Re: Branding online ... what's the point (Overture editorial guidelines)

From: Mary O'Brien <mary_at_trafficmentorseo.com>
Date: Fri 21 Feb 2003 14:01:23 -0600

Karen,

While I appreciate that you feel the term "lowest" is part of your branding
and separates you from your competition, it's still subjective in the eyes
of the editors as it hasn't been verified by any independent sources. If for
example, you were able to say "voted lowest price by readers of xxx
magazine" or "voted the low price leader by" you might be able to use it it
your description, depending on the engine. Other wise if it isn't part of
your tagline and a registered trademark, you'll have a problem using it.

Just look at it from the editors perspective - half the listings they get to
review in a day are full of the terms "best" "lowest" "friendliest"
etcetera, as people think that when writing copy for their listings that in
order to make them stand out they need to look like attention grabbing
headlines.

Unfortunately, the editor has no way of determining which company truly is
the "best" or "lowest" and allowing any advertiser who wanted to use these
terms leads to a horrible user experience and a poor clickthrough rate. I
can tell you from experience that the listings that get the best conversion
rate are not the ones that jump out at you saying "free", using
superlatives, or selling via coupons as people have seen so much of this
type of thing in print advertising that they are suspicious of these
offerings. Unless you are an actual coupon site, it doesn't pay to present
your offering like this as you will attract lookers rather than buyers, and
your conversion rates will be poor.

You've only got a few characters to play with. Try to present your offering
in as factual a way as possible and you'll get better results.

One of the other reasons for the editorial guideline is the one that
Kathleen offered, as listings tend to stay out there for a long period of
time and no editor has the time to recheck these periodically to verify your
offering.


Hope this explanation helps :)

Mary

           TrafficMentor
            Search Engine Positioning Redefined

              Mary O'Brien - Partner
            3500 West Olive Avenue, Third Floor
            Burbank, California 91505
            http://www.TrafficMentorSEO.com
            email:mary_at_TrafficMentorSEO.com
            phone: 818-973-2777 | fax: 818-973-2707 | mobile: 626-533-0491






Received on Fri Feb 21 2003 - 14:01:23 CST