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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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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