Vertical Search: Boosting Accurate Marketing

Compared with traditional general search, vertical search can meet more segmentation requirements and is more and more recognized by users. The proportion of users in various vertical search forms has continuously increased. What is the development thrust of vertical search? How can companies use vertical search for precision marketing?

At present, the large-scale search results provided by general search engines only solve the sources of information without classifying and screening information. As user needs become more and more personalized, people have higher and higher requirements for the accuracy, speed, and supporting data capacity of various types of search engines. Traditional database-based search engines in the site, due to the limitations of technology development, can hardly solve these basic needs. More subdivided needs are met by vertical search engines. Therefore, vertical search is specifically targeted at a specific area of ​​the population. - Travel search, shopping search, map search, etc. have emerged one after another. It can be described as a deer, a preconceived Taoist, search library, etc., there are also a lot of ready to enter the rising star of vertical search, there are big Internet from Sogou, Tencent, Qihoo 360 and so on.佬 蓄 ready to go.

In addition, there are various types of vertical search such as real estate search, job search, restaurant search, etc. Vertical search has become a more and more user-recognized search form. The vertical search forms account for more than 30% of the user's usage rate. In the foreseeable future, Internet content will be more abundant, and it is bound to promote vertical search as an increasingly powerful challenger for general search engines. It can be seen that the search market battle in 2012 will be extremely fierce.

Why does vertical search prevail?

Data show that in the third quarter of 2011, China’s search engine market reached 5.51 billion yuan, up by 24.7% from the previous quarter and up by 77.8% from the same period last year. In the face of this fat, more and more Internet companies are seeing the search engine's future and opportunities. The average and diversification of user search requirements has become an objective trend, which also makes search fine points become the objective needs of search users. This demand has also strongly promoted the rapid development of vertical search engines in 2012.

Vertical search allows network users to access content information on related topics in a specific area with a high degree of accuracy and convenience. Compared to traditional general-purpose search, the advantage of vertical search is that it can respond to the diversification of Internet applications and Internet users' interests. Whoever can use this flexible and precise feature of vertical search can stand out in many vertical search applications and win an independent market segment. Faced with massive amounts of online users, how to artificially control the audience and achieve market segmentation in the network is one of the problems that enterprises solve when they conduct network marketing, and it is also the breakthrough point for the success or failure of online marketing.

The emergence of vertical search engines solves this problem just right. For enterprises, due to the characteristics of the target group, the corporate website is more targeted and the marketing strategy is more effective, and at the same time it saves the general search engine marketing. The cost of simple clicks brings savings to marketing costs. The vertical search engine makes marketing more targeted, and it also enables marketing to reflect an unprecedented element of personality and toward one-on-one trends.

This accuracy precisely meets the needs of companies. The data shows that due to the fierce competition in external resources environment and market competition, the challenge for the survival environment of small and medium-sized enterprises, SMEs have taken the old road of “fighting resources, fighting prices, and fighting the environment”. Under the pressure of successful transformation of SMEs, it is possible to survive in the future competition. The changes in the environment for the survival of small and medium-sized enterprises have, to a certain extent, stimulated the expansion of vertical search marketing requirements and gradually become a tool for the transformation of SMEs.

With the advent of vertical search engines, enterprises at the end of the network are no longer obscured by the types of users at the other end of the network. This mysterious group of network users also moved from behind the scenes to the front of the curtain, and their behavioral characteristics were clearly expressed by means of third-party forces. "I don't sell products directly to you, but I can provide you with the most professional advice, to meet your individual needs, in order to attract your attention, thus affecting your thinking ultimately indirectly affecting your decision-making The purpose of the behavior.” This is the best effect of vertical search marketing for companies, and also the most basic thinking and original purpose.

The advantages of vertical search marketing in terms of accuracy and effect appraisal make it easier for business owners to favor, and how should companies actually use them?

Increase the probability of inclusion and increase effective clicks. Through the analysis of past real-world user behavior data and user search behavior data collected by horizontal search engines, improvements have been made in terms of **** and supporting service settings, which will improve coverage by vertical search engines. Chance to grasp keywords, increase the probability of effective clicks.

1. User Behavior Analysis. It mainly analyzes the user's search behavior and finds out the user's search feature, especially the keyword description of the same thing. Second, through the experience of general search engine marketing, determine the search user's click selection criteria for the final display results. In addition, ** the user's effective clicks, collect the node where the cost occurred and the node where the profit occurred.

2. enterprise****. Mainly to enable the company's Web site to be included in the vertical search engine and update information in real time. The essence is the setting of keywords during ****. In conjunction with other marketing tools, it is more likely to increase the site's search rankings and attract the attention of search users. The first is the construction of the website. Including the site's structure settings, link exchanges and content updates, etc., must satisfy the search user's habits to the greatest extent, and play a role in guiding users to make timely decisions. For example, personalized shopping, learn from Taobao's operating mode, so that users can purchase online physical products on the line in question. In the travel product portfolio, users can combine their own attractions and develop tour routes (typically "vertical search + route DIY" mode). The website generates budgets for the program's costs, time, etc., and makes simple assessments, while giving suggestions and Recommended route. Online Q&A, equipped with full-time staff to communicate online with users, deepen user's impression of website services, cultivate long-term customers, and tap potential customers.

Secondly, it is combined with the current mainstream vertical search engine technology features to improve. For example, the current vertical search engine has a good effect on the search of static webpages, and for the relatively low probability of inclusion of dynamic web pages such as asp, when the web site is under construction, the btml format should be used as much as possible. In addition, companies may obtain referrals or friendly links from related websites through consultation, mutual benefit, and other methods, and may also increase their chances of being included in vertical search engines.

3. Support service settings. It is mainly the landing of website promotion services and the maintenance of the website. This is the key to profit, and it is extremely important to gain the trust of users. In particular, large-scale network marketing activities were carried out in the early stage of the company. After attracting a considerable number of consumers, it is urgent that the concept of propaganda be launched.

Making good use of vertical search is an essential method for implementing vertical marketing based on enterprise search marketing. This is the core part of an enterprise's vertical search marketing model. Whether it is used properly or not directly determines the success or failure of marketing planning. Its essence is how companies use vertical search engines to do well.

First of all, vertical search engine optimization. Through the optimization of the basic elements such as the structure of the website section and the content of the website, the website is more friendly to the vertical search engine. As a result, as many web pages as possible are included in the vertical search engine, and good ranking results are obtained in the search results. Thus, as many potential users as possible are obtained through the natural search engine search. When the structure of the website changes or information is updated, it is generally not advisable to use the method for the enterprise to re-login to the vertical search engine. Instead, the vertical search engine automatically discovers the website or the updated content through other links that have been registered by the vertical search engine. Vertical search engine optimization is essentially an optimization of the company's website for the vertical search engine's own logical structure, involving the logical structure of the website, the content strategy of the website, and the internal and external links of the website.

Secondly, aiming at the hard index of the vertical search engine, such as the inclusion principle and search technology, the keywords of the website are purposefully and targetedly processed to increase the website's own friendliness to the vertical search engine. Key words refer to online users (ie, potential consumers) who use online search terms as references, and combine with the publicity content of web pages of websites to satisfy the vertical search engine's automatic retrieval of the entry words used in the records. With the combination of online marketing, a variety of keyword-centric marketing formats have emerged.

"Search" is a key point for consumer purchase behavior, and it is the center of online and offline media. Why do some companies fail to achieve the desired results even if they realize this and have invested in a series of vertical search engine ads and vertical search engine optimization? This may be because the choice of keywords and the actual use of consumers are somewhat inconsistent, or the target consumers of the company are not "searching" as the company expects. If companies take the initiative to remind consumers to “search” and even direct consumers to use a certain keyword to “search”, the effect will be very different. This kind of reminder and guidance should not be limited to the online platform. When companies conduct vertical search engine marketing, they cannot ignore the role of offline media. Such as print ads, TV commercials, outdoor advertising, and even the title page of books, cover the "search box", keyword guidance. For example, **** has placed a search box for "Baidu" on TV advertisements and print advertisements of the "Ping An Account" product. Under the guidance of this advertising campaign, the search volume related to “Ping An Account” has increased substantially, and the amount of customers has also greatly increased.

Again, pay for keyword advertising. Like general search engine marketing, keyword advertising is one of the main methods of vertical search engine marketing. However, different vertical search engines have different display methods for keyword advertisements. Some of them display paid keyword search results at the front of the search result list, and some appear at the dedicated position of the search result page. Enterprises should, based on their own business scope and target groups, understand the advertising delivery methods, prices, and effectiveness management methods of relevant search engine service providers, select a vertical search engine advertising platform suitable for their own development, and formulate keyword combinations. For example, the search result of the keyword “Zhangjiajie + weekend two days” is obviously more accurate than the search result of “Zhangjiajie + travel route” and can also reach the core webpage. When a company makes a website, it needs to analyze the keywords and combinations that users can retrieve for a certain information, and distribute the relevant keywords in various sections of the website. Only in this way can an effective source of information be built and get as many vertical search results as possible. This method can also increase the visibility of corporate websites for vertical search engines, and plays a role that can not be ignored for corporate brands, products, and user conversion rates.

To evaluate the effect and constantly optimize any model or method, ultimately requires the user or a third party to consider and evaluate it, so as to discover its advantages and disadvantages, and in turn guide the company to better use.

A major feature of vertical search engines is that they are good at collecting data on the individual needs of users. As enterprises, they should make full use of these data to produce personalized information that belongs to their own user groups in order to increase the effective probability of network marketing and create more Offline profit. Therefore, it is especially important for companies that adopt vertical search marketing to conduct user behavior research. For example, according to the statistical data provided by the vertical search engine, combined with the click characteristics of the users in the website, detailed analysis of the user's access data, so as to understand the user characteristics of different search engines, understand the behavior of the user to obtain information, and browse and click on the ads Behavioral features provide support for improving vertical search engine marketing strategies and website improvements.

At the same time, the effects of vertical search marketing are quantified through effect analysis. It usually includes website traffic analysis, advertising effectiveness analysis, keyword advertisement analysis, advertisement or keyword effective conversion rate analysis, etc. It provides original data for the next website optimization, keyword optimization and advertisement optimization, and provides support for further improving the conversion rate. . In the end, according to the evaluation results of marketing effectiveness, the company has targeted and improved related services.

Companies need to continue to actively integrate "long tail", improve their own, seize the individual needs of the target group, in order to sustainable development. And any version of the vertical search engine can only be a permanent test version for potential vertical search users. Companies need to strengthen their ability to collect data and mine data. Enterprises can only obtain information from extremely fragmented and fragmented market data by looking for opportunities for redevelopment from existing data. Companies need to realize that vertical search marketing is still a part of corporate network marketing. It must be incorporated into the enterprise network marketing system to organically integrate it. It needs the cooperation of other means of corporate network marketing, and it also needs the related departments of the enterprise network marketing. Collaboration.

The advantage of vertical search is that it can respond to the diversification of Internet applications and Internet users' interests in a timely manner, allowing users to access content information on related topics in a specific area and accurately and quickly. At the same time, marketing can exhibit unprecedented personalities. The elements are developing towards a one-on-one trend.

Enterprises should, based on their own business scope and target groups, understand the advertising delivery methods, prices, and effectiveness management methods of relevant search engine service providers, select a vertical search engine advertising platform suitable for their own development, and formulate keyword combinations.