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Naver: A Complete Guide to Digital Marketing in South Korea

NAVER - A COMPLETE GUIDE TO DIGITAL MARKETING SOLUTIONS IN SOUTH KOREA

If you want to enter the South Korean market, the first list is the leading and largest search engine with millions of active users – Naver. Its name was derived from the word “navigate” which means discovering the world. This platform dominates the whole digital market in South Korea as it provides numerous services and products for the general public.

Naver is favorable to all age -groups from kids to the elderly, as a result, Naver has 16 million visitors and this number is increasing daily. Digital Marketing has proven to be the key to reach any target audience, therefore, many businesses have begun using the features and services of Naver.

To then have a successful Korean Marketing Strategy, it’s extremely important to understand other services Naver offers.

1. Naver Blog

Naver - The right content to increase your ranking on the naver search results

As Koreans love reading and browsing different blogs, this platform is essential to their lives and work. Most of the contents are written in the Korean language, as a result, it’s easy to understand which allows the content creators or bloggers to attract and connect to the Naver users.

The majority of the users in Naver have been using this platform because of the important information about online travel research, food and product reviews, music updates, daily lunch menu, etc.

If you want to become popular on Naver, there are a few things you need to do. The first and most important is to create your own Naver blog, which will be set up for you as soon as you apply for your Naver analytics account. This is important because it is one of the key factors Naver uses in its algorithm and C-Rank scoring.

This stands for “Creator Rank” and refers to a score calculated on the basis of how much content you put out on its own channels. One of the most important of these is your Naver blog.

If you create content on your Naver blog and that brand is tied to your main blog or website, then Naver can see whether that content is performing well, whether it is accurate, whether it is popular with visitors, etc. All this information can then be collected and used to determine whether or not your site should be promoted.

In other words, this is a powerful way that Naver can monitor the quality of your content and your engagement – and it just so happens that it also benefits Naver by providing the portal with bespoke content that it can use to keep people on its page.

This is a key factor to remember: even more so than Google, Naver wants to keep people engaged with its own site. It has its own products, and this is the primary way it makes money. The more you can do to keep your audience engaged with Naver’s products, the more successful you’ll be.

Naver Blog has become a favorite of many businesses to use for advertising and marketing their campaigns products, or services. However, you need to have the right content to increase your ranking on the Naver search results.

Marketing Strategy in Naver Blog

Experience Group

Select an influential blogger to promote your products, and let them experience it before writing a review. Most Koreans are listening to famous influencers since they trust the reviews and opinions regarding the products they are promoting.

Experience Review Exposure

Create an experience review with the Experience Team, but have the condition that the post is exposed to the top on the specific keyword search results page. The first blogs in the search results are most often visited and viewed by Koreans.

Brand Blog

Blogs have the same structure and design as brand homepages. As a Naver blog not only for fun content, you can also use it by introducing your business containing brand or product detailed information. As a result, the readers can recognize your business and attract new customers.

Power Contents/Content Search Ads

It means blog posts with “advertising” signs when searching for a particular keyword; advertising methods that
register by keyword to be at the top of the integrated search result page. Usually, it is calculated as a cost per click, and the price is determined by the keyword’s search volume.

Influencer Content

When searching for a specific keyword, the ‘influencer’ area is located at the top of the search result page, and posts related to influencers are collected and posted. The recent introduction of a new search tab that allows you to collect content from influencers and view them separately has made blog influencers very influential. Introduction of 1:1 messenger function with an influencer that I met on Naver search.

2. Viral Marketing

It is a strategy to spread word of mouth through ‘blog posts’ containing the contents of a brand or product. The topic of the blog post should be something that the viewers of the post will experience and read something special and extraordinary. The more engaging your content is, the more users will view and read your blog. That’s why if you are creating a blog, it is important to have images, short phrases, and detailed information about your business or topic.

Adpost

Adpost is putting content-related advertising images in the middle or bottom of a blog post. Once a blogger signs up to the site, the application automatically pops up when applicable for content creators. Adpost is created to provide more profit opportunities. With its user-friendly network and convenient ad management services, it will surely expand Naver users. This type of ad will help you to advertise your products with the support of influential bloggers in South Korea.

Adpost registration requirements are as follows:

  • Blogging for more than 90 days
  • More than 50 posts (no illegal posts, gambling, pornography).
  • The average number of visitors per day is at least 100

Smart Store

Naver’s shopping mall construction system and free sales platform. Naver’s products can be exposed to various sales
areas and search results, and it is known as a platform that even beginners can easily challenge shopping mall start-ups due to its easy initial setup and use, including creating domains.

In addition, Naver’s Smart store is the first e-commerce platform in the world that transfers the total amount of the transaction to retailers or sellers the day after its delivery. The good thing about it is that you don’t need to wait for the
customer’s receipt verification. According to Naver, it doesn’t need any commissions or securities.

Naver Shopping Store

Convenient payment is possible from a consumer’s point of view because Naver Pay is available. When searching for a product, it can be exposed to the ‘Naver Pay’ area, so it can be linked effectively.

Search Ads Can Be Registered

Ads can be registered through Naver’s official advertisement agency or customer center.

Keyword Search Advertisement

Advertisement by purchasing the top spot on the keyword search result page.

Targeted Ads

Ads that are only exposed to people interested in the keyword.

Viral Marketing

Through sharing purchase pages with Naver cafes, bands, and sharing with various SNS and Naver blogs, it is possible to secure third potential consumers (such as acquaintances of the person who searched the page, cafe members, SNS friends, etc.

naver smart store

Smart Place (Naver map) / Naver Reservation (N Reservation)

Naver Map is the Korean version of Google Map. This platform of Naver doesn’t offer an English translation for the other tourists so it’s quite difficult to use. The South Korean Government has security issues that are why they restricted the directions and navigations on Google Maps. For your Korean Marketing Strategies, you can use this to expose your business at the top of the Naver Maps search results list.

Naver Smart Place

There is also a service where you can look and book the place for your events – solo or family. It is called Naver Reservation. For example, if you want to perm your hair, there are options to the various salons near or around you, plus the site enables you to equally book an appointment.

This platform is a great tool to use as you don’t have to look for customers as they are the ones who will identify your business Usually ranked at the top of the list based on store/company reviews, number of reservations, popularity, search keywords, and their association.

Naver reservation

Naver Shopping

Naver Shopping Search Advertising

Naver Shopping Search Advertising

It allows consumers to be exposed to the top of the ‘Naver Shopping’ area on the search results page when searching for a product. If your business is about any type of clothes, you can greatly use this to advertise and market your brand. If you want to try or run these ads, it requires you to register your Naver Shopping store, and it should be linked to your Ads account.

It is divided into two types:

  • Shopping mall product type
    It is an ad for “Shopping Mall or Place of Sale,” and it is possible to expose most products within Naver Shopping Category.
  • Product catalog type
    When clicking on an exposure ad, Naver Shopping will be moved to the product catalog already established.

Naver Shopping Live

Naver Shopping Live

This is a system, where influencers advertise products via live streaming. According to Naver, the shopping live has recorded approximately 45 million views and 400,000 purchases in just four months. Especially today, online buying has become the new practice in purchasing as we are experiencing a pandemic. For that reason, it is a great tool to utilize for your Korean marketing strategy.

Naver Post

Naver Post

Naver’s posting platform allows users to upload relatively more specialized content, series, and subject content than blogs. It is like a basic version of Naver Blogs. This service has a “follow” feature and it focuses on the expertise of the writers. However, the contents are shorter.

  • Viral Marketing – See ‘Blog Viral Marketing’.
  • Corporate Post – A corporate-run post is a post about detailed information or services related to the brand. You can use this to introduce your business to the readers or users of the Naver posts. It is a great tool to utilize for the Korean Marketing Strategy.

Related Article:

10 Common Digital Marketing Challenges Faced By Businesses
10 Best Digital Marketing Agencies In Korea
15 Digital Marketing Trends You Should Know In 2021

Naver Cafe

Like the other services of Naver, this one is also a well-loved platform for every Korean. Naver cafe is also a must-have tool to use as it has generated millions of internet users. To begin a Korean Marketing Strategy, here are some different types of advertising that the platform offers.

N.B. Naver Cafe can be used through a computer, mobile phone, and Mac as it is a desktop app.

Main Banner Ad

Display ad posted on Naver cafe page. There are different banner ads that you can utilize such as Time board and Rolling board. The Time Board Ad displays animated and creative ad banners but its duration only takes one hour on a specific day. The Rolling Board can be viewed via computers or laptops since it is on the right part of the website.

Cafe Affiliate Advertising

Build promotional bulletin boards and regularly advertise by forming a 1:1 partnership with the cafe. Used primarily by local communities.

  • Viral marketing
    acts like a real member of a cafe and forms a positive public opinion about the brand or product.
  • Send full membership notes and e-mails
    Send advertising notes or e-mails to all members of the cafe after paying for the cafe manager of the cafe.
  • Top Search Exposures
    Strategies for exposing posts created in a cafe to the top of the Naver search results page. Not only cafe members but also nonmembers can click to view the posts.

Search Ads (Default Search Ads)

SEO (Search Engine Optimization)

Managing your site/web page so that it can be easily exposed to search results. Search engine optimization is a task that helps you find what you want easily when you search, and if you optimize the website accordingly, the exposure goes up.

Naver Webmaster Tool

Naver Webmaster Tool

It is a tool that gives data and control for your website to help you monitor your visibility on Naver. Also, it is Naver’s search engine optimizer that is used to create a search-friendly site.

  • Keyword Search Advertising
    Buying and advertising the upper part of the search results page when searching for a particular keyword. This will create attention to your product or brand as it will be on the top search results. Your link will be on the first page in one of the thousands of entries when they search a particular keyword.
  • Brand Search Ads
    When searching for specific keywords, the latest content, such as brand images, text, and videos is exposed at the top of the search results page. However, you can only use 30 keywords per campaign. This type of ad has a fixed fee when you use it, 440 dollars and it can increase according to the keyword search volume. In addition, its duration is only 7 to 90 days.

Power Link

It is one of the two main sections of site search ads. On the desktop version, this ad type lets you display your products on the first top 10 results when searching on Naver. When someone is looking for an item, your website will appear on the top of the search results. It is basic search ads that expose text and site links to Naver Integrated Search Results pages.

Banner Ads

Naver Banner Ads

The Banner Ads are commonly displayed on the front page of the website of Naver. As a result, it increases brand awareness and improves the number of engagements. This is an effective way to reach and attract current and potential customers. For Korean Marketing, it is a great type of ad to utilize as it is viewed when someone is using Naver. As this platform has many active users, it will surely generate more sales and visibility to the public.

The following are various banner ads that you can acquire:

  • Naver Special DA
    Purchase by time with display ads displayed at the bottom of the mobile main screen.
  • Naver GFA
    It is a performance-type advertisement that is targeted according to the brand. Band main screen, Band saggle feed screen, Mobile main screen (news edition, entertainment edition, sports edition…)It can be exposed to mobile sub-screen (bottom of articles in each edition), cafe feed screen, etc.
  • Branding DA
    Select from the desired theme board and proceed with the advertisement.
  • Mobile Smart Channel DA
    It is a banner and image advertisement displayed on mobile phones. The Naver’s Mobile Banner offers advertisers to specifically set days and times for the ads to run on media and mobile devices for efficient advertisement operation.

Intellectual

Another unique feature of Naver is their “Naver Q&A”.Similar to Yahoo Answers, If you post questions on the Q&A platform between Naver users, you can get answers from various responders and the contents will be shared on the search results page. It’s a good addition to the Naver services as many people want to solve their problems on their own rather than contacting someone.

  • Viral marketing
    Natural access through question-and-answer formats, easy to find consumer needs. So if your customers have queries, you can answer them through this platform without any hassle. It reduces service costs and increases customer experience. So it’s a good platform to inform anyone about the details of your products or service.

Associated Search Terms

Expose to the top when searching for a particular keyword. It has high reliability for consumers because it is a keyword that already has a large number of cases. It has a high synergy effect when combined with other advertising content such as blogs, cafes, and Naver maps.

Naver Band

Naver Band

Naver Band is a social media mobile community platform created by the Naver Corporation. Users are able to create and join separate spaces or “bands” around various interests, hobbies, etc. The platform is very popular in South Korea but also continues to grow market share internationally with over 2.5 million monthly active users in the United States.

Here are some of the types of advertising features of this platform:

1. Display Advertising

  • Full-screen app exit ad
    Maximize brand recognition and clicks with Android-only products exposed at the end of the app. Out of the total 3 templates provided, selectively executed according to the nature of the campaign.
Full-screen app exit ad
  • Smart Channel
    Band App Home, News, Banner Exposed to the Top of Chat. Deliver business messages from a premium location
Smart Channel

2. Social Ads

  • Reminder ads
    Allow users to alert their members on any specific posts/content through ‘new and push’ alerts.
  • New News Advertising / Band Home Advertising
    Exposed advertising product that can inform band users of the band they’ve made.
New News Advertising / Band Home Advertising

3. Native Advertising

Exposed in the form of feed ads in the form of Native AD of text and content combinations in the saggle feed area. Real-time Bidding product, supports gender / age / OS version / day and time / region / interest / device targeting and retargeting for app installer.

  • Single Image
  • Image Slide
  • Single Movie