might be losing market share because they do not have varied sizes of phones like what Samsung or other phone makers has. Thus, for Apple to gain market share, they need to compete by making larger screen phones. 

Perhaps, phone sales these days are saturated and there is hardly any new/ innovative/ ground-breaking technology that could attract consumers to spend more. 

I guess for Apple and Samsung to compete with Huawei, Lenovo and LG, they will need to slash prices of their phones and make phones value for money in order to gain market share,

Perhaps for people for buy a phone, they do want to read reviews or do some research when they purchase.

So i tried typing in my Google search for the search words 'Apple Phones'. And this search page showed up.

I found it peculiar that Apple (though it is the market leader for its iphones ), appeared first and second in organic search but it did not appear in paid search at all. Now that Apple has announced that it has a decrease in its market share, perhaps it is time that Apple starts to regain its market share by doing search marketing. Apple could use paid search to regain its market share. 

A search with the words 'Samsung Phones' appeared in the following..

Samsung is still the market leader for smart phones. In the Google search results page, it is shown that Samsung did use paid search to market its latest Samsung galaxy S5. If Samsung continues to use paid and organic search to market its phones, it will not lose its market share.

I think Samsung should come up with phones that matches the cheaper price of Huawei, Lenovo and Lg phones in order to retain market share.

Huawei, Lenovo and LG will continue with paid and organic marketing to retain their market shares.