Add Value to Client – Search Engine Marketing
source from “Business Week, 19th October 2009″
Search engine marketing (SEM) agencies typically fall into two camps: specializing in search engine optimization (SEO) to the exclusion of all else or focusing exclusively on pay-per-click (PPC) while shunning SEO altogether.
Hence, entrenched SEM silos have become the norm and businesses end up working a the traditional ad agency for “outbound” marketing activities (print and radio/TV advertising, direct mail), an SEO agency, and/or a PPC agency.
The problem with this scenario is three-fold:
First, companies end up overlapping their efforts.
Second, little integration exists between traditional marketing and SEM (and online versus offline).
Third, the ability to see a comprehensive view of the marketing “big picture” is often severely compromised.
The SEM silo within companies occurred naturally, according to search marketing specialist Marta Turek. In an objective and insightful essay, “Breaking the Search Marketing Silo,” on her SEM Street Cred blog, Marta points out that while traditional marketing and sales have always been at odds with each other, at least they have a relationship. Search marketing, on the other hand, “is completely out of the loop. Search marketing and traditional marketing efforts are run by different departments and different people that barely know of the others’ existence.”
And, search’s “image” problem also creates a disconnect, which leads to marketing silos. This is due to how traditional agencies define “creative.” According to Matt Spiegel in a Search Engine Watch article, “Search Engines, Silos, and SES Solutions,” those in marketing and advertising get “their creative juices flowing from an image that makes them stop in awe.”
Search, on the other hand – whether organic or PPC – is just not seen as sexy. (When was the last time an SEM agency won an award for “best looking text ad”? Never!) When it comes to search, says Matt, the term “creativity” needs to encompass “the idea of purchasing keywords connected to your Super Bowl ads, or capitalizing on a competitor’s missed opportunity, or using search to create buzz months before your product is launched.”
So, if you’re a traditional ad agency, or an SEM agency with one specialty, how do you help your clients’ overcome the silos and disconnects inherent in their marketing, advertising and sales departments – without adding expensive headcount or sending your team back to school?
Simply, consider software applications that automate critical functions and that give you the “big picture” data you need to help your clients make informed decisions that increase revenues.
One reason we developed the Yield Web Marketing Suite is because we saw that many businesses focused only on Google AdWords, or only on SEO, but failed to apply both SEO and PPC across all three major search engines – and thus were missing huge opportunities to increase conversions and sales.
On top of that, because smaller businesses in particular often feel they can’t afford the services of agencies, they try to manage their search campaigns themselves – resulting in weak strategy, low conversions, and wasted money.
Even if you decide to use technologies other than ours, which integrates PPC, SEO and landing page optimization into a single, automated system, there are a variety of point solutions out there that agencies can pull together toward greater automation of the full SEM remit. What’s critical here is helping agency clients to manage their total SEM effort to drive the best possible traffic to their sites and ensure the highest conversion rates.
To see how V Channel Solutions can help your agency add value to your clients’ campaigns, give me a call at 03 8070 2661. We’ll be happy to walk you through a demo.
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