Six Tips for Building Curiosity and Influence Into Your Search Campaigns

Editor’s Note: My dad used to say, “Curiosity killed the cat… but satisfaction brought him back.” What he meant was that while exploration is fraught with danger, the rewards are well worth the risk. People are naturally curious, which is why the Internet search business has been so successful.

In this guest post, Gerry Bavaro, VP of client services at the search marketing firm Didit, offers tips on how to pique people’s curiosity and channel it for more influential marketing.

Great marketing campaigns create influence by leveraging curiosity. For example, “The Blair Witch Project” of the late ’90s and YouTube celebrity “LonelyGirl15” were both successful in creating buzz by appealing to our innate curiosity. Users didn’t care about being marketed to: If they believed in the Blair Witch, they were freaked out and curious, but even if they didn’t, they were still freaked out and curious.

How can curiosity and influence—elements that are critical in any marketing campaign—be built or supported by search? Here are six tips to help you build a path that drives users toward a desired action, instead of one controlled by your competitors.

1. Understand the Nature of Search
When we search for something, we are driven by curiosity. When we look further, we are influenced by new information that changes our thoughts in a way that either gets us closer to our objective or on a different path leading to a different result. The key is to keep searchers on the path that you want them to take from query to destination, instead of your competition’s.

2. Know Your “Elevator Pitch”
Don’t be the marketer with the fuzzy value proposition, paragraphs of information on your landing pages, and disparate, confusing messages across various channels. In a 10- to 20-second statement, what do you provide, and why is it valuable? Make sure your landing pages clearly express these powerful, simple points.

3. Create Buzz, Don’t Wait For It
Search volume is driven by awareness and curiosity created in the real world. If there’s no buzz happening, get some going. Communicate with like-minded communities of interest, whether they exist in the form of relevant blogs, social network subgroups, electronic lists or bulletin boards. Give people a reason to “spread the word” about what you’re doing. These strategies can also support increased links to your website, which can help organic search results.

4. Truly Know Your Target Audience
You have a target audience, so don’t dilute your marketing messages by trying to appeal to everyone. You need to understand your target audience not just in terms of demographics, but also in terms of psychographics (what are their lifestyles like, what websites do they visit most, how do they communicate, are they socially conscious and active, do price or quality drive them?).

5. Be Creative About Everything, Not Just Your Creative
Creativity isn’t just about the design of banners, marketing materials, websites, landing pages or copywriting. Get creative about how you manage your business around search. Include discount coupons for customers coming from paid search to influence repeat purchases and avoid paying again for these customers. Look into co-branded promotions and events with related companies, or those that have affinity and can drive awareness, which in turn can increase branded or generic search volume. If you promote a topic, concept, or type of product/service, consider “out-of-the-box” marketing ideas such as viral videos posted on YouTube, a company MySpace page,or events that can add user touchpoints that will increase curiosity.

6. Test, Test and Test Some More
In pay-per-click search, those who test most, win. Establish titles/descriptions and landing pages across campaigns that achieve a baseline of results, then consistently test against this baseline to improve click-through and conversion rates. Remember, any increase in conversion rates will allow you to afford more aggressive bidding/positions, which in turn will increase click volume and overall curiosity.

These measures can increase your search campaign’s ability to encourage people’s curiosity and influence their decisions. Carried out consistently across your campaigns, they can also help ensure that your efforts are aligned for maximum impact.

—Gerry Bavaro, vice president, client services, Didit