Expand Brand Awareness

Is driving new sales an important result of search engine marketing? Absolutely! But so is building brand awareness. Although achieving new sales immediately justifies your media expenditures, creating a strong brand continually brings you new and return customers long after your investment in a marketing campaign has ended.

Important

Brand refers to the collective consumer concept of a company. Elements such as names , slogans, logos, and URLs are part of brand identification, but they are not "the brand." Brand awareness is the expansion of a company's brand in the marketplace .

According to research from The Conference Board, 60 executives from major U.S. firms cited search engine listings as their top Internet tool for enhancing their companies' brands. Figure 1.2 compares online to offline tactics for expanding brand awareness.

Figure 1.2. Search engine listings are the second most-used tactic for brand building.

It's interesting to note that search engine listings fall behind only print ads when both forms of marketing are considered . I believe that search engine positioning is a requirement for companies doing traditional marketing, because search engines support branding efforts while providing the directions to the online store.

For example, if you're running a TV or print campaign, a percentage of people will look for your brands in the search engines, and then visit your web site to place an order. Search engines act as brand builders as well as shopping tour guides ‚ they lead interested consumers right to your doorstep.