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Professional Seo In Your Marketing Mix - Convincing Your Company
By Scott Buresh, Fri Dec 23rd
While professional (search engine optimization) is becomingincreasingly recognized as an extremely effective component ofan overall marketing mix, the industry itself is still verymuch in its infancy. Because is a relatively new industry,many key decision makers are not even aware that professionalSEO exists, or they simply believe that it could not work intheir industries or with the existing marketing mix. This is notbecause these decision makers are ineffective or backwardthinking, but rather because, in most companies, marketingefforts are focused upon activities that have already beenproven effective as a part of the marketing mix (direct mail,print advertising, trade shows). Very often, the people who first recognize the potentialbenefits of professional are not the key decision makers.They are the people on the front lines of the organization - theones who deal with prospects and customers every day. However,proposing professional as a new marketing initiative to thepeople higher in the chain of command can be a frustratingprocess - very often leading to disenchantment and a generalsense that the marketing decision maker doesn't "get it".Usually, however, the approach was more flawed than the decisionmaker. Reality
Before getting into some ideas for approaching your marketingdecision maker, it should be mentioned that if your company doesnot have a history of trying anything new, you may be better offspending your energies elsewhere. Professional as anaddition to your marketing mix can be a hard sell to a companythat is still relying on computers that were cutting edge duringthe Reagan administration, no matter how convincing theargument. If your experience with your company tells you thatyour efforts will be in vain before you begin, you obviouslydon't want to waste your time. Speak on Their Terms As previously mentioned, your motivation for suggestingprofessional may not necessarily inspire your marketingdecision maker to immediately add it to your company's marketingmix. What will? Most marketing execs have a hot button issue,and they are rarely shy about sharing it. Is he or she concernedwith increasing overall revenue? Is he or she always discussingcutting marketing costs? Does he or she talk about reducing thecost per lead? Does he or she always espouse the value ofimproving your brand recognition? For each of these scenarios(and virtually any other), there are specific studies on SEOthat will support your recommendation. If you approach yourmarketing decision maker without keeping the issues mostimportant to him or her in mind, you will diminish your chancesfor success. Use the Competition While different marketing decision makers can have differenthot button issues, few things seem to motivate companies as muchas the action (or sometimes the inaction) of the competition.With professional SEO, there are two potential scenarios -either some of your competitors have added it to the marketingmix
effectively, or none of them have. If they have, it isfairly easy to demonstrate this fact by taking your marketingmanager through a few keyphrase searches on any major searchengine and showing him or her that your hated enemy figuresprominently in the results while your company does not. This, ofcourse, makes a compelling argument. On the other hand, if yourknown competitors have clearly not embraced the channel, it isjust as easy to show a few searches on keyphrases demonstratingthat you can have (for now) a competitive advantage. Suchkeyphrase searches can also turn up additional competitors -lean, forward-thinking companies that are embracing newmarketing tactics. This eye-opening experience can alsoencourage a decision maker to act. Use Your Potential Vendors Talk to some established professional firms beforeapproaching your company with the suggestion that they consideradding to the marketing mix. A good firm has encounteredall of the objections that you are likely to face and should beable to help you with your approach by compiling relevant statsand offering compelling case studies. Your time is valuable, andyou needn't spend it reinventing the wheel when you can getprofessional assistance for free. If a firm is unwilling, orunable, to help you to present to your marketing decision makerin a manner that will speak directly to them, perhaps you shouldlook elsewhere. An inexperienced firm might not be able tohelp you in this specific manner, and an overburdened firm willlikely be unwilling to spend the extra time to help youcustomize your approach. The good news is that asking for thistype of assistance can not only help you to sell to yourcompany, it can also help you in the early stages of theall-important vendor selection process. Offer a Plan Piquing interest from the decision maker is only the firststep. You should be prepared to offer a clear projectdescription, including the price ranges of your proposedprofessional vendors, how long it will take to see results,and, most importantly, how success will be measured. This isanother area where your potential vendors should be more thanwilling to help - good firms will collect extensive data at theoutset to measure success, and will be able to clearly definewhat "success" will look like. As many companies are discovering, professional is anincredibly powerful and cost-effective addition to the existingmarketing mix. It is a sure bet, however, that the marketingdecision makers of many of the companies currently embracingprofessional did not come up with the idea independently.Some underpaid visionary in their organizations brought it totheir attention first! About the author:Scott Buresh is the CEO of Medium Blue Search EngineMarketing. He has contributed content to many publicationsincluding Building Your Business with Google For Dummies (Wiley,2004), MarketingProfs, ZDNet, Today, WebProNews, DarwinMag,SiteProNews, ISEDB.com, and Search Engine Guide. Medium Blue, anAtlanta searchengine
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