Needless to say, I was quite shocked when I learned of the untimely death of hit TV pitchman Billy Mays.

Anyone who is a regular viewer of cable TV undoubtedly knows of his legendary “Hi Billy Mays here…” and the compelling prose and presentation. Even if you didn’t buy the product, you came away with a strong first impression.

It’s easy to mock Mays; Lord knows I was replaying that legendary intro in my head when I heard he had passed. But Mays has sold countless buckets of OxiClean and other products that made him and the products’ inventors a lot of money in $14.99 and $19.99 increments.

There are many lessons we can learn from Billy Mays to build effective search campaigns that build your brand and drives action.

Branding

Almost in a Pavlovian sense, you immediately knew what was coming once Mays’ commercial hit the airwaves. Everything moves together to say “something useful and cheap is on its way!”

In a similar fashion, be sure your search presence matches your branding efforts in language, tone and content. Always include your brand name in both meta tags and PPC ads and evaluate whether you should include visual elements like “official site” to indicate to visitors your site as the source of your brand.

Solve a Problem

While we can’t remove a fruit juice stain from a white shirt like Billy can, search engine marketing allows you to target potential customers closely. It’s easier to match customers through PPC ads linking to highly targeted landing pages.

And even though you do not have control over page selection for a given keyword in organic search, content can be developed and organized in a way to deliver highly segmented keyword searchers to the exact page they need.

Show Value for Their Click

Another reason offers from Mays were so compelling was that he usually didn’t pitch anything that cost more than $20 and included a buy one get one free or offer for an additional item at no charge.

Not every product out there can fit into that mold but you should clearly indicate the advantage – quality, durability, cost, etc. – your product has over others.

Use a Call to Action

Last and certainly not least is to include a call to action in your PPC ads and website content. Once you have their attention, draw them to take the next step by visiting your site further or clicking a “buy”, “join” or “get” link.

Read this Search Engine Watch article for a more in-depth look at the legacy of Billy Mays and how methods he used to sell millions of products over the airwaves are applicable to both PPC and SEO.