Position2 held its Search Marketing Roundtable at Bangalore, where the speakers discussed and shared key tips and techniques on Search Engine Optimisation, Pay Per Click Advertising (PPC) and Social Media Marketing (SMM). The session covered a gamut of issues on search engine marketing (SEM), including how to gain maximum from search marketing,  misconceptions and myths of SEM and SMM, among others.

Rajiv Parikh, CEO, Position2 began by giving an overview of the online advertising industry and key SEM aspects. Parikh, during his session, spoke on pay per click advertising. He also emphasised on the fact that search engine should be made part of a company's marketing budget. He said, "When SEM works, it is like black gold, but don't expect results to happen right away. It's a detail-oriented process."

He also spoke about the importance of determining SEM goals, be it in terms of branding, traffic, lead generation or sales. He added, "The power of SEM is such that some small players can appear much bigger than central players on the Net as they might show up above them. Also, sometimes bigger players don't pay for brand visibility on the Net, which is a mistake in today's times."

Tushar Prabhu, Manager-SEO, Position2, began with the basic of how a search engine worked. He said, "We must think of what the end-user is looking for, read the minds of the user to gain maximum from search marketing."

Echoing Parikh, Prabhu too said that it was necessary to be visible to the customers. He offered a few tips to gain from searches, stating, search today was not just text but video and rich media as well, the inclusion of which pushed up the ranking of the search result.

"Build the site for users and make the content persuasive and compelling to the readers. Use analytics to track user   behaviour and then tweak your site to offer better user experience. Keep file names simple and don't include    alphanumeric, the search doesn't recognise those. Avoid duplication, organise content thematically, update content, make long-term commitment and, most importantly, avoid black hats (or using illegal ways to enhance search result)," Prabhu advised. The Roundtable also saw a discussion on Social Media Marketing, which in today's time, every marketer and media planner is trying to find ways to leverage on. Rajesh Sule, Director Business Development, Position2, said, "Social Media Marketing is a great platform to express, exchange and interact, but the challenge is to grab the attention of users as their attention span is limited."

He further said, "One needs to find a homogenous set among the heterogeneous sets and then use mass customisation to  reach out on the web. Another point is to engage the target group on various touchpoints to be able to influence them."

Source: exchange4media