Lawrence Gee | Marketing, Internet, Creativity, Strategy

Call to Action - SEMPO State-of-the-SEM Market Survey

It’s time to give back to SEM community.  I just did and it takes about 15 minutes.

The Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization (SEMPO) has launched its fifth annual State-of-the-SEM Market Survey. Whether or not you are an experienced Internet Professional or just getting started in the industry, it’s a survey that you should do to benefit the community.  You even get the results of the survey sent to you once it’s completed.  That means more stats and figures to pour over.  If you are in SEM, you like that sort of thing.

As a bonus, SEMPO is offering two prizes that will be picked randomly - a free pass to any one of the 2009 SES conferences and an iPod Touch.

I have an iPhone but I guess an iPod Touch would be a welcome addition…

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And Then There Were Two? A Look at The Microyahoosoft

No, it will never really be called Microyahoosoft or Microsofthoo or even Yahoosoft but the proposed $44.6 billion bid by Microsoft for Yahoo! was definitely really big news last Friday.  It takes two huge Internet players and creates a beast of a company that just might have a chance at slowing down the Google machine.  So what’s the potential impact of such a merger?  Let’s take a look at some of the obvious and not so obvious synergies:

Search and Advertising Platforms

The most obvious outcome of the proposed merger would be to combine the #2 and #3 players in the U.S. Search Market.  According to a CNN article, Google holds approximately 58.4% of the U.S. search market, while Yahoo has 22.9% and Microsoft’s share is just 9.8%.  In terms of online display ads, combined Microsoft and Yahoo! would control around a 25% share.  This is big business especially since it’s projected that online advertising could reach $60 billion by 2010.  Both Microsoft and Yahoo! have been struggling to keep up with Google.  Both companies search marketing tools are inferior to Google’s on a variety of dimensions.  Combining forces could help both companies share existing research, development, and other resources. 

E-Mail and IM 

A Microsoft-Yahoo! marriage would combine to create a force in E-Mail and Instant Messaging.  Adding a strong Microsoft Hotmail to #1 Yahoo! Mail only creates an even more dominant player.  Combing both MSN Messenger and Yahoo! Messenger would allow more users to connect to one another.

Social Media

E-Mail and Instant Messaging creates instant networks that Microsoft-Yahoo! could tap into to use use to their advantage in the larger social network context. Also, a Microsoft-Yahoo! would have a much richer portfolio of web properties.  Combined you would have an interest in Facebook (which Microsoft has invested heavily in) and Yahoo! owned del.icio.us and Flickr.  Couldn’t you imagine a larger social network being developed that gets integrated with these web properties and overlayed by these e-mail and instant messaging networks? 

Mac vs. PC ads 

Yes,PC isn’t as cool as Mac.  But perhaps the proposed merger could give PC a flashy purple suit just as a shot of Yahoo! culture might be beneficial to Microsoft. 

All in all, just some food for thought.  We still have a bit of time to consider more effects of the proposed merger — if it does move forward, it probably won’t be finalized until the end of 2008.

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Search Marketing Has a Bright Future

I came across an article today called “Search Marketing: A Rewarding Career Path ” on Search Engine Watch today. It basically was discussing the results of a new survey of in-house SEMs conducted by SEMPO, the Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization . Some very interesting facts from the article:

• ~64 percent of respondents had five years of SEM experience or less.
• For those with 0-3 years of experience…
  • 8.0% made over $100K
  • 48.8% made between $50-100K
  • 43.2% made less than $50K
• For those with 5-7 years of experience…
  • …they make significantly more.
  • The majority (56.4%) make more than $80,000 a year. Of this, 4.4% reported earning more than $200,000 and 30.3% make between $100,000 and $200,000.
• Few senior management roles for Search as of now - Only 4% had VP titles and 10% had Director titles.

Some very interesting numbers and figures, especially considering that SEM is a relatively new field of marketing. Simple supply and demand theory implies that salaries should be decent for both inexperienced and experienced hires. How many graduating college students have degrees or concentrations in Internet Marketing? Yes, exactly.

Of course, in the next 3-5 years this will obviously change. I recently took an Internet Marketing class as part of my MBA curriculum at USC Marshall. A few years ago it was an experimental class; today its a regularly listed elective. We all should expect more colleges and universities to offer courses like this. It’s hard to deny the fact that the Internet is an important channel for any marketer to get a grasp on. It will definitely be a competitive advantage going forward for any company and individual who gets it.

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New Blog Resolutions

2008 is already here.  It’s been 10 days since the new year and I have yet to make any resolutions.  Well, here are some that I will make for this blog:

1. Make tweaks to the design and usability of the blog - ok I cheated a bit and this is being done as we speak.
2. Post more often…let’s make this a daily event for as long as I can take it.
3. Upload portfolio (print and web) and develop other interesting sections. 
4. Continue learning and keep up to date by practicing new SEM and SEO techniques on this blog.    

Ok, the resolutions have now been blogged….thus it will be done.  I guess that means I’ll be blogging tomorrow.

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