Recently, I took a trip to Las Vegas and flew Southwest Airlines. Knowing my apprehension toward flying, my friends allowed me to have the window seat. As the 7 hour flight got under way and I found myself watching the clouds outside, I noticed the pronounced branding going on right outside my window. Here I was flying Southwest Airlines and right there on the wing, flipped up so I can easily view it, was Southwest.com staring me in the face. If that isn’t obvious branding then I don’t know what is. It’s like they just really didn’t want you to forget to use Southwest Airlines for your next trip and here I was already on the flight.

So what does all of this mean? Simply this: branding is very important at every stage of the marketing cycle. Hopefully you are having a great experience, as I was with my flight, and this was just a friendly reminder of who I was flying with, so I would remember to use them again. According to toptenlinks.com, Southwest Airlines was rated number 5 in the rankings among the top airlines. While it’s great that they are in the top 10…they still aren’t number 1, which is where Delta stands. This really isn’t all that surprising considering how long Delta has been in business compared to Southwest, but Southwest is on the rise and if they continue with marketing strategies such as their  brand awareness efforts, they are well on their way to that number one position.

One of the top goals that a business should have is for their name to become well known. If you think about it, Coca-Cola and Pepsi would not be where they are today if it weren’t for brand awareness. How often do you hear someone say they are thirsty and want a coke when really they are possibly talking about Sprite or even a Pepsi? Coke has just become a household name. Although that might not be a realistic goal for a smaller business, it should still be something to work towards. Becoming well known doesn’t have to mean everyone knows your name (insert Cheers theme song here) but it is important to become well known among your clientele and your competitors.

How can you build brand awareness? There are many ways to go about this for your business or product. To start with you can do a pay per click campaign. Bid on your name. Put your name in your ads so that it’s one of the first things searchers see when they do a keyword search and see your ad appear. Next, realize that your website is your brand. In using the Coca-Cola brand name again, their brand wouldn’t be as strong if their website was www.softdrink.com right? So remember to put your business name or brand in your website.

In conclusion, while branding is not the holy grail for your marketing campaign, it is important to remember that it is a vital dimension to success.

When I first moved to Florida, everyone asked if I was fluent in Spanish.  Outside of the few essential phrases such as, “Hello, my name is Amber” and “Where is the bathroom”, unfortunately I can’t say that I know much.  My best friend is completely fluent in Spanish and I envy her ability to communicate in situations where I am not able to.  This brings me to the question, how important is it to be familiar with the Hispanic market and language?

According to WikiPedia, Spanish is the second most common language in the United States, after English. There are more Spanish speakers in the U.S. than there are speakers of French, Hawaiian, and Native American languages combined. According to the 2006 American Community Survey conducted by the United States Census Bureau, Spanish is the primary language spoken at home by over 34 million people aged 5 or older. The U.S. is home to more than 40 million Hispanics, making it the world’s fifth-largest Spanish-speaking community after Mexico, Colombia, Spain, and Argentina.

As a marketing professional, that’s a pretty large segment to ignore in your marketing efforts. With 23 million US Hispanics online and 80% of them searching for information, Hispanic-focused SEM should be considered for any online marketing strategy.  However, you might not know how or where to start.  Is search the best way to reach the Hispanic market?   Do you need a Spanish translation of your website?  If you have a Hispanic CPC campaign, do you need to write the ad copy in Spanish?   Etc.

Below are some steps to follow when launching a U.S. Hispanic-focused SEM campaign

1. English & Spanish. Test both languages when setting up campaigns to reach U.S. Hispanics. According to Comscore Media Metrix, 52% of online Hispanics are English dominant, 21% are Spanish dominant, and 27% are bilingual. It best to test both to see what brings in the highest conversion rate.

2. Proper Translation. Translations can be very tricky. If you would like to use a Spanish keyword list in your CPC campaigns, it is important that you have a native Spanish speaker to put the keyword list together instead of using a translation tool. There are several different dialects to consider and it is important for the translation to come across exactly as you mean for it to. 

3. Creative Ad Copy.   If you try to write ad copy in Spanish, you will often find that you run out of character space.  It is more challenging to write a “catchy” ad, when faced with character limitations.  Therefore, make sure that you have someone who not only writes well in Spanish, but someone who can creatively say what they need to say in 70 characters or less. 

4. Test Proper Landing Pages.  Getting people to click on your ad is only half the battle.  Getting people to engage with your site is the other half.  If you test the keywords and ad copy in Spanish, make sure you send the visitor to a Spanish page and vice versa.  Part of Google’s quality score for an ad, is the relevancy between the ad and the landing page.  Make sure the transition from the ad to the landing page, is clear for the visitor. It will result in better conversions.

5. Reach The Right Demographic. Search is utilized on both a national and local level. The U.S. Hispanic market makes us several different parts of the US. Consider your product/service, and make sure you are targeting the right demographic.

It seems like a no brainer to me, yet without fail, I often get asked this question. I typically get into a debate (albeit a friendly one) as to why an online branding campaign is nothing short of essential. The truth of the matter is that many online marketers are rather hesitant to bid on their own names, however, it is imperative to do so in order to protect your brand. The common response is: “But I am already number 1.” Even if you are ranking number 1 organically, you should still bid on your name! Here are a few facts to convince you why it is extraordinarily beneficial to do so:

• It is perfectly legitimate (and happens quite frequently) for competitors to bid on your name. The engines permit this activity, which means that a competitor can lure away your searcher without doing anything illegal; provided they do not use your actual name in the ad copy. Keep in mind: this is a customer who was initially looking for YOU! If that is not reason enough, keep reading…
• It reinforces your brand and adds credibility.
• It is relatively inexpensive. Most engines (Google, Yahoo, MSN) make it so you are likely to get the best deal on your own company and product names, which results in a lower CPC.
• It is good to cover your bases. In other words, if your organic results drop as algorithms change, you will maintain your online brand presence with your paid listing. Even a well optimized website cannot achieve top positions for every variation of the company name or brand all of the time.

Do not give a competitor the opportunity to snatch away your visitor. Be sure to bid on your name! Oh and while you’re at it, you might want to create a competitor campaign. Remember, it is perfectly acceptable to give your competition a run for their money!