Should Your Organic and Paid Search Marketing Be Internally Managed?
If developed and managed properly, your paid search marketing and organic search marketing efforts will deliver positive results for your business. Well-implemented strategies based on either of these search engine marketing (SEM) tactics can build brand awareness and drive traffic to your Web site, leading to increased sales and conversions. Unfortunately, badly managed schemes can waste time, capital and energy, and they could even paint your company in a negative light. You need to examine your staff members’ skills and the associated costs to decide whether your SEM strategy should be managed in house or by a third party.
What Is Organic Search Marketing?
In layman's terms, organic search marketing is the product of a series of strategically placed keywords that makes your Web site more visible on the Internet. Organic search marketing is more commonly referred to as search engine optimization — or SEO — and falls under the SEM umbrella. SEO professionals weave specific elements and keywords into an array of digital sources, which are found and indexed by search engines.
Well-implemented SEO techniques have the power to greatly improve a Web site's search engine ranking. Your goal through SEO is to achieve front-page visibility in search engines for a popular keyword for your Web site.
What Is Paid Search Advertising?
Paid search advertising, also known as pay-per-click marketing, is another part of SEM. As the name suggests, you achieve success by paying for Web traffic. The latest paid marketing techniques can be implemented in Google AdWords as well as on social media sites like Facebook.
Advantages of paid search marketing include its direct nature. Your customers see an eye-catching advertisement, click on it and are immediately transported to a specific page on your Web site. Generally, you pay a fixed price each time a potential customer clicks on your advertisement.
Managing Your Search Engine Marketing Internally
If you want to remain as closely involved as possible, you could decide to create and manage SEM campaigns and techniques internally. In this case, your staff members need to be able to generate, implement and maintain both paid and organic search marketing strategies.
If members of your existing personnel are computer-savvy but don't have specific SEO or PPC marketing experience, you might decide to invest in a training course so they can learn both techniques. Alternatively, if the funds are available, you could hire someone as an internal marketing specialist.
Managing Your SEM Externally
If you and your staff members do not have sufficient SEO or PPC experience, you might decide to outsource your online marketing management to a dedicated service provider. Doing so can save you time and effort; however, it will have regular costs associated with it. The expense depends on the types of marketing you choose to invest in. For example, optimized articles would probably be priced per piece.
The best long-term results are often achieved by looking at and interpreting the data related to your marketing strategies. External specialists usually have the skills to generate and decipher the results of an advertising campaign or an organic search marketing scheme. Noticeable trends can be used to enhance future marketing strategies.
The good news is that any company, regardless of size, can profit from SEM. The biggest stipulation is that any type of marketing will cost you money, whether you choose to manage your efforts internally or outsource the work to an external firm. If you decide to do all the marketing in house, your campaign will cost you time. It can often be advantageous to plan ahead on paper. If you contrast the possible costs of each type of management against the projected profits of your paid or organic search marketing scheme, your decision could be easier to make.