Online Marketing Blog

SEMPO has announced the list of nominees for the 2007 board of directors.

My fellow search engine optimization and public relations enthusiast, Greg Jarboe, kindly reminded me today of the upcoming SEMPO board nominations for 2007-2008. The year went by pretty fast because it seems not long ago that SEMPO announced it’s new board members.

If you want a venue to make a difference and/or an impact on the search marketing industry, a SEMPO board membership might just be the ticket.

All current SEMPO members are eligible to nominate members or themselves for a board position. Nominations are open through Thursday, January 18, 5:00 PM Eastern Time.

To make a nomination, login to sempo.org, click on the “2007 Board of Directors Election” link and you will be presented with an email address you can use to nominate board candidates.

I’ve casually known Laura Thieme of BizResearch for about 2 years but for some reason our paths crossed repeatedly at the recent Chicago Search Engine Strategies conference. First it was the in the speaker ready room, then the most excellent Vintage Tub and Bath SES Dinner (yeah Allan!) where I sat across the table from her team members Traci and Jessica, then again during the conference, then the ClickTracks party and finally on the last day of the conference when I asked her to do a short interview.

Laura has been a speaker at SES for many years and will be teaching a college level course at a University Business School in Ohio next year. In this short video interview, I asked Laura about the need for consistent information and education on search marketing as well as her thoughts on gender distribution in the industry.

SEMPO is running their State of the Search Marketing Industry survey again and I would encourage anyone working in the field to take a few minutes and fill it out. The survey provides excellent insight into the direction of search marketing budgets, tactics and trends.¬† I know I’m curious to see how it compares to the Marketing Sherpa Benchmark Guide 2007 data.

Also, there’s a giveaway for those of you that need that kind of incentive.¬† “As a thank you to everyone who participates in the survey, each respondent will be eligible to win one free full-conference pass to any Search Engine Strategies (SES) event in 2007.” SES conferences passes are in the range of $1200-$1500 so that is a nice prize.

The DMA06 conference is getting rev’d up with pre conference sessions Satuday and Sunday. The new search engine marketing certification program started on Saturday with Jeannette Kocsis, VP of Digital Marketing at Harte-Hanks, presenting on “Introduction to Search Engine Marketing” and I followed up with “Search Engine Basics”.

Unfortunatley, I was not able to sit in on Jeannette’s session, but Amanda Watlington said there was great feedback. Here’s the description of the module:

Introduction to Search Engine Marketing: Explore search engine marketing and what it takes for a marketer to achieve search engine marketing results. Learn how to identify ethical search engine marketing practices and how search engines define spam. Learn how to shape the business case for search marketing for your business, and how to staff this valuable marketing function.

Spotlight on Search Interview with Heather Lloyd-Martin of SuccessWorks

A lot of buzz in the SEO community lately has been focused on the value of creating compelling content as if it’s a new idea. Writing web site copy that satisfies both search engines and users is nothing new to Heather Lloyd-Martin. She’s been an active proponent since the late nineties.

I first came across Heather’s copywriting wisdom a long time ago when explaining the Internet to potential clients was still common and the idea of Internet marketing and optimizing web sites for better search engine rankings was gaining popularity. Since then, Heather has been a very influential force in educating search marketers on the value of copywriting for the web, for SEO and most importantly, for conversions.

Here are highlights from SEMPO’s 2005 Annual State of Search Survey, or as I heard Dana Todd call it at SES Chicago, "the SEMPO Big Ass Survey".

• SEM was a $5.75 billion industry in North America in 2005, and will grow to $11.1 billion in 2010
• Brand awareness is advertisers’ top objective for SEM programs, particularly large firms
• Organic SEO is the most popular form of SEM, with 4 out of 5 advertisers using this method, with paid placement a close second at 76%
• ROI is in line with inflation: Four out of five advertisers say they could afford to pay a mild increase in the price of paid placement, while of advertisers and all agencies report moderate price hikes this year.

Since I’m on the DMA Search Engine Marketing Council, I thought I’d post this release that just went out.   The Search Engine Marketing Council (SEMC) of the DMA was previously known as the Association of Interactive Marketing (AIM). Lots of acronyms, but also lots of good work.

MOREVISIBILITY PRESIDENT ANDREW WETZLER APPOINTED TO MEMBERSHIP CHAIR, DMA SEMC COUNCIL

New York, NY, December 7, 2005 – The Direct Marketing Association (DMA) announced today it has appointed Andrew Wetzler, president and co-founder of MoreVisibility, membership chair of its Search Engine Marketing Council (SEMC).

After the last session about advanced keyword research, SEMPO held a reception where they were to announce some of the preliminary findings of what Dana Todd called their annual "big ass survey". 

The SEMPO state of the industry survey run last year provided some very interesting and insightful statistics about how marketers are using search marketing as well as future expectations.

The 2004 SEMPO survey indicated search marketers planned to spend about $4 billion on paid search, organnic and paid inclusion. The 2005 SEMPO survey reports that number to rise to $5.7 billion as announced by Kevin Lee of SEMPO’s Research Committee. Confetti flew at the SEMPO reception as Kevin announced more statistics out of the survey.

A press release about more details of the survey are forthcoming.