“The most important search engine is the one in our minds.”
That quote – from Jon Bradshaw, founder of consultancy Brand Traction – is the most pathetic idea we’ve heard in a long time.
Well, imagine you are a tourist in Dublin.
You are inside Mulligans, a wonderful 168-year-old pub on Little Hole Street.
A happy Irish barman is trying him.
“What do you have to drink?” he asks.
So how do you decide what to order? Do you whip out your iPhone and type ‘What drink should I get in a pub in Dublin?’ into the search box?
You don’t search Google – you search your brain.
And since people are ‘cognitives’, you do a simple, quick search like ‘drink, pub, Dublin’. Your brain retrieves a short list of options from its memory banks. And then, to save yourself time and energy, your brain usually chooses the most obvious option.
Today, marketers invest billions of dollars in search engine optimization. We want our brands to come to mind easily when buyers enter the market. We have the right objective, but we are optimizing for the wrong search engine. The right search engine is the one in your head.
That’s why the real focus for marketers should be brain engine optimization (BEO).
That’s right – LIVE is the new SEO.
But how do you optimize search results within a buyer’s brain?
We’re not smart enough to answer that question, but we know someone who is: Professor Jenni Romaniuk of the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute, one of the greatest marketing thinkers of our time.
Our team at the B2B Institute has published new research from Romaniuk that we believe could revolutionize the way B2B marketing works. The paper explains how B2B marketers can grow their businesses through brain engine optimization.
Category entry points are the real keywords
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LIVE is not that different from SEO.
The goal is still to associate your brand with a keyword – a mental keyword. Or what Romaniuk calls a ‘category entry point’ (CEP).
To quote the professor: “CEPs are the cues buyers use to access their memories when faced with a buying situation and any internal cues (e.g. motives, feelings) and cues can external factors (eg location, time of day) that affect purchase. situation.”
And why exactly are CEPs so important?
Because of a buying situation: “a buyer by category processes existing memories to identify potential brands to buy. These memory-generated brands are the starting point for the buying process. Other sources and search engines (eg Google, colleagues) are usually only consulted if the memory-generated options are insufficient. And, even when consulted, buyers still show a preference for the brands they already know.”
Ehrenberg-Bass: By connecting brand messages to buying situations, you get ‘the mind and the market’
That’s why you didn’t pull out your phone to decide what drink to order at Mulligans. Guinness was the obvious choice in that buying situation for many years of advertising and marketing.
This also explains how most marketing works to increase sales: by associating the brand with CEPs long before the customer has to buy. In her latest research, Romaniuk shows that B2B brands with more connections to more CEPs are more likely to be purchased. Just like pages with more backlinks rank higher in Google search, brands with more CEP links rank higher in brain search.
And CEPs don’t just help with customer acquisition. CEPs also help with customer retention. According to the research, each additional CEP link lowers the odds of a defect by 5%. If you care about getting or keeping, you should care about CEPs.
How to optimise for category entry points
Just as marketers use digital data to optimize Google search, marketers can use market research to optimize brain search. Brain engine optimization is a four-step process.
Step 1: Identify the relevant CEPs for your category
Start by surveying buyers to understand the cues that trigger a buying situation. In B2B, you want to understand both the business needs and the professional needs of the buyer.
Why does the buyer need automation software? There are probably many CEPs for that, like making tedious inquiries easier (business CEP) or angling for a promotion (professional CEP). The CEPs will be very different for a beer buying situation, from ‘when I’m in an Irish pub’ to ‘if I’m having a terrible day at the office’.
Step 2: Prioritise the right CEPs for your brand
With SEO, you try to pick the most valuable keywords. With BEO, you try to pick the most valuable CEPs. There could be 50 different CEPs for the cloud computing category, but not all of them are equally attractive to IBM.
You can quantify the commercial value of CEP by analyzing the ‘three Cs’: commonality, credibility and competitiveness. In other words, prioritize CEPs that occur frequently, are easy to relate to your brand and are not already associated with competitors.
The preferred CEPs are the ways to make a profit
Step 3: Build (and refresh) links between your brand and the CEPs
Now that you’ve identified the most profitable CEPs, it’s time to start investing. Aim for no more than three or five CEPs to start (the smaller the brand, the smaller the list).
Find creative ways to represent the CEPs in your marketing and advertising, and co-present alongside your signature assets (Guinness harp, Oracle red, Intel bells).
Align with your vendors to make sure you’re talking about the same CEPs (which are just your customers’ biggest needs).
Place the CEPs on your website and into your Powerpoint presentations.
Here’s a great example from Microsoft, which uses ‘co-presentation’ to connect the brand (Teams) with the relevant CEPs for a buying scenario (online education).
Step 4: Measure the effectiveness of your CEP-building efforts
If you’re doing your job right, over time you should see an increase in the number of buyers linking CEP’s key plans to your brand.
Most of us are busy trying to associate the brand with a set of fluffy perceptual attributes that marketing thinks are important, such as ‘innovation’ and ‘reliability’. Instead, link to CEPs that your customers think are important. It’s a more profitable approach and much easier to explain to sales and finance, who are skeptical of brand marketing.
Memory generation is the best form of lead generation
Most B2B marketers are obsessed with lead generation, but the best B2B marketers are obsessed with memory generation.
If your brand isn’t remembered in a buying situation, it’s unlikely to be bought – period. People usually only buy what they can easily remember, and brain engine optimization is how you increase your chances of being easily remembered. And because brain engine optimization is what drives most sales, it should be a priority for every B2B (and B2C) marketing department.
If you win the mind, you win the market.
Peter Weinberg and Jon Lombardo are the heads of research & developed by the B2B Institute, a think tank at LinkedIn that studies the laws of B2B growth. You can follow Peter and Jon on LinkedIn.
How many types of SEO are there?
The three types of SEO are: On-page SEO – Anything on your web pages – Blogs, product copy, web copy. Off Page SEO – Anything that happens away from your website that helps your SEO Strategy – Backlinks. Technical SEO – Anything technical done to improve Search Ranking – site indexing to help bot crawling.
What are the 4 main parts of SEO? Each component builds on and complements the others. The stronger the links between each of the 4 SEO components – technical SEO, on-page SEO, off-page SEO, and content – the better the results. Knowing the connections will help us better understand the best ways to use them effectively.
How many SEO techniques are there?
12 SEO Techniques You Must Use in 2022 By working on some of these SEO best practices you will be able to work to improve your visibility and traffic. On with us.
What are the different types of SEO techniques?
12 Types of SEO
- White-Hat Senior. When you hear someone say white hat SEO, that means SEO practices that conform to the terms and conditions of the major search engines, including Google. …
- Black-Hat Senior. …
- Senior Grey-Hat. …
- On-Page SEO. …
- Off Page SEO. …
- Technical Senior. …
- International SEO. …
- Local SEO.
How many types of SEO are there?
The three types of SEO are: On-page SEO – Anything on your web pages – Blogs, product copy, web copy. Off Page SEO – Anything that happens away from your website that helps your SEO Strategy – Backlinks. Technical SEO – Anything technical done to improve Search Rankings – site indexing to help bot crawling.
What are different types of SEO?
So, the different types of SEO are:
- Technical Senior.
- On-Page SEO.
- SEO content.
- Off Page SEO.
- Local SEO.
- Mobile SEO.
- Ecommerce SEO.
What are the 3 types of SEO optimizations?
There are three main types of SEO:
- Internal (Senior On Page)
- External (SEO Off Page)
- Technical Senior.
What is SEO in digital marketing? SEO means Search Engine Optimization and is the process used to optimize a website’s technical configuration, content relevance and link popularity so that its pages can be easily found, more relevant and popular for user search queries, and as a result therefore, search engines rank them better.
What is SEO and how it works?
Well, SEO stands for ‘Search Engine Optimization’, which is the process of getting traffic from free, organic, editorial or natural search results in search engines. It aims to improve your website’s position on search results pages. Remember, the higher the website is listed, the more people will see it.
How does SEO work in simple words?
Search engine optimization (Senior) is all about targeting your website to rank higher on a search engine results page (SERP) so that you get more traffic. The aim is usually to rank on the first page of Google results for search terms that mean the most to your target audience.
Why search engine optimization is important in digital marketing?
at the Digital Marketing Institute SEO consists of multiple elements, and knowing what they are and how they work is essential to understanding why SEO is so important. In short, SEO is key because it makes your website more visible, which means more traffic and more opportunities to convert prospects into customers.
How is Search Engine Optimization used in digital marketing? Search engine optimization (Senior) is all about targeting your website to rank higher on a search engine results page (SERP) so that you get more traffic. The aim is usually to rank on the first page of Google results for search terms that mean the most to your target audience.
Why is Search Engine Optimization important?
When searching for a service or product online, users are more likely to choose one of the top five recommendations shown to them by the search engine. SEO helps you rank higher in search results and garner more visibility online, making it more likely that potential customers will click on your site and convert.
What is SEM and why is it important?
Search Engine Marketing, more commonly known as SEM, is one of the most important marketing channels for generating web traffic. It complements SEO and content marketing and gets your brand at the top of Google, Bing and the other search engine players around the world… if you play your SEM cards right.
Why SEO is so important to businesses?
It Helps You Rank Better in Local Searches And almost 80% of local searches are converted on mobile phones. Local SEO strategies can help you attract these searches that are often ready to buy. The first step to getting started with local SEO strategies is to create a Google My Business account.
Why is SEO still important?
SEO matters, and strategy is more important than ever. It’s an essential component of successful digital marketing efforts, and it can be the difference between attracting tons of website traffic and getting lost among the billions of other sites on the Internet.
What is SEO and why is SEO important?
SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. At its simplest, good SEO optimizes your online visibility. This means that the more people see your website, the more your online traffic increases, and the better your chances of providing your product or service to more people.
What is SEO and why is it important in web development?
SEO enables you to get a better ranking of your site on the web. When users search for products available on your website, they will be able to see it as soon as they type the keywords. A higher ranking for your website will increase the possibility that your site will get more clicks.
Why is SEO still important?
SEO matters, and strategy is more important than ever. It’s an essential component of successful digital marketing efforts, and it can be the difference between attracting tons of website traffic and getting lost among the billions of other sites on the Internet.
What is SEO and why is SEO important for every business?
SEO consists of numerous strategies, activities, and best practices, all with the ultimate goal of improving your website’s position in search engines, which is why it’s called “search engine optimization.” on him. There are two types of SEO. : on the page and off the page.
What is search engine optimization with example?
Search engine optimization (Senior) is the art and science of getting pages to rank higher in search engines like Google. Because search is one of the main ways people find content online, higher search engine rankings can lead to increased traffic to a website.
What is SEO give an example? Companies look to search engine optimization, or SEO, to help gain more awareness and make their company rank higher in search engines. SEO is used through search engines such as Google, Yahoo, MSN, Bing, etc.
What is SEM example?
Internet marketing refers to marketing efforts made by businesses and other organizations only on the Internet. With search engine marketing, businesses pay to have their ads appear alongside search queries in search engines. Google, Yahoo, Safari and Bing are search engines, for example.
How do you explain SEM?
What is Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM)? It is a type of scanning electron microscope (SEM) that uses a focused beam of electrons to scan the surface of a sample to create a high-resolution image. SEM produces images that can show information on the surface composition and topography of a material.
Is Facebook a SEM ad?
Facebook Ads and other social media ad platforms, for example, are pay-per-click platforms that do not fall under the SEM category.
What is considered SEM?
SEM, or search engine marketing, is using paid advertising to ensure that your business’ products or services appear on search engine results pages (SERPs). When a user enters a certain keyword, SEM enables your business to appear as a result of that search query.
What is SEO & How it works?
Well, SEO stands for ‘Search Engine Optimization’, which is the process of getting traffic from free, organic, editorial or natural search results in search engines. It aims to improve your website’s position on search results pages. Remember, the higher the website is listed, the more people will see it.
What is SEM in digital marketing?
Search engine marketing (SEM) is a digital marketing strategy used to increase a website’s visibility on search engine results pages (SERPs).
What is the difference between SEO and SEM? The difference between search engine optimization (SEO) and search engine marketing (SEM) is that SEO focuses on getting traffic from organic search, whereas SEM focuses on getting traffic from organic and paid search. Both SEO and PPC are ways to market your business in search engines.
What is SEM in content marketing?
Search engine marketing (SEM) involves marketing a business through the use of paid advertisements and the use of keywords and phrases throughout the content. It mainly refers to the use of search engine advertising (SEA) through the use of pay-per-click advertisements.
What is SEM marketing and how it works?
In search engine marketing, advertisers pay for impressions that result in visitors, hence the name pay-per-click. Search engine marketing aims to reach users when they most need the information you have to offer, making PPC advertising less disruptive.
What does SEM meaning?
Search Engine Marketing (SEM) means: SEM describes the paid advertising that appears on a search engine results page. SEM involves buying PPC (pay per click) ads that appear among search engine results. Such advertisements may be placed through Google Ads, Microsoft Advertising (for Bing), or other search engines.
Are SEM and SEO the same?
SEO is sometimes used as an umbrella term that includes SEM, but because SEM strictly refers to paid advertising, they are actually separate. SEM is about getting traffic through paid ads, while SEO is more about getting, monitoring and analyzing organic (non-paid) traffic patterns.
What is SEM marketing and how it works?
In search engine marketing, advertisers pay for impressions that result in visitors, hence the name pay-per-click. Search engine marketing aims to reach users when they most need the information you have to offer, making PPC advertising less disruptive.
What does SEM marketing include?
“SEM (Search Engine Marketing) is the process of getting website traffic by buying ads on search engines.” That clearly includes pay-per-click, local search ads, product listing ads, and all search engine advertising efforts. .
What is SEM and examples?
Internet marketing refers to marketing efforts made by businesses and other organizations only on the Internet. With search engine marketing, businesses pay to have their ads appear alongside search queries in search engines. Google, Yahoo, Safari and Bing are search engines, for example.
What is a SEM strategy?
SEM, or search engine marketing, is the strategy of getting traffic through a paid site, primarily through advertisements. However, both SEO and SEM go hand in hand, since both strategies are often used at the same time.
What does SEM meaning?
Search Engine Marketing (SEM) means: SEM describes the paid advertising that appears on a search engine results page. SEM involves buying PPC (pay per click) ads that appear among search engine results. Such advertisements may be placed through Google Ads, Microsoft Advertising (for Bing), or other search engines.
How do you explain SEM?
What is Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM)? It is a type of scanning electron microscope (SEM) that uses a focused beam of electrons to scan the surface of a sample to create a high-resolution image. SEM produces images that can show information on the surface composition and topography of a material.
What does SEM mean in business?
Definition: Search engine marketing, or “SEM,†is the cumulative effort to promote a website in paid and organic search listings. SEM is a key driver of business growth and customer acquisition for many e-commerce stores.
SNM is an acronym that means to say no more, meaning that it would be unnecessary or unnecessary to say anything more.