FunMarketer Lesson of the Week

Craig, What is “Piggybacking” a campaign on Yahoo or Google? Can it really give me an extra 5% or 10% in sales?

Everybody who has read Positioning knows the classic story of how Avis positioned themselves against Hertz. Avis “tried harder” from its Number Two Position. Trouble was, Avis had to spend money on TV and in print to get that message out there.

Today the internet supplies us a way to piggyback a succesful alternative position to a market leader – and use that market leader’s ad budget to our advantage.

Note – this is one time where your Yahoo PPC results may surprise you. Many of you probably get discouraged if you start your Pay Per Click campaigns on Google and then try to achieve anywhere near the same success on Yahoo. I know I certainly have. But, I have found that in some cases I can successfully piggyback my Yahoo paid search campaigns off of a competitor’s banner-ad in addition to their TV ads. Since Yahoo runs banner ads all over its network, if the market leader you target is running banner ads on Yahoo, they are all the juicier target for a piggyback campaign. And I’ve had success doing this with both keyword-based and content-based campaigns.

You will be most successful if your ad asks a question or pulls the audience in with a challenge. You need to get the prospect to think: “This looks interesting; I’d better click and check out what this outfit has to say.” The idea is to get the individual to first click through to the landing page. Then on the landing page you present quick, compelling information to them that causes them to take some action – call a sales rep, fill out a request for more information, etc.

What I have found:

1) these ads must be different than your regular keyword or content ads
2) You must use a different landing page than your usual landing page – Critical for Success
3) Don’t try to be in the top 4 positions – it’ll kill your cost per conversion
4) Build your traditional search campaigns first, benchmark them, then integrate this piggybacking tactic

Remember AIDA – Attention, Interest, Desire, Action. You really need to capture Attention and some Interest in your ad. The person is already aware of the market leader, now you have to pull them away from the market leader and towards you. A pure benefits statement usually isn’t sufficient, here. Try seeding some doubt in their mind. Doubt works well and it is fast, because so many consumers on the internet are in comparison-shopping mode, anyway.

Alternatively, if you can position your product as healthier, or faster, or somehow superior to the competition in your ad, then that’s even better. But, I have found this can sometimes be accomplished more easily on the landing page than in the ad. That’s why I like to use doubt in the ad – it is quick and effective.

Note – although I have not extensively tested price, you can use price as a bit of an urgency factor to push the person over the edge. Sometimes a simple: “Sale this weekend” at the very end of the ad can help.

Again, this “piggybacking” tactic can’t be the foundation of your campaign – it won’t be a grand slam. But you might just might get a few singles from it. Let me know.

FunMarketer Free Campaign Idea of the Week

Here’s a great one for anything travel related – hotels, airlines, city desinations.

Photo: Istock #6328435

http://www.istockphoto.com/file_closeup/sports-and-leisure/6328435-little-girl-at-a-camp.php?id=6328435

Headline: Mom and Dad Said They Wanted Some Alone Time In Our Tent.

SubHead: When Your Ready to Step Up Your Next Vacation, Give Us a Call.

Got any great ideas of your own? Just reply to the Funmarketer blog with your istock number and your headline and subhead (Clean Only, Please).

Oh, if you do use the campaign, make sure you give credit where due.

FunMarketer Tip of The Week

Keep the focus on value and trust right now in your marketing messages. There is a ton of distrust out there – people are scared. Couple this with the fears of the recession and the prices in the supermarket and at the pump creeping up and up – plus all the bad news coming from ordinarily stable companies like banks – and the need for trust is evident.

It may sound really basic, but trust and value are big themes for the rest of this year.

FunMarketer Phrase of The Week

“Cash It In”. Here’s a phrase that is recession-ready! Just do a search (with quotation marks) on the types of businesses that use this phrase. People are money-constrained right now and it is only going to get worse as we head toward the Fall and Christmas. You can play off both greed and fear with this phrase, if you use it right.

Remember: Brand (who you are) + Package (your Face to the Customer) + People (customers and employees) = Marketing Success.

Craig Lutz-Priefert