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An Exclusive Interview with Rob Murray, President of iProspect

SemGeek is proud to present an exclusive interview with iProspect's President Rob Murray. Rob is responsible for formulating the firm's corporate strategy as well as managing the company's operations.  In addition to complimenting this interview, Rob will also be speaking on the Orion Keynote Panel on Day 1 at the Search Engine Strategies Conference in San Jose, CA in August 18-22, 2008.

SES Returns to San Jose, Aug. 18-22! Get Your Tickets Now!

About the Orion Keynote Panel - How Much Search is Enough?
Where does search really fit within a marketer's total digital advertising effort? Big businesses and small businesses alike struggle with how to allocate search marketing, and other online advertising or marketing efforts. This Orion session will evaluate strategic thought processes and then grind down to tactical execution with thought leaders from the search engine marketing, advertising agency and advertiser perspectives. We will explore how Search can be "carved out" from an overall budget and how these tactical fit will lead the white whale of online marketing; a truly holistic marketing strategy.

Question #1:
As paid search costs continue to rise, do you anticipate an increase or decrease in offline channels influencing online searches? What channels will be the emerging ones? Will the industry see a shift in marketing budgets across the board?

Answer:
We anticipate an increase in the influence of offline channels in driving people to search regardless of what happens to paid search costs – though for the sake of this answer we can assume that costs will continue to rise.  There are a couple of fundamental reasons for this – first, regardless of what happens to paid search costs, it will always costs less to process a conversion or a transaction online than it will to process it via phone, via mail, or in-store.  So the more that offline channels drive people to search – and those people end up converting online – the more money will be added to the bottom line.  Second, those marketers who successfully integrate their offline marketing efforts with their search marketing efforts will produce superior search engine marketing results than those who don’t – period.  Marketers who use search marketing solely as a “pull marketing” technique, and not as a means by which to secure the conversions produced by integrating “push marketing” techniques are only taking advantage of half search marketing’s power.

Our feelings are that TV, radio, print and direct mail are extremely well positioned to influence search behavior, and will be the leading channels at doing just that for those organizations who go about integrating their marketing mix with search in an intelligent way.  I would look for a shift away from investments in offline channels other than these I just mentioned, with those funds going to help support more search marketing and to help cover the cost of integration.

Question #2:
If studies indicate that more people are clicking on news results rather than image or video, then allocating PPC budgets on social networks such as Myspace and Facebook would be on the decline? What is your thought on the Viral Social Media explosion and the decline in image and video blended results?

Answer:
Without making a blanket statement on whether it’s a good strategy for ALL companies to invest PPC budget on social networking sites, I disagree with the premise of your question.  That’s because people who are being presented with blended search results – and are subsequently clicking news results more than images or videos – chose to go to one of the major search engines for a specific reason.  Similarly, those people who spend time on MySpace or Facebook chose to visit those sites for specific reasons – which are probably a very different than the one that drove people to a search engine.  So I don’t view this as an either/or question.  A marketer may very well want to show their ads to people who had a reason to visit a search engine AND to people who had a reason to visit a social networking site.  The reasons are not exclusive of one another.

For that exact reason  we recommend our clients cover all their bases.  If there is a social networking site whose community has generated content about your company, or your products or services, or your product or service category – or has demonstrated some alignment with values held by your company -- it makes sense to test an advertising presence within that community.  On the other hand, we also advise our clients to utilize and optimize every type of digital asset – such as images, videos and press releases – that they have at their disposal.  Blended search is an experiment that’s between 9-18 months old, depending on the search engine, and the engines are still figuring out which digital asset types are the most relevant for searches for each keyword.  There might not always be a relevant news result available to return for a given keyword search, and when that’s the case you certainly want your images and video assets to appear in those results.

Question #3
Do you see integration of offline channels with search marketing being done by the majority of your clients?  What type of obstacles or limitations typically stand in the way of those who don’t?

Answer:
I’d say about half of our clients are integrating at least one offline channel with their search marketing campaigns – though many are not doing so when they first engage with us and need convincing of the wisdom of doing so.  Companies with “siloed” marketing organizations – where different teams that are sometimes in a different geographic locations  are responsible for different channels – always seem to be especially challenged when it comes to communicating as clearly and as often as is needed to effectively integrate their efforts. We also see budgetary and human resource limitations stand in the way of integration efforts.  Let’s be honest, integration isn’t as simple as 1+1=3. Some additional effort and budget needs to be invested, so it’s more like 1+1.1=3 – but results are still worth it.  Some companies still aren’t ready to invest more to produce more.

Question #4
If a marketer could do just one thing to integrate their offline and search marketing efforts in order to significantly increase the results of both, what would you advise them to do?

Answer:
Coordinate the keywords, messaging, and calls to action within their offline marketing campaign to match the keywords, messaging, and calls to action that have proven to be most profitable within their search marketing campaigns. No single integration technique will produce as much “bang for the buck” and net such immediate increases in the results of both the offline campaigns and your search campaigns.  Now that’s not to say that this is easy to do as every channel is going to believe that the way they are talking to clients and prospects is the “right” way.  But search marketers can share the gift of data like few of their offline colleagues can, and can use that data to quantifiably demonstrate to other channels that they’ve optimized their messaging to maximize profitability.  Starting the discussion about consolidating from disparate to coordinated messaging by looking at the data can often shorted the conversation and accelerate the buy-in process.

About Robert J. Murray?
Robert J. Murray is President of iProspect. He is responsible for formulating the firm's corporate strategy as well as managing the company's operations. Murray, who has more than 15 years of strategic consulting and financial analysis expertise, also is in charge of developing and negotiating strategic alliances, identifying acquisition opportunities, and evaluating the company's capital structure. He has served as the president of iProspect for the last five years and led the company through its recent acquisition by Aegis PLC. He previously served as the firm's executive vice president.

Prior to joining iProspect, Murray was a marketing and manufacturing strategy consultant for Bain & Company, Inc. of Boston. Murray also has served as a financial analyst for the North American Sales Group of Lotus Development Corporation in Cambridge, manager of financial reporting for Applied Extrusion Technologies Inc. of Boston, and a supervising senior auditor and certified public accountant for the Boston office of KPMG Peat Marwick.

Murray earned a master's degree in business administration from Harvard University and a bachelor's degree in business administration from the Carroll School of Management Honors Program at Boston College. He has written numerous articles for industry publications including DM News, iMedia Connection, MediaPost, Target Marketing Magazine, and is a regular columnist for Search Engine Land. Additionally, Murray has spoken at industry events around the country including ad:tech, OMMA, Search Engine Strategies and Search Marketing Expo.

Robert Murray is one of just nine individuals to be named to BtoB Magazine’s “Who’s Who in Search” for 2008 and is a member of the board of directors of the New England Chapter of the American Association of Advertising

Google Grants - Revolutionizing The NonProfit Industry

Many of us who know of Google Grants, realize that it is a truly remarkable gift to help 501(c)(3) Nonprofits drive free traffic to their website, as well as increase awareness and raise money online. But what evolved in 2003 with the launch of this program has blossomed into a WORLD of its own. For example, Google has not only developed a wealth of information enabling Nonprofits to take advantage of their free advertising money, but it has also created a philanthropic and socially responsible environment where all they want to do is help society.

Google Employees Take This Program Personally
According to a recent post in the Google Grants Blog, Yvonne of the Adwords Team wrote a very heart-felt post about her personal feelings of Google Grants. She states "I wanted to share with you what I do for Google Grants behind the scenes, so welcome to my life as a Google Grants optimization volunteer. When I'm not helping advertisers build and refine their accounts, traveling to visit clients or doing other work-related things, I take every free moment to help grant recipients like you make the most of your accounts."

Google Goes Above and Beyond for Nonprofits
It is very clear that Google's employees not only try to help these Nonprofit's get their Google Grants up and running, but they also take pride in making the world a better place for everyone. For instance, Yvonne also writes  "my volunteering has gone into overdrive: I've been ordering our annual Googler volunteer-appreciation gifts and organizing, editing and distributing our internal volunteer newsletter. In the process, I've contacted some of you to ask permission to use your testimonials and photos. Every grant recipient I've spoken with has so appreciated the Google Grants program and described the benefits it's brought them. Interacting with some of you has made my volunteer work come full-circle."

Why is this remarkable?
Well for starters, Google is giving away $10k/month in advertising, offering Google Checkout for Free and the better the Nonprofit does online, they will not only continue the program every month, they will even increase the amount of the monthly Grant. Google does not profit from this program, in fact I know there is a lot of work that goes into the registration, review and approval process before a Nonprofit can spend a single $1.00. So what is the catch. There is no catch. It's simply a GIFT, that deserves more attention.

Here are some great links regarding the Google Grants Program

• Google Grants Introduction
• Google Grants Group
• Google Grants Help Center
• Google Earth Outreach

What Does A Paid Search Marketing Strategy Mean To You?

First of all, in my opinion, the term Strategy can take on many different meanings. In the Search Industry, strategy is often confused with a plan which entails minimal tactical changes.

C'mon people, it is JUST A Marketing PLAN, nothing more and nothing less. It is a well organized plan which has an elongated life cycle which lasts more than just 6-12 months and encompasses many levels of channel integrations, branding, valid success metrics, historical performance and overall messaging. It must also include a comprehensive understanding of everything the client does online, offline and backed up by actionable tactics to support it. If you do not plan for that, you will fail and get fired! Let's discuss.

Will The Real Strategist Stand Up?
One of the fallacies in this dynamic Search Marketing Industry is the emergence of people who lack the necessary skill set to provide "prolific" and long term value. I have seen many situations where people may "think they are strategists" but when it comes down to actually doing it, they have NO CLUE WHATSOEVER as to what they are doing and always tend to "discuss with the PPC Geek" (which is basically, telling them what to say because they do not understand).

So, with that said, in order to become an effective strategist, there are really only two (2) major prerequisites needed to go down the path of deserving the title of a Search Marketing Strategist.

1. You've Actually Done The Real Work Before:
In order to have a high level understanding of what the hell needs to be done to set the correct expectations with the client, you MUST encompass the ability and have hands-on experience to know what it takes to do the tactical elements. For example, in order to keep the client happy and ensure confidence in your abilities, you must have a constant and accurate flow what the plan is, how it's going and, if needed, the ability to answer all technical questions as asked by the client.   

2. Previous "Multi-Hat" Experience:
Another important level of experience in becoming a Strategist is real experience of wearing many different hats within an organization which helps identify with the client's goals and objectives. If the strategist cannot hold an intelligent conversation and provide ideas about offline, seasonality, branding, other advertising, conversion, site structure, biz development, etc... it devalues the role of a strategist. Perhaps I just have a high bar with this industry, but if you cannot understand all of these elements, your company may need to re-evaluate the skill sets of the strategists needed to get the job done.

Support Your Client, Don't Dead End Them
One of the biggest failures in developing a Search Marketing Plan is the lack of support for other media, such as TV, Radio and Print. If you turn a blind eye to that, the client will devalue your commitment to growing their business. Agency/Client relationship is more like a partnership, especially if your fees are based on performance.

Furthermore, ignoring those other channels is detrimental to your PPC performance. The Idea is to "once again" fish where the fish are, and if the fish are searching (fish don't have the internet, do they?) on products or events from a TV, radio or print Ad, you better make sure PPC is there to get that click.

In Conclusion:
Whenever I hear the word "strategy" I just want to throw up. In my opinion, this Industry has a polarizing level of skill sets associated with job titles. For example, I know of "exceptional" strategists who are extremely valuable and "GET IT" and there are others who are just appearing intelligent on "White Boards" and when it comes to "Prime Time" with the client, they are like deer in the headlights. Unfortunately, it's a necessary evil that is just cycled through along with high turnover rates in the industry.

Pampers vs. Huggies - 40+ Year Old Branding War Hits Search Marketing

As I recently became a Dad for the first time, I am immersed in a world of Pampers, Huggies, Formulas, and Onesies. Furthermore, as I am also looking for something new to write about for SemGeek, I uncovered an interesting anomaly in the Disposable Diaper Industry. Personally speaking, the diapers we were given by the hospital were Huggies and we did not like them and quickly switched to Pampers. That was a great move on our part because it is a better diaper for a newborn baby boy. Ok, you are now wondering, how is he going to tie this to PPC. Well, as my PPC instincts took over, I did simple Google searches on both Brands as well as generic head terms and long-tails and what I found was very interesting, but needed a little more information to back my assumptions up. Well, here is what I found.

Huggies vs. Pampers - A Branding Battle Since 1968
In an interesting blog article entitled "Being first is Secondary" from Stealing Share - A Brand Development Firm, it talks about the Disposable Diaper Industry and how Pampers, who built the category in 1968, were all of a sudden threatened by Huggies. According to Stealing Share, "Huggies now dominates the disposable diaper market outselling both Pampers and Luvs combined. P&G confused brand with efficacy and continued to tout product innovation and features, leaving "caring Mother" to Huggies. "

So what caused this shift in the Diaper Market? According to Stealing Shift: 

• Pampers sold the best diaper money could buy. 
• Huggies sold the concept of a "Good Mother". 
• Huggies built a brand and Pampers built a great category.

How do we tie this to Search and On line Marketing?
In order to keep this article from getting too detailed and lengthy, I simply highlighted on what I perceived as the most obvious and relevant to talk about.

Website/Usability: (Pampers gets my vote)
Pampers wins for their "quick and easy" homepage navigational structure which targets a typical parent who is most likely interested in their products and identifying with the age of the baby (Prenatal, Newborn, Baby, Toddler, Preschooler). On the other hand, Huggies homepage starts with Playing Games, Watching Videos and claiming they are the best. Not a real good sign coming from someone looking for information on their diapers. Another thing to note about Huggies is that their site design is lacking the traditional "flow from left to right and ending up in the middle" type of layout. Huggies provides "over-compressed" images, and a color scheme that hurts the eye and makes you want to leave the site. Overall, Huggies gets a D from me.

Quick SEO Findings: (It's a Washout)
First of all, both websites have poor URL naming conventions/structures which is the end result of session based site architecture. I would of expected some URL re-writes or even modified "keyword-rich" URL mappings.  Even with this problem, Pampers was the only one with some promise. Pampers website identifies with what was said by Stealinh Share, which is very product and parenting centric and to justify this I identified the following basic Tactic. The Title Tag

Even a novice SEO would pick up the homepage TITLE tags as important. For example, Pampers uses: Diapers, Baby Care and other Parenting Information. When you compare it to Huggies, the TITLE tags are HUGGIES(R) Happy Baby, Parenting Articles, Baby Articles, best parenting websites. If I put on my SEO Hat, Pampers provides a much better keyword segment based on an holistic focus of Product and Parenting help. Huggies makes an attempt at the parenting angle, but falls way short by focusing on only their Brand. Moreover, it does a bad job of selecting poor keywords and phrases to identify themselves. Pampers wins my vote.

Quick Paid Search Findings: (Huggies spending PPC Money, Pampers NOT)
Pampers does not do PPC. Huggies does. Huggies also promotes another branded site called HuggiesHappyBaby.com. In my brief findings, huggies is spending PPC money on just just its brand name and a few select Long-Tails such as "newborn diapers and infant diapers" Ironically, Pampers is ranks #1 organically for "infant diapers". However, from what I can see, if Huggies wants to make an impact in PPC, they need a major keyword expansion strategy because currently I give them a failing grade due to many other long tail search phrases that appear to be highly targeted and relevant for which they are not ranked.

In conclusion:
Pampers has a much better "user-friendly" website with a clear message to their visitors and brand loyalists. Huggies is missing that aspect of the user experience and even though using PPC, they are not optimized efficiently. In terms of SEO, it's a WASHOUT, with both of them not having a great URL structure which is prime for indexing. If I had to pick a side, I would go with Pampers based on their keyword selection. I terms of PPC, Pampers sees the need to "bypass" an investment in PPC most likely due to the fact that they built the category and have achieved TRADEMARK status with their name and history.

Huggies on the other hand, appears to be investing $$$ into PPC to try and acclaim themselves as the best diaper on the market. But they fall short in my PPC eyes because they appear to not have a thorough and tested PPC strategy which is resulting in missed opportunities to capture a majority of the Disposable Diaper Market. In reflection of this somewhat "out in left field" blog post, I find this a very interesting topic which has legs for further investigations and research into other industries. This was a very interesting topic to write about and as I do everyday, I appreciate the privilege of blogging about something that is hitting close to home.

Google's Ad Preview Tool Is A Blessing In Disguise

Hallelujah, it's about time that Google helped their PPC Advertisers and (PPC Geeks) by providing us with an effective tool for PPC marketers because it not only helps advertisers to see competitive saturation levels with Geo targeted campaigns that were once unable to see stats on, other than raw data but also many other benefits including preserving CTR% for clients to see their ads, hence Quality Score. This is also very beneficial for viewing competition within certain geo-targeted areas so you can make effective decisions as to modify your PPC strategy by breaking out campaigns into specific geographical regions which could improve quality score and conversions (ROAS, ROI, etc...)

So what does Google say about Ad Preview:
See your ad on Google without accruing extra impressions, and preview your ad as it appears to users in other geographic locations.

Will this Ad Preview Tool Make A Difference?
In my humble opinion, this is a huge improvement, especially with the Geo Targeting feature. However, I think it needs more evangelists to force it's importance to the public. One of the biggest fallacies with PPC is to see what is happening in Geo areas that you cannot see where you are doing the work. Also, I cannot tell you how many times a client skews the CTR% wanting to find their ads and it affects the quality score and creates false reporting.

In Conclusion:
This Ad Preview Option is and will be a valuable tool for all advertisers for years to come. It will be another Hat is Google's continued education of helping us build effective PPC strategies and assist us PPC geeks, both novice and experienced, to appreciate how far Google has come to help it's advertisers understand what is happening with their $$$, even though we are still "boggled" by their mysterious Broad Match and Search Query Reports which are not conclusive.