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Top Five Reasons In-House SEM Programs Fail

With the growing prevalence of search engine marketing, several organizations are electing to run their SEM programs in-house instead of outsourcing to a professional firm.  While there are numerous tools and resources available to help companies incorporate these programs internally, most are rather basic and overlook many of the vital aspects that make up a truly effective SEM campaign.  Before you go to set up shop, get to know the five main reasons in-house SEM programs falter.

1.) SEM is Time Intensive – Unlike traditional media, SEM is not something you can simply do once and forget about.  These campaigns often consists of thousands of keywords that must be thoroughly researched as well as landing pages that must be carefully crafted in a way that appeals to search engines and visitors alike.  All of this needs to be done regularly to make sure you are getting the most out of your marketing dollars.  Although some possess the skills, most in-house teams simply do not have the time to commit to an SEM program that will give them the best results.

2.) SEM is all About Dedication – Google Ad Words and other paid advertising campaigns demand maintenance on a daily basis in order to maintain the company budget and ensure the best results.  If other projects takes away the team’s ability to dedicate to the SEM campaign, you will have trouble identifying your most fierce competitors and ultimately, making your campaign more effective.

3.) SEM Can be Competitive and Expensive – Reputable SEM firms have a knack for analyzing a budget and preventing their clients from overspending.  At the same time, many in-house teams fail because they are not able to maintain the budgets they sat aside for the campaign.  A skilled professional can implement measures and polices to help maintain costs while ensuring that the budget is well managed and evenly allocated across the campaign.

4.) SEM Demands Accurate Tracking and Analysis of Performance - Try as they may, but a large number of in-house programs suffer from insufficient reporting.  The beauty of SEM itself is that it is a results-driven marketing tactic so therefore, the best way to gauge the performance of your campaign is through detailed reporting.  An expert firm can help you understand what part of your program is doing good as well as what areas need improvement.  This is done by analyzing critical data, setting benchmarks and optimizing the campaign itself.

5.) SEM Requires an Awareness of Search Engine Polices

Many organizations find themselves in undesirable predicaments once they are banned or penalized for engaging in SEM practices that do not fall in line with search engine policies.  These practices can bring forth damaging results as your site could end up banned by Google, Yahoo and other major search engines.  By outsourcing to a reputable SEM firm, you can get the assurance of a trained and certified team that knows the search engine policies and uses them to measure the overall effectiveness of your campaign.

How Specialities Can Hinder the Overall Effective of an SEM Campaign

Several marketing companies are internally divided by specialties.  In today’s web-based world, many are segmented by fields such as web development, design, research and copy writing for example.  This holds true in both agency and in-house environments.  Due to such great diversities, these disciplines don’t always mix perfectly, but are often a necessity to get the job done.  When it comes to SEM however, the talents and skills needed to effectively perform certain processes may not be as unique as one assumes.  The professional who excels at search engine marketing can often handle SEO and PPC simultaneously without passing one of these tasks off to another party and disrupting the team.

When Specialties Get in the Way

Many larger enterprises establish specialized roles for their SEM team with the belief that it creates advantages and efficiencies for the organization.  While such methods have been effective in numerous industries and more traditional marketing schemes, applying them to the world of internet marketing is an entirely different story.  Today’s economy has seen the specialized teams of both interactive and traditional full service agencies fighting over budgets and seemingly trying to justify their sole existence.  It is very uncommon for such an environment to be able lead these teams towards one common goal.  This is especially truly in an ailing economic climate where layoffs have essentially become a regular occurrence.  Even with specialties teams that are focused with the company’s best interest in mind, the extra layer of communication that is required could actually get in the way and render management ineffective.

The Pride of Experts

There is an old saying that states when you have too many cooks in the kitchen, somebody just might get burned.  In regard to an SEM campaign, this could be the case with a company’s SEO or PPC specialists.  Although both offer exceptional value, SEO experts tend to look down on PPC professionals and vice versa.  When someone learns and becomes comfortable with a particular method of SEM, they generally become set in there ways and close minded to the suggestion of others.  Unfortunately, that lack of understanding with such vital  components could drastically hinder the performance of company’s marketing campaign.  For instance, a team member who specializes in SEO might conclude that a certain keyword is too competitive to obtain quality rankings, but lacks the knowledge or support to get around the problem.  Likewise, a PPC expert might determine that a specific keyword is to costly to target, but refuses to get the insight he or she needs from the SEO specialist.  When it comes to SEM in the specialized setting, the overall success of a campaign largely depends on upper management’s ability to facilitate proper strategy, communication and collaboration.

In order to integrate the elements of SEO and PPC in seamless fashion, a company must have a clear understanding of how all SEM tactics and strategies fit into the overall marketing mix.  If your SEM team is not thoroughly cross-trained and willingly to communicate with each, the efforts of your campaign just might come up short and result in nothing but utter frustration.

The Importance of SEM

There are many ways to go about promoting your site and SEM is one of the most effective.  Search engine marketing or SEM, refers to the marketing of a website to improve its ranking in the search engines.  It also describes purchasing paid listings among other search engine related activities.  When embarking upon an SEM campaign, it is important to first understand the benefits of optimization and then employ techniques that will bring prospects to your site.  Just as when getting browsers to enter your store in the real world, the goal is the same here – convert those visitors into customers.

Why SEM?

Today’s internet and World Wide Web see more consumers turning to search engines for the products and services and they seek.  If you are out to establish a strong base of customers and strengthen your bottom line, making friends with the search engines is the way to go.  SEM is a proven technique and has worked wonders for business owners looking to increase their online visibility via the SERPs.  This method involves a combination of various techniques and when used effectively, the consumers who are after your products or services will find you much easier.

A recent study shows that nearly 90% of all website traffic is generated from major search engines such as Google and Yahoo.  This is the very reason why almost every online business owner is currently so engulfed with optimization and marketing their sites for search engine traffic.  As we mentioned before, SEM covers a broad category of techniques and the most important of all is optimization.

Below we have provided details on two of the most commonly used methods of SEM.

SEO

More commonly known as SEO, search engine optimization describes the act of creating web pages that appeal to the search engines.  It generally involves building link popularity and most importantly, implementing relative keywords potential visitors are most likely to type into a search engine.  These keywords are to be inserted into the body of the web page as well as title tags and meta tags.  SEO can be so effective that other SEM techniques might not even be necessary.  Although every method is not required for a successful SEM campaign, SEO is one you can’t do without it.

PPC

Because achieving high rankings in a search engine is no easy task, some rely on Pay Per Click campaigns for high profile placements.  This is the type of model where you pay a predetermined fee when a user either clicks or visits an advertisement.  PPC is an SEM technique that focuses on targeted audiences and particularly, generating sales.

The key to SEO and SEM in general, is knowing how web surfers go about searching for products and services they are interested in.  Keep in mind that they rarely use industry jargon so you have to think like your audience in order to attract them.  This is why SEO experts stress the importance of keyword research.  Whether its genuine SEO, PPC or other methods, keywords are the basis of successful SEM.

SEM Basics and Beyond

Regardless of the industry, online business is one of the most competitive fields in existence.  More than likely, thousands and possibility millions of other business owners have an ideal similar to your own and are working diligently to outdo you.  Competition is fierce but you don’t necessarily have to generate a million hits each month to be successful.  Believe it or not, there are many sites that bring in steady traffic but you couldn’t tell by the lack of sales.  In the end, succeeding at any online business requires continuous profits because this is what ensures longevity.  The best way to get the traffic you want – people who are more likely to actually buy what you’re selling, is engaging in targeted marketing – you need to learn the basics of SEM.

Short for search engine marketing, SEM is a method of devising your marketing strategy around search engine traffic.  Everyday, millions of web surfers are relying on search engines to find what they need whether its software or airline tickets.  The key to SEM is determining your niche market before you actually start marketing.  The niche market is the people you are looking for, potential customers that have a keen interest in your particular product or service.  You need to figure out where your ideal customers are located and most importantly, how you are going to use the search engines to attract them to your site.  It is critical to determine these factors in advance because delving into marketing without a sound strategy usually ends in failed results.

On the surface, SEM appears to be a strategy that calls for you to limit yourself.  After all, why restrict yourself to a niche market when your product or service can benefit almost anyone?  Despite how it looks, SEM is actually the exact opposite.  This method has been so successful because it qualifies your visitors by automatically disqualifying those who are not interested in your offerings.  Although this particular strategy is web-based, the goal is the same are any type of marketing plan – find the people who are looking for you and convert them into customers.  On the web, reaching this goal is about knowing how they go about searching as well as where they hangout online.

Thinking Outside the Box

While SEM is primarily based on leveraging traffic from the search engines, you don’t have to limit your marketing efforts to Google.  When optimizing your website for a niche audience, you are better assuring the possibility of generating traffic consisting of potential customers.  This can be increased by bringing in visitors by way of special invite.  These are people you find in discussion groups, blogs and other social networking communities.  Whereas traffic from the search engine is likely to stumble across your site and many others like it, these are visitors who took you up on your invitation.  They come in pre-qualified and very interested in what you have to offer.  When utilizing genuine SEM tactics and going beyond the basics, you have a much better chance of bringing in the traffic looking to find you.

SEO and SEM: What’s the Difference?

SEO (search engine optimization) and SEM (search engine marketing) are two of the hottest concepts on the internet today.  While these terms are often referred to as one in the same, there is actually a big difference between the two methods.  SEM is rather broad and can be used to describe various aspects of website marketing as it relates to the search engines. In this regard, SEO can simply be considered as an essential element of SEM.  Whereas SEO primarily consists of keywords and links, SEM is far more extensive.

Paid Inclusion

Paid inclusion is something that is heavily discussed when the topic of SEM comes up.  This simply refers to paying a directory or search engine to immediately add a website to its database rather than designing the site to naturally attract search engine robots.  Some view this method as their only option for being listed while others are totally against it.  The hard truth is that there is no way to pay your way to the top of the rankings.  Search engines are increasingly disqualifying sites trying to purchase listings, leaving all their efforts futile.  If this is a practice you choose to partake in, make sure you are aware of the consequences.

Advertising

Advertising is another SEM technique employed by online businesses.  This method involves taking out advertisements on search engine result pages.  These ads are typically display based on keywords a user inputs into a search engine with costs ranging on the number of impressions or appearances of the ad.  What this simply means is that you must pay for the advertisement whether it drives traffic to your site or not.

Pay Per Click

PPC (Pay Per Click) ads are common in SEM as well.  You can have complete control over your campaign with the freedom to select the keywords that trigger your ads, the copy you want inserted and usually how much you want to invest.  Hence the name, you are only required to pay when someone clicks on an ad and is then redirected to your site.  Two of the major PPC networks are Google and Yahoo Search Marketing, each of which come with advantages and disadvantages.  When signing on for either program, be prepared to invest a substantial amount of time and money into running such a campaign.

Unlike genuine SEO, the SEM practices mentioned above offer one major benefit: immediacy.  If money isn’t an issue and you want to increase your visibility on the web right away, one or a combination of these techniques could be the way to go.  Take heed that the disadvantages may be far more detrimental to your efforts.  If your site isn’t designed accordingly, visitors could be turned off when they do get there.  A site that is difficult to navigate and doesn’t deliver what the visitor is looking for is the easiest way to blow your SEM campaign.

SEO First and Foremost

In short, no SEM campaign can be complete without practicing sound SEO first.  The primary goal of SEO is to make the site friendly for both the search engine and your visitors.  So even if you plan to spend money on PPC campaigns and other SEM elements, be sure that SEO is covered before you start heavy promotions.