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Dear,

The purpose of this newsletter is to keep you up-to-date with the latest online marketing and demo practices, tips and examples of what online marketers in the software industry are doing to keep their brand and products in the public eye.

We hope you will find this monthly newsletter helpful and informative. We welcome your personal contributions to further enrich this publication so please don’t hesitate to contact us and share your point of view.

Special Feature:

Search Engine Marketing: Outsource or In-House?

At this point your company has probably discussed some type of search engine marketing (SEM) program and you are not alone. SEM has become increasingly important to all who look to use the Web as a marketing tool.

Should you outsource search engine marketing to professionals or perform these tasks in-house? Making the choice of keeping things “in-house” may not be your best option as many corporate Web sites are inappropriately optimized.

According to the Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization (SEMPO), the SEM market in North America alone is over $10 billion. Your biggest question about SEM at this point should be who will manage your SEM campaigns? This will depend on a many key items. When reviewing your options for in-house or outsourced search engine marketing and bid management, consider the following.

There is a large range skill set required

Effective campaigns involve a great range of skills, far more than one single person can offer. You will need the following personnel:

1. SEO specialist
2. Copywriter to draft effective content
3. PPC specialist to optimally manage your bids
4. Web stats analyst to monitor and analyze web traffic patterns
5. Usability professional to ensure your campaign is engaging the user and increasing conversion rates
6. Web designer to ensure the site landing pages are laid out in an attractive fashion
7. Web programmer to code the site
8. Network administrator to ensure the site remains up and running
9. Project manager to ensure everyone's efforts are coordinated and to remain on budget and within the timeline

SEM in fact is an all-out team effort. Think twice before trading breadth for depth by hiring one person for such an important marketing investment.

Everything changes constantly

Small and large changes are released to Google's search algorithm according to its search team's blog. An SEM firm is better equipped and set up to catch these changes as it monitors multiple accounts and stays current with ever-shifting trends.

There are literally hundreds of articles written every day on SEM subjects. In-house resources should be allocated ample time to simply stay up-to-date. Being aware of these changes has a significant effect on your results.

Think of the potential savings

You should consider all costs of an in-house team—time for hiring, managing, benefits, equipment, and ongoing training. On the other hand, most SEM firms charge up to 65% less for a year-long campaign depending on your needs. In the end, time is money and most SEM firms can do in a matter of days what an individual can take weeks to do.

Defining where SEO fits into the equation

No SEM campaign is complete without SEO (search engine optimization); it’s usually seen as a subset of SEM. The main purpose of SEO is to make the site better for both search engines and users; you may find that it will suffice on its own. Successful search optimization helps a site gain top positioning for relevant words and phrases. In any case, the advantages of SEO over the other aspects of SEM make it clear that, even if you are going to spend additional money on advertising and paid placement, SEO must be an important step in promoting your site.

It’s been mentioned that marketers who outsourced SEO saw a 110% lift in overall site traffic within six months, whereas in-house implementation saw a 73% lift (MarketingSherpa).

Get itemized pricing for all your services in a proposal that distinguishes one-time versus monthly costs. Each recommended service should be described in a technical support document explaining the need for every item in your campaign.

Outsourcing Saves Time and Money

An SEO expert technician will get you better rankings faster. SEO experts spend all day submitting and maintaining listings --the result is more page-one listings for your business.

Your staff will find SEO has a steep learning curve. Outsourcing allows better time use by letting you focus on your core business while your tech staff concentrates on site upgrades and design issues. Many webmasters don't have specialized SEO knowledge, and those that do can't find the time to constantly update their skills. Techniques change quickly, making instructional manuals obsolete before publication.

SEO firms offer a range of choices in services and pricing that result in the right strategy for your Web site, product, service and industry.

What it Comes Down to

Whether you are shopping for SEM and/or SEO services in-house teams tend to require a significant investment up front while outsource services spread the costs over time. If you are willing and able to implement SEM as a basis for your multi-year marketing plan, you need to think about slowly building your in-house team over time. Use specialists as needed.

Before you begin your search engine marketing campaign or fulfill your search engine optimization needs, spend the time researching your options by performing a cost and benefit analysis of outsourcing versus in-house. Do the math and ask yourself what makes sense for you and your business.

In the end, results matter most, not who is providing them.

Tips and Tricks

SEM Steps You Can Take On Your Own

Here are a few tips for you to get your brand up front so your customers can find you on the web.

1. Keyword Research. The easiest way to start figuring out what your main keywords are going to be and to spend some time thinking about what words most people would search if they were looking for your service or product. Having great keywords tied to your brand and domain will help you achieve some good traffic rather quickly. If you need some help searching for the right keywords check out seochat.com. Use their keyword density tool this tool is useful for helping webmasters and SEOs achieve their optimum keyword density for a set of key terms.
2. Stay Consistent. Consistency is king, along with some well-optimized pages on your web site; use the same keywords in your press releases, directory listings, blogs and marketing buzz.
3. Backlinks. It’s good to be popular so to ensure your top dog status you will want to have backlinks. Backlinks are links that are directed towards your website. The number of backlinks is an indication of the popularity or importance of that website. Some search engines, especially Google, will give more credit to websites that have a good number of quality backlinks, and consider those websites more relevant than others in their results pages for a search query. If you’re interested in checking out who has been linking to your site you can use an online tool like Alexa.com.
4. Rank Organically. There are some things to think about when you're designing and optimizing your site for your brand organically. Organic describes a search that returns results by indexing pages based on content and keyword relevancy. People trust "organically grown" search results more than they do sponsored results. Traffic doesn’t flood in from your brand overnight, so make sure you're using good keyword phrases and adding your brand at the end of that page title and in text on the page. This is a step that is sometimes overlooked and therefore not able to be indexed by the search engines. Also keep in mind to put your brand in text format in a few places on each page of your site to be sure the search engines grab that name and know what it's for.
5. Paid Search. Even if you have the amazing ability to get your brand organically ranked to the top tier of an indexed list you don’t want to over look reaping the benefits of also incorporating a PPC plan. For this you want to get very relevant search keywords that describe the target site and not necessarily your product or service. Make sure to create search ads that include your brand. Remember to emphasize benefits over features and make sure to test everything.