To Connect Consumers’ Searches to Brands, Focus on Delivering Answers, Not Keywords

When it comes to keeping up with changes in advertising and marketing tech, search tends to be regarded as a bit old-fashioned. Aside from the occasional Google algorithm update, search marketing remains focused on keywords year in and year out. For the past year, Yext has been driving the point home: yes, keyword-based search is a 1990s-era marketing strategy. That might seem like a surprising position for Yext to take, at least at first glance, given how its business has long been premised on powering search results for brands. But at its core, Yext has always positioned itself as a company that helps put businesses in control of their information online. And with its AI-powered search platform, Yext CMO Josh Grau said it's now possible for businesses to do that on a whole other level. Specifically, Yext is promising to combat what it contends is the outmoded keyword search technology that many businesses still use on their marketing websites and customer help centers. With Yext, consumers get direct answers to questions like “does this fitness center require mask-wearing?“ or “what is your return policy?” rather than a list of often unrelated hyperlinks to scroll through on the results page. “As customers we all know what it’s like to hit a dead end when we search on websites, so we want to help businesses remove those barriers,” Grau said. The company's latest ad, which debuted this month, focuses on how overwhelmed customer service departments are during the holidays and how modern, AI search can save the season. Answers are experience Most companies give short shrift when it comes to perfecting the search functions on their branded websites, said Andrew Shotland, CEO of Local SEO Guide, a search marketing consultancy. Most websites' internal search engines tend to be pretty basic. Shotland has observed that this is true even with multibillion-dollar brands. "Most companies simply index all their products and categories and simply move on to other aspects of their sites," he told Adweek. But Covid-19, and the resulting supply chain issues, have forced a rethinking among many businesses in the ways they organize and present their product inventory, services and menu items to consumers searching online. "Places go in and out of stock so quickly now," said Shotland, noting that Yext has been a long-term client of his. "The types of questions that people search for have changed just as rapidly. There seems to be an opportunity to innovate companies’ internal search engines. So with Yext Answers, the company is essentially trying to replicate for individual businesses’ websites what Google does for the web." Consider the way your search experience has changed. If you do a Google search, you don't just get links. You get about five completely different search experiences from one query, Shotland noted, adding that you get the usual infinite amount of “blue links.” You also get knowledge panels on the right side of the screen, you get a Google answer box and you get related images and videos. “What Yext Answers is trying to do is bring that level of variety in the information they can help brands offer to their consumers,” Shotland said. “It’s about giving consumers searching for business information a better experience on a branded site. In theory, this keeps consumers on the site longer by getting them faster, clearer answers. Ultimately, this offering inspires consumers to come back more often." The changing needs and expectations associated with search are not the stuff of huge headlines. So Yext has embarked on a series of marketing efforts designed to explain the new SEO landscape and its role in it. Searching for the future now In May, the software platform began running an integrated marketing campaign that included its first TV commercials, which were featured on CNBC, Fox Business, MSNBC and Bloomberg, as well as ads on NPR, Spotify, Vox and YouTube.” The spot, created by Yext’s in-house team, is running across the company’s social accounts—Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram—in addition to paid ads targeting customer service professionals on Facebook, LinkedIn, and YouTube. Then, during the first week in December, in order to drive home the weakness of word search while inserting Yext as the primary b-to-b solution, the company unveiled an online video ad with a holiday theme. The spot, “A Season of Search,” features a tuxedo-clad spokesman reciting a reworked version of the Clement Clarke Moore poem titled "A Visit From St. Nicholas." The recited poem tells of “the season of search and all over the ‘net, your customers couldn’t find what they needed to get … When they searched for some info or a gift that was new, there were no direct answers, just links to scroll through.” Old-fashioned keyword search is at the root of this problem, our narrator says. The solution, not surprisingly, is AI search, which provides “direct answers to every search query, leaving customers happy and support teams less weary.” The spot, created by Yext's in-house team, is running on TV channels such as CNBC, Fox Business, MSNBC and Bloomberg, as well as on NPR, Spotify, Vox and YouTube. Grau declined to quantify the campaign's budget. The war on keywords Yext's message to brands comes as the search market is heating up. According to Zenith's updated 2021 ad forecast, paid search is expected to rise 9.8% year-over-year, as part of a wider shift to performance marketing. Given this year's increase in search marketing, brands may be more open to ideas that promise higher return on ad spending. “It’s not always top of mind that native search is a real business driver,” Grau told Adweek. “Marketers invest heavily into paid search and SEO, but that’s not enough. The customer journey can actually fall apart on a business’s website when the search technology—and the information it delivers—is outdated.” Yext’s AI search capabilities employ natural-language processing, as do Google’s. But Yext’s b-to-b focus is obviously different from Google’s consumer-facing tools. Businesses need greater leverage than a mere keyword strategy can provide. Yext serves a wide variety of industries, including retail, healthcare, financial services, restaurants, technology and media, as well as public sector organizations including the World Health Organization and the U.S. Department of State. Ultimately, the success of the campaign Yext embarked on in 2021 depends on how well it can call marketers' attention to the deficiencies of standard search strategies, all the while explaining how Yext’s AI search is the solution. It's something the software platform plans to continue to hammer away at in 2022. Before Your Company Invests in AI, Ask Whether There’s a Real Customer Need