Marketing Clique

While this example uses the auto industry as an example, I think it's applicable to many channel marketing dilemmas, especially with search.

When I was working for Yahoo! I was directly involved with planning online advertising programs for some of the biggest automobile manufacturers. Their advertising and marketing challenges were diverse, but one of their ongoing issues was how to effectively leverage sponsored search (Pay Per Click / PPC) to help them complement their national advertising and marketing efforts.

If you're not aware, automobile manufacturers divide their advertising and marketing efforts into a three-tiered channel approach:

1. Tier 1 – This is the national branding campaign. "It's the nationwide Honda summer sales event!"
2. Tier 2 – This is a regional dealership association campaign.  "Visit your local Southern California Honda dealer today!"
3. Tier 3 – This is the local dealership campaign. "At John Smith Honda we'll stand on our heads to make you a deal!"

Tier 1 campaigns are geared towards upper funnel awareness and nabbing car shoppers early on in their decision-making journey, becoming part of their consideration set. One advertising agency has ultimate responsibility for the account and directs the entire nationwide campaign.

• It's a branding campaign, but KPIs are still laser focused on actions that lead to selling cars.
• Budgets are impressive, but surprisingly not as large as Tier 2 and 3.
• Leads are passed on to dealerships.

Tier 2 campaigns are focused on getting people into one of a few dealerships in a certain region. Agencies are hired by dealer associations and therefore tend to vary in quality and expertise. Multiple agencies around the USA direct multiple campaigns.

• KPIs are still mapping to specific actions that lead to buying a car: request a quote; request a brochure;  build a car (online).
• Budgets are very large and are a combination of national support and a pooled budget from the dealership association. Spends vary as some dealership associations garner more budget than others and place emphasis on different campaigns: i.e. "summer sales event" versus "cash back" campaign.
• Leads are divvied up based on geographic location.

Tier 3 campaigns are driven almost entirely by the dealership. Remember, some dealerships are enormous, and command large advertising and marketing budgets. In fact, some dealerships have more budget than some regional dealership associations. Other dealerships are small and do next to no marketing, except maybe some newspaper ads and billboards.

• KPIs are all about generating "ups," the dealership jargon for someone who walks into the car showroom.
• Budgets vary wildly, and are provisioned based on the dealership owner's discretion. Web savvy dealers may spend more time and effort online, but many are still spending the lion's share of their budgets on offline: radio, TV, print. Marketing may be in-house, or occasionally farmed out to a local outfit.
• Leads are divvied up subjectively – maybe based on which sales reps are on good terms with the manager!

The eMarketing challenges are many, but let's just pick on search marketing this time...

The ideal result would be that the search engine results page (SERP) on Google displays the Tier 1 ad first, followed by Tier 2, then Tier 3. The reality is that there is confusion and cannibalization. Many times the search results are jumbled. National campaigns run the risk of cannibalizing the Tier 2 and 3 advertising efforts, both with organic and sponsored SERP results.

The sponsored search results issue can be tackled most easily. There are more fast-acting "levers" and "knobs" that can be pulled and turned to adjust how the sponsored results are seen by consumers. The PPC campaign can be aggressively altered and result in overnight changes (both positive and negative).

The more difficult problem is organic. Nobody likes to swallow the bitter pill, but organic search engine optimization (SEO) takes time. While some "quick win" results can be realized, many of the efforts require time.

Does you organization depend on a channel?

If your product or service depends on a channel distribution model you've got some unique eMarketing challenges. You need to continue positioning your brand and company as being the definitive, authoritative source of your product information, but you simultaneously need to remain sensitive of stepping on your valuable channel partners' toes!

Conclusion

Work with your eMarketing search team on developing a plan that includes:

1. Identifying who will be tasked with leading the search marketing plan. Is it the same person that handles the rest of the interactive marketing? Avoid becoming disjointed by making sure the search director is in harmony with the rest of the team.
2. Define an objective that is realistic, attainable, and can be measured. Do you have existing KPIs that you can map to?
3. Decide on a view of how your relationship with customers will be strategically affected. Yes, search can be strategic!
4. Finally, decide on whether you need to invest in any additional help to accomplish your task. If you're already working with an eMarketing company, or handle everything in-house, you've probably already got the tools you need. But do steps 1-3 before jumping in.

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