The User-Centric Approach To SEM & eCommerce
With Search Engine Marketing and eCommerce both being large segments of any corporate interactive arsenal, miami ad:tech featured a session moderated by Tamara Barber from Forrester Research entitled: “The Art of Persuasion: The New Laws of eCommerce Marketing.” Included in the panel were Matt Spengler (Media Executive for Revenue Science), Ignacio Vidaguren (VP of Business Dev. for Mercado Libre) and Colleen Aranda (Manager of Interactive Advertising for Continental Airlines).
Key topics for the talk were User Research, Setting Appropriate ROI Goals & Objectives and the importance of Usability Testing.
With Mercado Libre being a major player in the hispanic eCommerce market, Ignacio talked about how they designed the site to focus on its’ users. He then went on to say that what products appear on the site, which new features are implemented as well as what keywords they target for SEM are all determined by their users. As for comparing paid search vs. organic search, he said that by making his site optimized for organic search results, they made the cost associated with implementing paid search minimized.
Colleen then went on to describe the way in which she and her company have established positive search engine ranking, all of which starts with determining your goals and objectives. From there you develop a strategy and “test, test, test!” To compliment that Matt added that in any campaign, especially one involving behavioral targeting, you may not achieve positive results at first. Only after implementing the first strategy and seeing the results can you properly determine the audience’s use behavior, allowing you to modify your campaign to better target your intended demographic.
From using a blend of various tactics, always analyzing how and why your users are on your site, and continually adapting towards new trends, you can maximize your ROI in both a hispanic and non-hispanic market.
An example of this was given by Colleen who said that a new version of the Continental Airlines website would be launched in Fall of this year which will be optimized for mobile browsers, while at the same time still giving them the same behavioral (and geographical) marketing content that they’ve already incorporated into their current site.
Ignacio revealed to us that all new features of the Mercado Libre site, including any new mobile tactics, are typically shown to the users in a scaled-down version, inviting feedback from their consumers. Using this feedback, they are able to roll out new ideas faster without making it’s core user-base feel like they have been left out “in the cold.”
Overall, they all seemed to stress that user research is an important, ongoing tactic that must be used if you expect to be able to adapt your marketing campaigns to compete in today’s fast-paced global community. In addition to testing campaigns, features, and all other strategies before rolling out any massive campaigns, focusing on what your user’s goals are first is the best way to achieve a positive consumer user-base.
