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"Session Intro: Many expect a recession to hit and no one knows how \nsearch will weather it. This session looks at strategies and tactics for those \nwho want to prepare in advance for a worse case scenario.\n\nJeffrey K. Rohrs, Vice President Marketing at\nExactTarget \nis moderating this session along with Jessica Bowman, SEO Strategist at\nSEM In House doing the Q&amp;amp;A \nmoderating. Speakers include Andrew Beckman, President of\nLocation3 Media, Dave Davies, CEO \nof Beanstalk Search Engine Positioning,\nRuss Mann, CEO of Covario and Jon \nMiller, Vice President Marketing at Marketo.\n\nAfter speaker introductions, Jeffrey polls the audience whether they think we \nare in a recession or not. Most agreed that we are in a recession. Looks like \nthis is going to be more Q&amp;amp;A than presentation so I am going to try to do my \nbest to capture what is being asked.\n\n1. What worries you and/or your clients that are driving marketing decisions?\n\nRuss says the fear of national recession. CFOs are tightening up, scrutinizing \npurchases and the like. Jon says larger companies with larger pockets may \nincrease budget to take advantage of smaller competitors. So more spending from \nbig companies and less from smaller which creates opportunity. In recession, \npeople are more concerned over bottom line results as opposed to branding \nefforts.\n\n2. With regards to larger companies spending more, will we see price spiking \nin paid search?\n\nAndrew says it would be a good time to take advantage of SEO and link building \ninstead of going after high priced PPC keywords. He is in fact trying to get \nclients to move money away from traditional media. Dave says that analytics are \nkey as they can prove whether adverting is successful of not, unlike other types \nof traditional advertising. \n\n3. In our current environment, where do you place your first advertising \ndollar?\n\nAndrew thinks people will get back to the fundamentals (i.e. targeting the right \nphrases, SEO, etc.). He goes on to say that businesses should do a better job \nanalyzing post click results such as using heat maps and the like. Dave agrees, \nsaying that companies need to make sure they have basic SEO covered. Russ thinks \nfirst dollar should go towards customer research to define strategy. We can't \njust be search experts but need to be business experts as well. It revolves \naround understanding the customer. Jon says when budgets are tight, you get \nfewer leads so optimizing those leads is crucial. Improving conversions becomes \nmore important than ever as you have less money to burn. Try to get more out of \nwhat you already have.\n\n4. Do you expect expect the consolidations of industries to be impacted by \nthis so-called recession?\n\nRuss thinks we will see a polarization. You'll see big players with big pockets \ntrying to gobble up smaller companies but at the same time there will be \nfragmentation as well as new companies staring up. Dave thinks we will see some \ndegree of consolidation but that is not contingent on whether we are in a \nrecession of not. It has already been happening and will continue to do so.\n\n5. Jon asks his own question regarding SEO - &amp;quot;How do you show clients that \nyou are getting value out of SEO?&amp;quot;\n\nAndrew says with good analytics, he can show whether good rankings are producing \nconversions or not. He sees SEO as much more cost effective and can prove that \nto clients with analytical reporting. It is a struggle however but doable.\n\n6. Jeffrey polls search marketers in audience what they are prioritizing as \nfar as marketing for clients.\n\nOne audience member says SEO. Andrew points out that it is cheaper to do SEO \nfrom the beginning than to do it after-the-fact (i.e. PPC campaign, site \nredesign, etc.). Dave says one of the most overlooked things is titles and meta \ndescription tags - something that is so easy and cost effective to adjust.\n\n7. Any other tactics besides what has already been discussed?\n\nJon says it is more important than ever to really track the marketing campaign. \nDefine what is working so you can feed it as well as what is not working so you \ncan kill it. Andrew says the metric that we really need to focus on is the \nconversion percentage. He also talks about affiliate marketing, saying that \nsearch marketing and affiliate marketing can work hand in hand. \n\n8. How do you deal with prospects who have interest in SEO but in an \nenvironment where positioning cannot be guaranteed?\n\nDave says they do guarantee rankings so question cannot really apply to him. \nAndrew says it is more of a time process, showing them the growth of keyword \nsaturation by developing content and increasing inbound links. Russ shows new \nprospects case studies to prove the possibility of getting results for them. \nWhile you cannot guarantee 1s place results, you can educate clients that SEO is \na process and constantly evolves.\n\n9. Because economy is worse in some places than others, how can marketers \ndeal with this?\n\nAndrew says you can use geo-targeting (PPC) to avoid bad areas. Russ jokes to go \nEast (Asia), in other words take advantage of developing and evolving countries.\n\n10. How do you get clients to not cut ad dollars and where are they currently \nsquandering?\n\nDave says we all waste money in different ways. He then reminds us once again to \nanalyze what is effective. Jon thinks biggest area where people waste money is \nwhere they are simply &amp;quot;shouting&amp;quot; to the market.\nSo, the key takeaways from this Q&amp;amp;A style of session are as follows:\n  SEO is the most cost effective thing you can do so utilize it as a \n  foundational search marketing tactic.\n&amp;nbsp;\n  Take advantage of good analytic programs because you can show clients how \n  effective search marketing is.\n&amp;nbsp;\n  Measure very closely to define what is working and what is not so you can \n  concentrate efforts on what 'is' working.\n\n  \n  \n\n\nSession coverage by David Wallace - CEO and Founder SearchRank."^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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