Search engine marketing (SEM) is becoming a convoluted topic. I’m not sure there are many who really understand how it differs from other forms of internet marketing anymore. Recent updates to search engine algorithms have further blurred the lines between the different types of new media marketing. However, the core purpose of search engine marketing has remained constant – to get more qualified people (or qualified traffic) to find you as they search the internet for the information that they want.
Search Engine Marketing is a Pull Strategy
Marketing strategy is usually classified as either “push” or “pull.” A push strategy is usually implemented when product awareness is low. Television, radio, and newspaper advertising is often considered push advertising because they are employed to “push” a new message out to a target audience. On the other hand, pull strategies are usually put into action when consumers are “pulling” (or demanding) information about products or services.
While pull strategies have existed for decades, they always took a back seat to “push” advertising. That is, until search engines tipped the scales in their favor. At the heart of search engine optimization is the idea of “pull marketing.” Internet users request information by performing search queries and search engines, in turn, offer millions of results for nearly any query. Internet users are pulling product and service information “off the shelves” of search engines at will, and marketers are scrambling to make sure their brands are being found.
Search Engine Marketing is Permission Marketing
With a pull strategy, marketers require the permission of their customers before the sales process is initiated. Seth Godin coined the term “permission marketing” in referring to this shift in marketing power from businesses to consumers. Consumer demand initiates the sales/marketing process and that’s precisely where search engines entered the picture. By organizing the world’s information and making it universally useful and accessible, search engines have set the stage for consumers to grant their permission for businesses to begin the sales/marketing process.
Search Engine Marketing is Inbound Marketing
Not long after Seth Godin started preaching the virtues of permission marketing, Hubspot emerged as the primary evangelists for inbound marketing. They further refined push and pull marketing strategies in new media respectively as “outbound” and “inbound” marketing. Outbound marketing has been defined as the creation of an initial stimulus to an idea, product, or service. Inbound marketing, on the other hand, represents any effort to attract the attention of consumers who actively search out the information they want to make their own decisions.
Business people that understand how to leverage the power of search engines across new media are unstoppable in their marketing efforts. They are in the unique position where people “bump into” them at every turn. They are found.
