Last month, we discussed the implications of Hummingbird in a break from my search strategy series on determining your markets and employing unique advantages. Today, we’re back to the series and discussing how companies can best capitalize on big data in search marketing.
Sometimes, good fortune shines on you because of dumb luck. Usually, however, it’s the way in which you put yourself in the position of achieving good fortune that determines whether it happens or not. In the global search marketing space, the resources available to your team and the capabilities of your enterprise can either put you in a brand leadership position or condemn you to (at the very best) second place.
While we contemplate the opportunities available in the growing global market, think about the challenges we face: algorithm changes, big data management, translation efficacy, and attribution & multi-channel marketing. There are a host of challenges your team must continually address. What sets leaders apart is the ability to effectively deploy resources and manage with agility through these uncharted waters.
Our management of the three Vs of big data drives our approach to SEO and search marketing excellence:
- velocity,
- volume,
- and variety.
As we design our search marketing strategies, we must respond to the velocity, volume, and variety of feedback that reflects market attitudes, tastes, and needs.
Velocity
The rate at which market feedback is received has skyrocketed over the past ten years. Mobile adoption has reached 3.6 billion subscribers in the top ten global markets, which means marketers must not only figure out how to convert those markets, but also how to respond quickly to geographic variations in feedback streams.
Resources like Adobe Social or Google Analytics, for example, allow social marketers to measure where a “mention” goes viral, or when an image view reaches 10,000 hits in a geographic market.
Volume
Managing big data is critical to success in global markets. Data buckets point us to the need for an organizational change or a ramp up of a successful soft offer. Quantitative feedback metrics must be managed with resources that organize and segment data with the tap of a screen.
Adobe AudienceManager, for example, has the capability to define markets based on the volume of feedback generated through marketing assets. Agile enterprises capable of managing feedback volume and understanding what the data reveals are often first to establish brand leadership.
Variety
Deciphering feedback composition has become easier, even in the face of a broader set of feedback channels. Qualitative feedback tells us why our landing pages converted, or which search term ranks higher in a local market. Bounce rates and time-on-page mark where our messages “stuck.”
Search managers now comb through social touches, video downloads, and mobile app usage to find where markets are connecting with their brands. The best succeed by bucketing feedback by channel and developing search optimization and marketing strategies that feed those channels effectively.
All marketing leaders must deploy the capabilities of their marketing platform in several ways to stay competitive:
- to gain insight into digital behavior,
- to monitor campaigns and target audiences,
- to optimize media delivery,
- to leverage social behaviors, and
- to manage content across all channels.
Today’s marketing platforms must be capable of addressing the three Vs. The objective for global search marketers is now to leverage these resources in ways that maximize their global search strategies.
Innovation is inherent in our industry and key to our success. Yet the ways search marketing leaders must do that continually expand across brand strategy, platform utilization, data integration, social, and mobile & global alignment — and all while connecting the dots of marketing feedback, changing search algorithms, and evolving buyer control.
Success isn’t achieved by stumbling upon the most effective channels, but rather through nimble management based on the three Vs of big data management & incremental optimization. Your team has to acknowledge that data unlocks the key to global search success, then move with agility and conviction in the direction the data is pointing. This is not mere luck; it’s how you put yourself in position to receive good fortune.
In my next post, I’ll explain how search marketing managers can capitalize on global and local market opportunities.
Title image courtesy of Shutterstock