Kent Schnepp (our VP of Client Service and Strategy) and I just got back from Lunch2.0 put-on by the Portland uber-agency, Wieden + Kennedy. (We even ran into EngineWork’s Director of Paid Search, Lisa Peyton, who attended on her day off . . . talk about commitment!) This was my first Lunch2.0, and I hear that it was different than the previous ones (a little more formal, with a bit more of an agenda).
Last night, I was privileged to be a featured speaker at the event in Portland that really needs a new name: The Inaugural Pecha Kucha/PK/Portland Collaborative Agency Network/Chit-Chat/event!
eMarketer released a study yesterday revealing that the top two most important marketing channels used to reach specific customer segments are online advertising (used by 75% of the respondents in this survey), and search engine marketing (used by 64% of the respondents).
Today, DMNews released the 2008 edition of their Essential Guide to Search Marketing which features an insightful article written by our co-founder and president here at EngineWorks, Sean McMahon, titled “SEM Turns the Media World Upside Down”.
iMedia Communications published an encouraging article this morning titled ‘The state of marketing revealed’ that conveyed the results of a new survey conducted by Eloqua Corporation which found that, even though we are facing challenging macro-economic times, the outlook remains bright for online advertising.
Here at EngineWorks, we are all about optimization! And, I’m not just talking about our clients’ Web sites. We also continuously strive to optimize the structure of our talented search marketing fulfillment team.
It’s important for professional Search Engine Marketing companies to maintain an ideal company structure to effectively integrate new campaigns into their fulfillment department, to rapidly achieve and exceed client performance goals, and to accommodate the expansion of their client roster and employee base (all while maintaining profitability).
To accomplish this, you must clearly define the skills and responsibilities of each position. I perceive that the following structure represents an ideal fulfillment department for accomplishing the mission critical tasks above.
In these challenging economic times, online marketing continues to rise above the challenge. The latest evidence of this is contained in a report released by the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) this morning. The online marketing research firm eMarketer presented the findings from this report in its article titled ‘Online Ad Spending Holding Strong’.
This Thursday, May 15, 2008, I am privileged to be a featured speaker at the Business Wire Media Luncheon, which is taking place at the World Trade Center in downtown Portland, Oregon.
A couple of weeks ago, I participated in the Monster Cookie Metric Century Bicycle Ride organized by the Salem Bicycle Club. Towards the end of the ride I ended up meeting a few of the other riders. After some small talk, one of the riders asked me what I do for a living. To my surprise, the rider had heard of search engine marketing and even search engine optimization (SEO). His knowledge was a bit misguided (the majority of his SEO experience involved Meta tags) but he was eager to learn more. The rider went on to ask me what three items I think are most important to optimizing a Web site. The following was my answer:
There are many critical components to remember when re-designing an effective search-friendly Web site, including clean, accessible code, and deep, relevant content featuring the optimum mix of messaging and keyword density. However, one of the most important features to remember is the addition of a properly structured XML Sitemap.
