digital agency that has existed for 20 years and did branding until just two years ago.
It wasn’t until we stopped doing branding that I came across a number of meaningful connections and “needs” search and branding teams have that enhance the efforts of both.
Search marketers are often at the other end and far away from brand strategy.
When branding is pressed for return on investment (ROI), it often comes downstream through marketing channels, platforms, and the implemented strategy.
Search often struggles without a differentiated brand or strategy to stand out from competitors in search results for ads or content.
I believe there are great benefits to connecting branding and search, partnering together, and working closely within broader business and marketing teams and environments.
Digging into conversations, my experience, and perspectives shared with me, I’m sharing the benefits categorized for search marketers and brand creatives/strategists alike that can create more consistent and impactful opportunities to elevate brands and performance overall.
For Search Marketers Content & Creative Standards In the absence of robust brand strategy development and documentation, search marketers (among other channels) are often left in a vacuum when it comes to creating content and assets needed for SEO and paid search success.
In a vacuum, there are best practices and channel strategies that can guide what gets created and what words, messaging, and creative are utilized. However, it can be fragmented, inconsistent, and unrelated to broader themes and objectives. When we have standards and strategies to leverage, we can be a further extension of the key unique messages to bring the brand alive. I can’t count the number of times there have been conversations between search marketers and sales teams about specific ad copy and imagery that have no grounding or truth from brand strategy to fall back on. I’ll say this as someone who has done SEO for a long time: You don’t want an SEO to write your copy or design your creative. There are exceptions and unicorns, but you want your SEO experts and SEM specialists doing their craft.
