How did search engines develop? First of all, of course, there must be useful users. They search for answers to their questions online and use search engines to gather information. A search engine is like a think tank where you can find any knowledge. But where does this information come from? Not Google, of course, but other online users. The content they create may be about a brand, a business, a person, an organization, and so on. In any case, the purpose of their creation is to build a relationship with demand and increase potential customers.
So, how does a search engine pick the most appropriate answer? Of course, it is based on its unique computer system. Of course, this is a major trade secret, so it will not be made public. In short, it has a way of revealing what you want to know.
Today let’s talk about the whole process of search and what is the relationship between the brand and the user’s search. Google is the world’s most trafficked website, processing more than 3.5 billion searches per day, and 84% of respondents use Google three or more times a day (Reference: https://www.oberlo.com/blog/google-search-statistics）。 Google is synonymous with the Internet because it satisfies humanity’s insatiable thirst for knowledge. A deep dive into Google’s search statistics can help you understand user behavior, internet search trends, and how to optimize your website and resources. Online searches are common, but do you know the details of how they go and what role does Google play in the process?
As an example, I woke up one morning with a toothache. I would love to know the cause of my toothache, but I didn’t want to go to a doctor because they were expensive and might require me to do a bunch of useless tests or even recommend a variety of treatments. Even though tests and procedures are inevitable, I still have to find a doctor with a reasonable fee and a good reputation. And so my search began. The first is to search for “causes of toothache”, and the answers on the Internet are “periodontal disease causes toothache, tooth sensitivity causes soreness, gum recession causes toothache, wisdom teeth cause toothache, toothdecay causes toothache”. I’ll see which symptoms are more similar to mine. If I find that wisdom teeth are more likely, I will start a second round of searches for “what to do with wisdom teeth” and see that most of the people’s advice is “tooth extraction”. Once I have decided that I want to have a tooth extracted, I will search for “which dentist clinic has the best tooth extraction”, “area name + tooth extraction price” or “where tooth extraction is painless”. There will be a lot of “XXX dentist clinic is good”, “XXX doctor extraction does not hurt” or “XXX tooth extraction is cheap” in this search result, specific to the name of the brand or person. Once I had this brand information, I had to choose between multiple dentist offices or dentists. The fourth search is “XXX Dentist Clinic” or “XXX Dentist” to find out other people’s reviews as a reference to decide on the clinic and doctor for tooth extraction. The search process is repeated about four times to find the ideal answer. All four searches were conducted through search engines to find answers. This example is believed to paint a picture of the experience of many people today.
Throughout the search process, Google will provide you with a lot of fairly accurate answers. It’s very important for businesses to prioritize the answers you prepare. If you want to increase your brand’s market share, you need to do a good job in your brand’s content marketing, have a good understanding of the industry, know people’s search habits, including questions at different search stages, and then create content for these problems. You can use text, images or videos, and most importantly, present the answer in an innovative way from the searcher’s perspective and motivation. But in what capacity do you need to publish content to earn trust? A third party, of course, just as most people tend to trust user reviews and opinions. These after-use impressions are very important and will affect your branding. In the SEO industry, it can be called zero moment of truth, which showcases your brand and products through user opinions and reviews. This type of marketing emphasizes the “third party” rather than yourself, which helps customers to let their guard down and get to know your brand.
So, where do third parties have to publish their impressions before anyone can see them, so as to help your product? Google has a set scoring criteria for platforms, and media platforms are really brands. Publishing articles on well-known platforms is definitely easier to get high rankings than ordinary small platforms, because they are more authoritative and can get high recognition and evaluation from Google.
Brand marketing (ZMOT) content can be published on some popular paid messaging platforms (advertorial). You may wonder why you should spend money on other messaging platforms when there are free social media platforms, because they usually have stricter editorial checks, will review your article, and then express it from a more neutral point of view, reducing the color of the ad to make it easy for readers to accept. In addition, popular information platforms are more authoritative to Google, so it is easy to rank. Although free platforms can be promoted through posts, they are usually published on private social accounts, which is not authoritative enough for search engines, and it is difficult to get good rankings unless you are a well-known person or your account has a certain amount of traffic. Also, many free platforms are limited to groups and can’t be shown to people outside of the group. Some free platforms can’t do a good job of SEO content optimization because of their own rules and restrictions. Therefore, the advantages of choosing an information platform (advertorial) are definitely greater.
When you have a negative online review for your product, the first thing to do is to review it to see if there is really a problem. Reviews from others can actually help you identify deficiencies and improve the quality of your product or service. Once there are improvements, you can proactively communicate with the complainant to see if you can delete or modify the online review, and remedy the situation by replying. As the saying goes: the tree is a big wind. When your brand is slightly well-known, you should beware of malicious attempts to smear your brand. The work of word-of-mouth management must not be neglected.
How to do a good job in brand marketing (ZMOT) and word-of-mouth management?
Think about it, when someone searches for your brand online, what do you want them to see? Usually, the top search results are the official website or their own social media accounts, such as Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, Twitter, Instagram, etc., if users want to know about your brand reputation, they will definitely not choose your website or social media, but check what others say about you. Since the first page is all their own information, users will naturally turn to the second page and start to see mixed results. At this point, users have a much better chance of seeing a negative review than a positive one. It’s human nature, even if 100 people praise your brand, but as long as a few people criticize it, people want to see the negative reviews. As for whether you will read the good reviews after reading the negative reviews, it stands to reason that there is not much chance. For this kind of dilemma of good things not going out and bad things spreading thousands of miles, businesses are really helpless. Negative reviews are very likely to hit your business hard Some foreign experts have done a survey:
1. 88% trust online reviews as much as they trust a friend’s recommendation.
2. 80% of people will look for other brands after seeing negative reviews about one brand online.
3. Customers with a poor experience are two to three times more likely to post a negative review than a customer with a good experience.
4. If there are no positive reviews to offset, it will take up to 30 new customers to cover the loss of a negative review online.
5. 12 positive reviews are needed to offset the impact of a negative review.
Some researchers have pointed out that people tend to pay attention to negative information rather than positive information. From an evolutionary or survival point of view, the purpose of devoting energy to analyzing negative experiences is to improve the ability to survive.
Don’t let negative information drive away your potential customers. Through brand marketing (ZMOT), we can use third-party platforms to publish some positive content, and then use SEO promotion to enter the first few pages of search results, so that potential customers can access these brand information. As long as the information is released from the perspective of a third party or a consumer, it will not cause objection. Merchants should always pay attention to online public opinion, and may also need a professional public relations company to be responsible for checking, regularly collecting positive and negative reviews on the Internet for data analysis to understand the market situation.
