SEO & SEM: A FEW LEARNINGS

If you wanted to get a feel for what is hot in marketing right now, it would have been instructive to attend the Business Marketing Association (Chicago Chapter) breakfast meeting this morning. The topic: Search Engine Optimization and Search Engine Marketing generated THE largest turnout for these very enjoyable breakfast meetings.

The promotional piece read “SEO and SEM: A match made online. Learn the success strategies for pairing SEM and SEO to drive better results in your online marketing campaigns when a panel of experts, led and moderated by Jennifer Howard, head of B2B markets, central region, at Google, discusses this topic at BMA’s Nov. 19 Breakfast RoundTable at IIT’s Stuart School of Business. Panelists S. Ryan DeShazer, director of interactive strategy at HSR Business-to-Business, Kristen Nomura, search & analytics manager at Google, Lisa Schmitt, interactive marketing media manager at USG and Jeff Woelker, senior digital strategist at Slack Barshinger, will discuss why SEM and SEO are essential to any successful online marketing campaign and how, when used well together, can accelerate and lead to better results.”

Things I learned that you should know (and which further reinforced my belief that one of the best ways to fill my calendar as a keynote business speaker and motivational humorist is to work on web optimization) include:
1) There are 11.8 billion searches monthly. In my off beat Irish manner I wonder if this is a 28 or 31 day month! But you get the picture.

2) Google’s share of search is 63% with Yahoo now generating just 20% of searches. And if you were curious as to why Microsoft initially wished to acquire Yahoo – well the MSN share is currently running at 8.3%. (Market data provided by comScore who are the big dogs in measuring digital media). Just in case you are interested: At time of writing, Yahoo share price is $9.55 compared to the rejected $31 Microsoft offer in February … and you thought your portfolio was doing badly! Anyway – back to things I learned that you should know.

3) Computer security queries up 27%, Energy & Utilities search up 35%. No figures were provided as to search queries for “Chicago based Irish keynote speaker.”

4) 67% of C-Suite executivess consider the internet their primary source of information. 86% of them use a search engine daily. Someone should query who the 14% are who do not!

5) 70% of business decision makers use search engines FIRST in their decision making process and when it comes to seeking a humorous keynote business speaker, the percentage is even higher.

Re Networking. Join your local BMA chapter. If it is half as good as the Chicago chapter you will get a real return for your money. Check www.marketing.org for details.