SEM: The View Beyond the Search Engine Marketing Navel
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Written By Noah Mallin | August 25, 2008 | Share This
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I’m not the first and I won’t be the last to suggest that there is a tendency in the world of search marketing - in which I and probably you dwell – to get caught up in the common knowledge and language of our industry to the detriment of communicating with the outside world. There is a whole universe out there of marketers, PR people, industry executives and others who don’t know enough about search engine marketing yet to really understand how powerful it is. There are also plenty of folks who know just enough to be dangerous. Part of the job of a search marketer is to evangelize in a way laypeople can understand.
I’m lucky in that I’m married to someone who has very little knowledge of the industry. When I told my wife that I visited the Googleplex in New York last week, and that hundreds of people were employed there she asked why they would need so many people. From their website it looks like they would need just a handful to keep it up and running. While this may seem like a funny statement this is in fact how most people view Google. The stark simplicity of their interface suggests a need for mere maintenance and little else.
Of course when I described the complexity and ever-changing nature of search algorithms, the wide array of products and properties Google has started or owns (like YouTube, Google Maps etc.) , and the thriving advertising business that is the main source of their revenue she understood right away that this was an organization that required plenty of people to make it work. Still I had to be careful not to get bogged down in CPC’s (“cost per what now?”) spiders and crawlers and SERP’s lest I sound like a crazy person to her ears.
Search Marketer Market Thyself
There is insidiousness to the jargon that is rife in SEM circles. We all want to sound like we know what we’re talking about. In a sense there is a fear that a potential client will be disappointed if we don’t throw some crazy stuff at them. Here’s a radical notion: Having the knowledge is no good if you are obfuscating rather than communicating. Determining how to best communicate with a client is just as crucial as helping a client communicate with their target audience.
To be fair, search marketers or those who want to be search marketers have been infiltrating corporate America in ever-increasing numbers. Still, they have to sell a marketing plan up their own corporate or organizational ladder and often the decision makers in this process are not up on the latest acronym or social media buzz tool. Nor should they have to be.
Sharing is Caring
What I’ve noticed at Reprise Media is that we try to be as clear as possible with clients, without talking down to them. By and large these are smart people who sometimes are navigating territory that is new to them. Helping your client to “get it” is part of the collaborative process. I say collaborative because part of the marketing equation is learning from the client side.
It’s vital to a good SEM campaign (or any marketing campaign) to understand your client’s business. Your client will be in the best position to enlighten you as to the challenges they face on a micro and macro level. Sharing insight into search marketing in a readily comprehensible way has been a great way to open up the communication and find out what unique conditions exist for your client’s industry and organization. A deeper understanding of your client and in turn, a better grasp of search marketing on the client side, makes for successful targeted campaigns.
Topics: SEM: Firms, SEM: Paid Search, Search: How-To |
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Most of the newest people in the blogosphere dont really know the truth about search engine marketing and specially those who dont really read online. Nice article.
a message from charles of money making and blogging tips
Thanks Charles, this is true and it can be hard to wade in to the plethora of search marketing websites and discussion groups without knowing the lingo…