The Zero Moment of Truth & Global Branding

Nick Garner. Global Head of Search, Unibet

He looks after Search Engine Optimisation, Pay Per Click for the UK, Social Media Optimisation, Refer a Friend, and some parts of Unibet's conversion optimisation activities.

He is a recognised expert in SEO and social media within the iGaming industry with a long track record of commercial successes. An internet marketing veteran, Nick has been architecting and building marketing strategies for the 13 years. He puts his commercial successes down to a practical understanding of internet related technology, human behaviour and the commercial drivers on the internet

Nick is a family man and competitive international sportsman based just outside London.

Nick Garner

Google's share isn't growing much

But it's revenues are...

Google & Spam

$15.62 per person per quarter in the UK*£££

Signals are changing

NEW: Look for 'human patterns' in ranking sites, socially engineer them > Online PR

OLD: Look for algo weakness and exploit them > SEO

Information / Commercial Internet

$15.62 per person per year in the UK*Mix in commercial with information as much as possible

Rank (fairly) easy Rank (fairly) hard

Conclusion

$15.62 per person per quarter in the UK*Google is becoming an ads engine, 'cleansing' the SERPS & mining data about you to be the perfect middleman

For more of this thinking see seobook.com

New acquisitions in iGaming

Where is the new business coming from?

Trackable 50%● Adwords/SEO● Campaign● Affiliate

Direct 50%● Word of mouth● Social Proof● Brand Stimulus● Other

Tracking conundrum...

Marketing budget is assigned where there's accountability.

£ -£

No tracking, No accountability, No budget...

Real Consumer Behaviour

Is it this?

The traditional marketing funnel

Or this?

How can you 100% track this?

The reality...

Perspective: 1% > 2% conversion rate

Target your activities at the people who want social proof on you.

ZMOT | Social Proof | SEO

ZMOT: 5,000 Respondents

Shopper Science was commissioned by Google in 2011 to make more sense of social proof online.

5,000

Traditional mental model of marketing

Brand Cart Feedback

ZMOT – Zero Moment of Truth

Brand Cart Feedback

Social Proof

ZMOT is huge

84% say ZMOT shaped their purchasing decisions.

This shows the power of online feedback and research.

Users are learning to research better...

Source:Shopper Sciences

In 2011 the average shopper used 10.4 information sources to make a purchasing decision in 2011. Up from 5.3 sources in 2010.

Different sectors: Varying sources of information Varying importance of 'social proof'.

I.e. Credit cards: 8.5 sources & ZMOT influenced 75% of the decision.

Not many sources of information, but ZMOT is important

“People research well ahead of closure”

Research Cycles

Degree of influence

Period before purchase

Research Cycles

“Depending on the complexity and value of the product or service, users will research at different times.”

“Depending on the complexity and value of the product or service, users will vary their research intensity”

Research Cycles

Age and behaviour

Age affects ZMOT...in surprising ways

Nick Garner | Unibet WGES

Netgen...Internet is a 2nd language

15 years of mainstream internet:

Source:The Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project

Hypothesis: Learning to use the internet is like learning a language. Natives understand the subtle signals. Late learners can still communicate, just not so well.

The young use search engines more, buy online more, but don't rate/feedback like Gen X. In total there is 400% more feedback online from people over 35.

Source:The Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project

All ages: Online behavior

ZMOT in action

Reputation marketing

“Half my advertising iswasted, I just don’t know which half.” John Wanamaker

Treat online reputationmanagement like brand/prspend.

This pattern is across all languages and territories.

Process & Workflow

Typical process

Use tools like SEMRush to analyse the domain

Improve your Identify need:i.e. clean up search results for keyword X

Look for good feedback on strong domains

Linkbuild to those pages for your target phrases

Organisational structure

Centralised Country Specific

Manager

Country A

Country B

Country C

Country D

Country E

Local Languages &All speaking English

Data Analysis

Lead Gen

Strategy

Where a planning task or process isn't language based, then its centralised.

SEO is too risky to leave to the marginally competent.

Find your Zero moments

Find the greatest 'Social Proof' hot spots where potential customers seek information and validation about your service or product:- Forums - Trusted Reviews - Thought leaders - Tidy up your Google search results.

Manage those touch points. The traffic won't always be big, but the commercial intent is huge.

The process is identical to any territory.

Final thoughts

Get someone in charge of ZMOT

Map out customer touch points online. Use ZMOT to help focus this process (Search engines, places of discussion)

Look at your reporting systems. Do you ignore huge opportunities because they are difficult to build business cases for?

Can you use some of your brand money for ZMOT?

Accept you won't get 100% attribution tracking, but it's improving all the time.

Finally, to reiterate, this process is universal to all people, anywhere on the internet. It is a global phenomenon.

Thanks!

Nick Garner