Axiom Groove

Three Reasons Outsourcing an SEO/SEM Consultant Makes Cents

by Axiom Groove Partner David Jackson

The fact that a greater number of companies are shifting a greater proportion of their business online needs no argument. If you are not one of those currently maximizing your online presence, you should already be considering it. Otherwise, your business is at risk for quickly becoming swamped by the competition.

Search engine marketing (SEM) and/or search engine optimization (SEO) companies help businesses and other organizations to reach their clients online. These experts have specific skills that are not typically available in marketing departments. For this reason, SEM/SEO firms are often outsourced, because they can greatly enhance a company’s marketing efforts. Below are three reasons why collaborating with an internet marketing company can be a wise investment for your business.

First, search engine marketing in general is one of the most cost effective means of increasing sales or acquiring leads for your business. For example, comparing the average cost of a lead among various marketing strategies such as email ($0.55 per lead), yellow pages ($1.18), banner ads ($2.00), and direct mail ($9.94), search marketing has been shown to cost much less with an average of only $0.45 per lead (Piper Jaffray, 2003). The possibility of reaching highly targeted customers help to make this an extremely effective and cost efficient strategy. On many other levels, too, SEM and SEO results in great ROI, which is why it needs to be part of the marketing mix, if not the largest part.

Second, with the abundant data available from your website, SEM/SEO efforts are easily tracked, giving quick and accurate data on how successful the project is and how much return it has generated from the investment. For instance, if your business’s goal is improving sales, one indicator you can use from your data is calculated by taking the number of orders and dividing that by the number of visits to the website to determine the average number of orders per visit and whether it is increasing or not. A wealth of other techniques are available for analyzing your marketing efforts and determining the most cost effective approaches. Making valuable use of your data, successful strategies can be developed and unsuccessful ones can be discarded.

If you have already realized the importance of SEM/SEO, the third decision is whether to outsource or hire a professional SEM/SEO staff member. For large companies that do an enormous amount of sales online and demand a lot of attention in managing their online marketing, a dedicated staff member(s) may be appropriate. However, for most businesses or organizations, outsourcing an SEM/SEO company is the sensible way to go.

Average salaries for an SEM/SEO staff can range from $100,000 to $150,000. Alternatively, while there is a broad range of fees when contracting SEM/SEO services out, depending on marketing goals, a business can get involved in a great search marketing program for half the cost or even less. Not only does this save you money, you can get the benefits of a whole team of SEM/SEO experts with their unique knowledge, skills, and personal resources.

Search engine marketing and optimization are critical in today’s virtual world. Besides the fact that businesses need to capture the attention of their clients who are spending more and more time online, SEM and SEO initiatives have added benefits of being cost effective and measurable. Finding an experienced company that can assist with your internet marketing efforts can give you the benefits of a whole team for a great price.