By Paul J. Bruemmer, RedDoor Interactive
In 2004, Jupiter Research reported that two-thirds of search engine marketing
services were performed in-house. Since then, the number of service providers,
the size of marketing budgets and the complexity of search campaigns have all
been growing exponentially — suggesting a need for more agency involvement.
However, the in-house statistic remains basically the same today as in 2004.
Despite the fact that most search campaigns are managed in-house, many companies
do not have a dedicated search marketing staff. Jupiter Research reports that
most in-house search personnel share duties with up to five other job functions
including Web design, email marketing, marketing communications, market research
and other functions such as banner, print, radio and outdoor advertising.
Search Marketing Budgets
Search has gone mainstream as a line item in the budget. According to the Search
Engine Marketing Professional Organization (SEMPO) 83 percent of corporate
advertisers plan for search engine optimization (SEO or organic search), and 80
percent plan for Search Engine Marketing (SEM or pay-per-click) in their 2007
search budgets.
Human Resource departments have added such titles as VP Search, Chief Search
Engine Strategist and Senior SEO/SEM Analyst to their job classifications in
company handbooks. As search becomes a dominant force in Internet marketing,
in-house search marketing commands the attention of the CEO and senior managers.
Company Management Styles
First, let me say that if you work for a more traditional company, you will
probably spend a significant amount of time educating top-level management on
the benefits of search marketing and the importance of integrating search with
traditional marketing strategies, not to mention justifying your job.
If you work for a more savvy company, you can avoid all of that because the CEO
knows that search contributes to lifetime customer value (LCV), that organic and
paid search listings create branding and direct response, and that combination
of SEO and SEM creates a lift in clicks and conversions. You can spend your time
educating and leading your staff to search marketing excellence.
Needs Assessment Analysis Is Decisive
Another important consideration when contemplating in-house search marketing is
identifying the critical path items that must be addressed.
It is wise to conduct a professional, unbiased needs assessment analysis for
in-house search marketing that will include both SEO and SEM. This will provide
a solid and diversified search marketing platform with guidelines,
documentation, procedures, policies, proven tools and methodologies for use by
existing on-site search marketing managers, personnel and new hires.
Outsourced professional SEO campaigns can vary between $10,000-$50,000 per
month, depending on factors such as keyword competitiveness, backlinking
required to improve rankings, whether or not original content is necessary,
current site ranking, technical and editorial factors hindering site ranking and
length of time required to achieve improved results. SEO is a long-term,
strategic investment rather than a one-time project. A needs assessment can help
you decide whether or not inhouse SEO is a viable option and what is required to
build the team within your company.
In-house SEM advertising campaign costs can vary widely depending on campaign
goals, keyword price fluctuations, seasonality and the time necessary for
monitoring campaign effectiveness and changing bids, ad copy, and landing pages
to optimize campaign performance. Aside from managing and optimizing the
in-house SEM campaign, the advertising spends with the search engines can vary
significantly –— from $20,000-$2,000,000 per month. Again, a needs assessment
can help you decide whether or not in-house SEM is a viable option and what is
required to build the team within your company.
Assembling a Search Marketing Team
Your first consideration when contemplating in-house search marketing is: Do I
have the staff expertise to perform SEO and SEM effectively?
Everything should point to your business goals. Your search team will be
responsible for organic search, paid search, paid inclusion, optimized shopping
feeds, click fraud monitoring, brand reputation management, link-building
strategies, affiliate marketing, business development and viral marketing.
You will need people with excellent research and copywriting skills, technical
expertise, and quick learners who are detail-oriented and have a high tolerance
for change. People with an affinity for solving complex puzzles, multi-tasking
and experimenting with different solutions also make good search marketing
candidates.
Depending on company size, Search VPs may have to deal with millions of
documents, hundreds of thousands of products, multiple regional or local
influences, security walls, registration walls, paid subscription walls,
editorial guidelines and management egos. Inhouse search marketing requires a
leader with consummate ability to manage change.
Search marketing projects require integration and involvement across all units
of the company’s infrastructure. The best methodology will integrate search into
the daily workflow through a series of systemic changes that deliver significant
results. In-house search marketing systems require support including a Wiki
knowledgebase, a search hub, ongoing training, standardized reports, the best
tools, technical and editorial checklists, search engine policies and authoring
guides so that everyone participates in unity.
Training Your Staff
Once your team is assembled, they must be properly trained. Both quality and
output of SEO and SEM performance is affected by the time allocated to perform
those tasks. Well-trained, experienced workers are more productive and make
fewer mistakes than a poorly trained staff. Therefore, successful,
cost-effective in-house SEM production is dependent on a well-trained staff.
There are a number of resources and training options available. Your choice of
options will depend on several key factors — company size, existing IT staff,
editorial staff, search marketing staff, staff consolidation under one roof,
product diversity, level of competition and current search marketing experience.
If company size and product diversity are broad, such as the big brands or a
Fortune 1000 company, the best option may be to hire a search marketing training
expert for the sole purpose of training your in-house staff on-site.
There is a huge knowledge and experience gap in the search marketing industry
when it comes to organic SEO. Currently, there are few, if any, standards,
licenses or authentic certifications available in SEO and/or SEM advertising. In
addition, the continuity required for proper measurement of organic and paid
search is seriously lacking in most professional business environments, despite
the fact that search marketing results are measurable and accountable.
There is also a serious shortage of valuable and trusted search marketing
professionals with the experience required to fulfill these tasks within a large
inhouse search environment. Search marketers who may have worked at eBay, Yahoo
or other well-known companies within a "search marketing" capacity will have a
very focused and specialized skill set typically centered on the paid search
environment with little or no SEO skills.
An alternative is to hire someone who will experiment in creating the
fundamental policies described above, a sort of on-the-job training. However,
for a company seeking immediate in-house search marketing capabilities this can
cause unnecessary delays, redundancies and expenses.
A third option is to utilize online or off-site search marketing training
resources.
In-house Vs. Outsource
After careful consideration, you may decide it is beneficial to maintain a
dedicated in-house search marketing team to conduct your SEO and SEM campaigns.
Some firms elect to keep SEM in-house while outsourcing SEO. I see this as a
serious disconnect when it comes to measurement. Your paid and organic listings
must be measured concurrently to maximize results and maintain synergy. There is
no doubt SEO and SEM can be accomplished effectively in-house, but it takes the
appropriate planning and allocation of resources to get the best results.
The latest MarketingSherpa search marketing benchmark report shows that
marketers who used in-house SEO resources saw an average 73 percent boost in
overall site traffic. However, those who outsourced SEO to an expert saw an
average 110 percent
lift in overall site traffic. My recommendation, should you decide to perform
search marketing in-house, is to hire an expert to train your personnel and get
your campaigns running.
The Road Ahead
As a marketing strategy, search is currently the most popular Internet marketing
channel — used more often than email and
banner ads. That’s because it is accountable and cost-effective from both a cost
and ROI perspective. Search marketing budgets and the complexities of search
campaigns continue to increase, requiring a well-trained and dedicated search
marketing staff. Those companies who take SEM training seriously in the years
ahead will remain strong and competitive in their market.
About the Author:
Paul Bruemmer is the Director of Search Marketing at Red Door Interactive. For
more information visit
www.RedDoor.biz. Find sources recommended by Bruemmer for search engine
marketing training at
www.websitemagazine.com.
