Google Marketing 101

Google is a great company and expert marketer. They put a lot of time and effort into their products and it shows.

Google has made their mark on the Internet through their advertising service, Google AdWords. While AdWords is responsible for a majority of the push marketing we see online from other businesses, Google themselves uses this technology to advertise both their physical and digital products. Below are two banner ads that Google has used to tout Google Drive and magazines available on Android. Additionally, Google also uses television commercials and magazine ads among many others.

 

Google has reached a level of pull marketing that few companies are able to achieve. Whenever a business becomes a verb, you know they’ve done well. Word-of-mouth marketing plays a large role in Google’s success. Nearly everyday someone I interact with (or myself) says, “I don’t know. Let me Google it.” When someone says “Google it,” you don’t go to Yahoo! or Bing, you go to Google. This language is a strong pull marketing technique. Additionally, Google services are often bragged or touted about by their consumers. Google puts a lot of time and effort into perfecting their products and the customer satisfaction proves the success. I have started using many of their services, like Android, Google Drive, or Gmail, simply because I have trusted friends who use the services as well.

Google keeps content fresh right a number of different ways. On their homepage, Google often updates their logo with a Google Doodle. Google redesigns their logo for holidays, historical anniversaries, and a few obscure days as well. Usually when there is a new Google Doodle, the term “Google Doodle” is trending on Twitter. It’s a fun and successful marketing technique that brings traffic to their website. When you click the image, it automatically searches the occasion it is celebrating. This a great way to encourage searches and learn something new. In addition to the Doodles, Google keeps content fresh on a company blog and, of course, Google+.

Google Doodle on Earth Day 2013

Part of what makes Google so great is a seamless experience from desktop to mobile devices. Google has been a large pioneer in mobile technology. From searching to maps, Google does a great job with their mobile websites. For a more specialized experience, Google offers smartphone apps for their more popular services like Google Drive and Google Maps. The company knows the future is in mobile technology and they are actively developing the medium.

Google has deep integration with their social platform Google+. The company takes it a step further and uses these social features to help improve their product. By gauging interactions with +1’s and link shares on Google+, Google is improving their search results. By keeping people within the Google environment they are successfully improving their own products. It’s a genius cycle that works well for them; however, ignoring Facebook and Twitter integration could cause them to miss out on additional social sharing.

Google’s website has many features that most people do not know about. For example, most people don’t realize that Google actually has a store on their website where they sell their more popular devices. The offerings are limited, but they never really advertise this store unless you come through ad advertisement. Recently, Google used their homepage to advertise their newest tablet, the Nexus 7. When your website is gettinga majority of the traffic online, this a great space to utilize and it’s a wonder they don’t do it more often. Google should try to make an effort to make more consumers aware of the unknown sections of their website.

While Google is king of search engines, a few of their competitors have unique features that make them more appealing. For example, Bing has deep integration with photos. Whenever you go to their home page, there is a huge and enticing picture. Additionally, along the bottom of the screen there is a bar that shows what stories are trending online. It’s a great way to keep consumers informed and encourage searching. There are many things Google could do to their homepage to create a richer experience. Because a majority of users are logged in when searching, why not include some personalized features on the home screen like weather or a Google+ feed. Even though Google may be going for a minimalist approach of their homepage, I think they could do more to create a richer experience.

Bing.com

What do you think of Google’s marketing? Where do they excel and where could they use improvement?