I will be covering the Developer day as much as possible, but I need to recharge my laptop so I am sitting in on the Recession Panel.
Search Marketing & Surviving A Recession – Many expect a recession to hit and no one knows how search will weather it. This session looks at strategies and tactics for those who want to prepare in advance for a worse case scenario.
Moderator: Jeffrey K. Rohrs, Vice President, Marketing, ExactTarget
Q&A Moderator: Jessica Bowman, Director of SEO, Business.com
Speakers:
Andrew Beckman, President, Location3 Media
Dave Davies, CEO, Beanstalk Search Engine Positioning
Russ Mann, CEO, Covario
Jon Miller, Vice President, Marketing, Marketo
Andrew Beckman: Things are not trending in the right direction. Spend will change.
Dave Davies: We have been impacted, because we are in Canada and the dollar is weak. Most of our customers are in the US.
Russ Mann: We have seen a increase in business even from manufacturers who are widely impacted by the recession.
Jon Miller: I am hopeful, but I am a realist and people are feeling tough times.
Q1: Are we in a recession?
Dave Davies: Recession may provide us excellent opportunities
Russ Mann: probably stagflation, but it seems sectors of the economy are not doing well and some are doing really well. We are experiencing a counter cyclical boom.
Jon Miller: not an economist. We are in the worst possible non-recession.
Q2: What worries you?
Russ Mann: with Fortune 500, people are scrutinizing spend more. Looking to automated solutions to reduce cost of production, etc. etc. etc.
Jon Miller: If you can track the ROI, there will be more spend but companies with larger companies and deep pockets. They understand then is the time to Double Down. More spend from little companies and more big companies.
In a recession, people don’t focus their spend on branding.
Dave Davies: As analytics goes, we are the one form of marketing that has the high value of provability with analytics and the reporting helps.
Q3 Where do you put your first marketing dollar?
Andrew Beckman: Focus on the fundamentals. Start analyzing your clickstream metrics and then use that for strategies to increase conversion. Fundamentals of SEO and SEM.
Dave Davies: Agree whole heartedly. As people are staying and not going out. People will spend more time research and surfing.
Russ Mann: Clients say that search is at the center of the marketing spend. we think they should focus on the research and strategy. We can’t just be search experts, we have to be business experts.
Jon Miller: When budgets are tight. You need to look for opportunities to maximize the dollar for the customer. Customers may not be in the funnel and relationships grow over time. When you first meet someone you don’t propose.
Q4 What strategies can help minimize marketers stress
Andrew Beckman: There are struggles. SEM has to take the long view when they are used to short term impact.
Dave Davies: There are basics like the description tag that are your “ad to the world” in the organic side. Take advantage of the fine touches.
PARTING THOUGHT: Maximize long term value. Focus on your integrated campaigns and business value. As a search marketer you should be used to a recession, it happens every 4th quarter when your budget is cut.
Jeremiah’s thoughts: Interesting session I am really concerned that this industry is not focused on long term, but more on the short and this creates a bad impression. I think dave and Andrew got it right. These are long term games and focusing on the basics will pay dividends.
