I hope everyone had a great holiday, but it is time to get back to work on our sand castle. Our previous blogs: Playing Together and Planning and Communication all have one goal in common, and that is to become a TEAM that brings a dynamic product to the client. Now, another important tip is working together to figure out and manage your budgets. If the brick manager takes all of the money for bricks, how is the mortar manager going to afford the mortar to put the walls together?

For a campaign that includes, TV, search, display and print, it is so important that all parties come together to talk about how budgets should be spent. No one is more important than the other. The bricks are no more important than the mortar, the water or the labor involved in construction. I could go on here, but you get the idea. Any one specific aspect of a campaign is just as vital as the other.

So here is where our learnings from our other posts kick in: communicate, plan and play together. Share those shovels and wheel barrows so that everyone comes out ahead. Talk about what budget your campaign needs to succeed, but listen to what others are asking for at the same time and learn to compromise for the benefit of the client.

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With the changes in the economy, everyone is spending less. From the average consumer up to the Fortune 500 Company, we all are experiencing limited spending powers. As a natural reaction, when faced with any of life’s limitations we tend to expand our imagination and brainstorm new ways of getting things done. We immerse ourselves in the “think mode” of how can I do more with less? This is even true for Search Marketing.

Owing to its fine ability to be measured as well as the high return on investment, SEM has become one of the most resilient areas of marketing. But now, even we, as Search Marketers, are accepting the reality that the budget cuts are affecting us too. We can no longer be so uber-focused on Paid Search as the “end-all-be-all” of online marketing. We are beginning to spread our wings and consider search from a more holistic perspective. This epiphany has shown the light on SEO.

The value of SEO has, for the most part, been undermined because of the time it takes to see the fruits of your labor and the labor itself. SEO as a standalone strategy works well for any brand whose idea of online success is coupled with the commitment to longevity. But SEO, as part of an overall strategy with paid, defines success with increased traffic, brand strength, brand authority and most importantly, cost efficiencies. Now that companies are cutting back on their overall budgets, thus having less to spend in paid search, they are considering SEO as their golden ticket to remain competitive in the online space.

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Friday, November 5th, 2008, Search Engine Land posted an article discussing what many of us in the SEO space already know; that Fortune 500 companies are not well represented in the organic space.  They reported findings from a study done by Conductor, a New York based search/analytics agency.  What was determined is astonishing…again, no surprise to most of us who live and breathe SEO, but astonishing nonetheless.  Conductor found that:

• 72% of Fortune 500 companies have very low to non-existent visibility for their most advertised keywords
• 20% of Fortune 500 companies have low to mid presence
• 8% of Fortune 500 companies studied showed mid to strong presence for their most advertised keywords

Why is SEO the red headed step-child of Search?

In my experience here at Outrider, I’ve found that the greatest challenge presented to SEO’ers is getting clients to own and commit to achieving success in the organic space.  As an agency, we tout the idea and proven value of approaching search holistically and using the historical data from paid to influence organic and vice a versa, but how often do search strategists and advertisers really reap the benefits?  Clients at large see the added value and necessity of attaining a visible presence in both the paid and organic space, but because of the cross-functional demands of SEO implementation, i.e. Marketing, Corporate Communications, IT, Legal,. advertisers’ commitment and participation falters.

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Sharing your pail and shovel in the proverbial sandbox can lead to building the biggest and best sandcastle on the beach. Don’t you want to give your client the best possible “castle”? Show the competition that we have what it takes to give and be the best. If we share and work as a team, we can only succeed.  Successful integration means all components – search, online, traditional – working together to maximize marketing goals.

As discussed in our previous post on SearchFuel, “Let’s All Play in the Sandbox Together,” it takes multiple steps to create and maintain a successful search marketing integration. Over the next several posts from the two of us, we will touch on each step and try to keep the sand out of our shoes while building our castle. Planning, communication, budgeting, goal setting, messaging and building/maintaining relationships are all important steps in working together.

Let’s start with the foundation: PLANNING!

This is where it all starts. Getting together to understand the advertiser’s business goals for the year, plan your annual campaign strategy and gather ideas are key. Without planning you won’t know when to start digging the moat, where to put the draw bridge, where you pen your pigs. You get the idea, there is nothing too small or insignificant to discuss. Timing is everything and you need to work together for the better of your client and the account.

Speaking of timing…when to start integration discussions is an important part of the planning stage.  How about now?  ‘09 planning is underway for most advertisers, so what better time is there to start the discussion than the present.

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