The World of Search : Spotify SEO and PPC

10/29/2015 Felix Gaspard 32 Comments



The process of getting listed on search engines so consumers can find you is called Search Engine Marketing (I’ll use the acronym SEM in this article). Basically, SEM is a form of internet marketing that seeks to promote websites by increasing their visibility in search engine result pages. This process have to go trough 2 different concept : The search engine optimization (SEO) and the Pay-Per-click (PPC). As a good example to explain and discuss about the SEM process, I’ve choose Spotify because It cope with a tough competition as Deezer, Google Play or recently Apple Music. It’s a reliable way to see if Spotify use SEM in a way that sets it apart from the competition. 


First of all, let’s check the Spotify’s natural search engine rank. 


We will test the visibility of Spotify in 4 most popular search engines, (obviously) the american Google.com (65% of the global research comes from Google), but also, the Chinese Baidu (8,2%), Yahoo (5%) and the Russian Yandex (more than 4%)


What can we say ?


First of all, we can notice that the global shape of these different Search Engines are not the same. Some of them have image or logo, (Yandex and Google) and the other part just have text. Considering the research, i’ve put « Spotify » in the research bar, and i didn’t have to correct something except for Baidu who’ve proposed to give me the Mandarin writing of Spotify. That’s one of the keyword aspect i would like to point, the name of a brand is a major element of the SEM because the name don’t have to be mingled by the search engine with another name which has nothing to do with. 


I’ve colored in red all the social media redirection of Spotify. There is a huge difference between all the Search Engine. Google didn’t proposed that (Just if we look at the first page without scrolling down, but it’s there where the user attention is focused on) Baidu and Yahoo propose 1 website, Twitter or Facebook and Yandex is the most « socially aware » with four site available just in the first page : Twitter, Youtube and Reddit. 



To conclude, Spotify is relatively well represented in the Search Engine and social media, with the keyword Spotify. But what it will happen if we ask to these engines to look for the most important keywords for that company : « Streaming Music Player » ? The rank of Spotify will move ? Let’s see. 



Things have changed, Spotify now rule the concurrence (Deezer, Apple Music) on Google search engine, but it’s not the case anymore on the others search engines ! Notably Pandora and others websites are erasing Spotify of the page. Social Media are not represented anymore. 


So what improvement can be made for Spotify.


I think that Spotify is doing well. Spotify is the first brand according to the « streaming music » research on Google, and, from my point of view these keywords are the most employed by users to research what Spotify can give. Moreover, Google has the largest part of users in the world. But, Baidu is also important, so, Spotify should improve his algorithmic search by creating keywords in Mandarin for example. About the Pay-per-click process, we have seen the presence of Spotify in Baidu Search Engine. I suppose that Spotify is already trying to export its brand over Europe and United States. 

In other words, here are the steps I recommend to Spotify to improve its SEM model : 
  1. The importance of Meta-name.
Search engines are focused on the HTML code, Spotify should index some metaname in an other language to target the Chinese market.
     
     2.  Follow the White Hat Method.

« In search engine optimization (SEO) terminology, white hat SEO refers to the usage of optimization strategies, techniques and tactics that focus on a human audience opposed to search engines and completely follows search engine rules and policies.

For example, a website that is optimized for search engines, yet focuses on relevancy and organic ranking is considered to be optimized using White Hat SEO practices. Some examples of White Hat SEO techniques include using keywords and keyword analysis, backlinking, link building to improve link popularity, and writing content for human readers. »

    3.  Use tools for keywords selection 

As keyword suggestion tool for Google AdWords, research suggestions from engines and tools like SEMrush.

    4.  Content optimization 

Regarding the content of the websites , the trend is oriented toward semantic search that Google plebiscite because this research method is suitable for the formulation of questions from users on the Web, especially with voice queries made from a phone.

The process of getting listed on search engines so consumers can find you is called Search Engine Marketing (I’ll use the acronym S...

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Brands and Direct Marketing

10/22/2015 Felix Gaspard 4 Comments

For the GIF's, please wait for the first loop and enjoy !
Today, we will discuss how these companies keep the customer in contact via the alerts and the promotion that customers (or future ones) are following and how they are applying their Direct Marketing Strategy to maintain their expansion in the targeted market of each.

It’s been more than one month that i’m following these companies, and just with this material, I can say a lot about how they are using « newsletters » to provide promotion, events or just to keep contact with the target market. In order to analyze and understand the direct marketing strategy of each company, let’s start to make a quantitative study of the email i’ve received since September.

Frequency of Newsletters and Google Alert received in my own mail box since September 2015

Frequency table for each brands i'm following (From top to bottom : Asos; Withings; Spotify)
What these data tell us 

First of all, we can see that there is a gap between the amount of email i've received from Asos and the two other companies. With 48 email, Asos and Google sent me nearly the double of what Withings sent itself, and, 5 times more than Spotify. For me, the reason is quite clear : Asos have the advantage to follow the clothes fashion trends. Everything is a plea to send email. New trends (always moving), seasons, recurring events (New Year, Thanksgiving, Halloween, Holidays, Back to School ect ...) and the most important of all : Winter and Summer Sales. Each period of the year could be the perfect time to have a new look. In term of email design, Asos also the trend. Colored, simple, with a catchy slogan and highlighted information. 

"Winter is coming" Below, one of the discount to "fight against cold" i've received from Asos Newsletter. (Sorry it's in French)
 Now the question i'm wondering is why Spotify didn't do the same ? 
Here is the typical exemple of what kind of email i've received from Spotify : 

Spotify ® is focused on three types of email promotion : 

Spotify Premium ® : Spotify operates a freemium model. It's means that Users subscribe for free get ads between tracks which are part of the Spotify revenue model. Users of the free service encounter audio ads every five or six songs, or approximately three minutes of advertising for every hour of listening.) The mail i've received promotes a free trial for Spotify Premium including no ads, a better quality, and a "offline mode". Spotify Premium is $9,99 and represents the other part of the Spotify Revenue Model.

Partnership : Spotify & Chromecast.  Spotify is sending messages about some new features from a recent partnership made. With Chromecast, Spotify is now available on television and THAT is making the experience much more attractive for users. We can also mention Bose as one of the partner of Spotify, Starbucks, SFR (in France) and recently Spotify made a partnership with one of the company i'm discussing in this blog : Withings ! (Click on the links to learn more about these partnerships) 

Personalized marketing or One to One marketing : Whereas product differentiation tries to differentiate a product from competing ones, personalization tries to make a unique product offering for each customer. This is a form of marketing who's becoming more and more develop. Spotify uses your personal information in order to spot which artist you like, which band it's been a long time you didn't listen, your country ect ... Does Spotify have the right to use my personal information to spot the most effective promotion for me ?  Yes, it can  

In term of quantity, it's obvious that Spotify have the "worst" score of promotion sent, but, for me, the direct marketing of Spotify is the better in term of quality. The information that Spotify promotes have a real influence in the customer behavior. 
Moreover, i've got the personal feeling that people are more able to read an advertising which is more rare, than one which often repeats. 

Now, lets talk about Withings Direct marketing strategy.  

Withings have a really simple but quite efficience direct marketing strategy to promote their products. New products, New features and sometimes events are basically sent to the customers. But, where Withings is different, is that there is a blog which is often updated. That keep users update about the Whitings direction.

About the CAN-SPAM

Note : While the European rule is based on the opt-in , meaning that it is imperative that the consumer has given permission for it to receive emails for commercial characters. The CAN-SPAM Act requires senders to unsubscribe (Opt -out ) an email address if the user requests it . This means that in the US , companies have the right to send commercial email to anyone until it objects.
I 've tried to find policy information about these three companies, and, it seems that they are all using the European rule (Opt-in) even for the US website, for example, for Spotify (who's a Swedish company) you have the choice to check or not if you want to share data for marketing purposes :
Spotify French registration page 
 Spotify US registration page
To conclude, I think that these emailing strategies are quite efficience, they all have a good esthetic shapes in the era of time, they are really well focused on what the user expect to have as information, at the right time we wanted to have these information. They are using NTIC to develop new model (One to one marketing with Spotify),  I think that Withings have to be a little bit more present by emailing, because, the blog don't have enough visibility to be a real, and efficience way for Direct Marketing. 



For the GIF's, please wait for the first loop and enjoy ! Today, we will discuss how these companies keep the customer in contact...

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