The Search Marketing Advisor Newsletter Article:
August 2006, Volume 5, Issue 9

I Search for Fleas: Using Integrated Search Services to Market to Me

by Tom Shapiro, Search Marketing Consultant, iProspect

I search for fleas. Well, actually, I search for Flea. You see, I play bass guitar, and Flea is an exceptional bassist in the alternative rock/funk band, the Red Hot Chili Peppers. His real name is Michael Peter Balzary, but no one in the music universe calls him that. They call him by his nickname. And when I get the itch to find new bass licks, I go online and search for “Flea.”

However, one problem that I encounter is that Flea’s nickname is homonymic with a parasitical insect. Consequently, when I search in Google, Yahoo! or another top search property for Flea, results include:

Smarter flea control
Once-a-month adult flea control product
The cat flea is the most common flea in Ohio…

Paid listings are similar:

Flea season is here
Get rid of fleas and ticks
Pest control services

Granted, there is a Wikipedia entry for Flea (the musician) on the first page of Google results, as well as a movie database listing (Flea has been involved in several films) and a blog on NBA.com (Flea is an avid LA Lakers fan). He is not invisible by any means, but from a marketing perspective, this representation is far less than ideal.

Take Advantage of the Opportunities

The bottom line is that there is a tremendous opportunity for Flea to dominate “share of voice” on the search engine results page. With greater share of voice, there are more opportunities to engage me, the searcher/fan, in a diverse array of interactions, exactly at the time I am looking for such interactions. The more engaged I am, the more likely I will be to develop a connection with Flea and to start buying all sorts of stuff, such as instructional DVDs, CDs, Flea sheet music, not to mention endless Red Hot Chili Peppers merchandise. As with many products, and especially with music, the lifetime value of my interest in Flea’s bass playing could translate into a significant chunk of money for the musician, the band and its supporters/affiliates. How much would I pay for a backstage pass to meet this bass legend? A lot.

How to Capture My Interest, Time and Money

To keep me interested and potentially get me to buy, Flea’s marketing team should implement an integrated search strategy. This is because there are no silver bullets with search, and not one simple solution for driving Flea’s share of voice growth. Search is evolving into a highly diverse marketing channel. Not only are website content and links from other websites important, but now viral marketing, social networking and the myriad search engine services (e.g., music, blogs, video, mobile, news, etc.) also play key roles in capturing share of voice.

To ensure that Flea connects with me effectively during my search, his marketing team should implement the following types of strategies to gain additional share of voice, and in the process, push the common “flea” terms off the page:

Optimize the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ official website for natural search.
Develop an additional website specifically about Flea that someone like me, a fan and avid bass player, would love, and optimize it for natural search (I cannot even begin to imagine all the bass nuggets of gold he could pour into a site.).
Decide what products to sell on Flea’s site, and then optimize pages for natural search around these products.
Experiment with a paid search campaign for these products as well.
Leverage relevant search engine services (e.g., music, blogs, video, mobile, news, etc.).
Develop a viral marketing strategy, including blogs, word of mouth, press releases, Yahoo! Answers, etc. (Flea’s blog on his band’s site has not been updated in a month…).
Introduce more interactivity (e.g., contest to write a bass riff to be used by Flea, interactive calendar for bassists, etc.).
Develop “link bait” for Flea’s website (e.g., transcription of an exclusive Flea solo, unreleased live MP3, etc.).
Develop a social networking strategy (e.g., develop Flea-specific content outside the band’s MySpace page, etc.).
Implement a comprehensive video strategy (e.g., exclusive videos distributed through YouTube, MTV, VH1, BassPlayer, etc.).

A Wikipedia entry on the first page of search engine results does not engage me, nor is it intended to engage me, in a way that evokes an emotive response and drives me to make purchases. Implementing an integrated search strategy, gaining as much share of voice as possible, and connecting with me through the corresponding “touch points” is a much surer way for Flea to hit the marketing sweet spot.

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The Search Marketing Advisor Newsletter Article: August 2006, Volume 5, Issue 9

I Search for Fleas: Using Integrated Search Services to Market to Me

The Search Marketing Advisor Newsletter Article:
August 2006, Volume 5, Issue 9