aimClear Search Marketing Blog

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In yesterday’s post, guest blogger and CEO of BlitzLocal.com, Dennis Yu, tackled some important concepts of the local ad firm- specifically the fact that it is sure to kick the bucket in 2010 if industry professionals don’t take proactive steps as soon as possible. Part two of this story will address changes the future has in store for local ad agency fiscal models and a closer look at the crucial dynamics of this evolution.

How will the financial model of local adapt over time?

Firms can take a 50% margin until the market gets smart. Consider the current VC-funded, growth-oriented approach of a pretend composite company… we’ll call it SuperLocal, Inc. Read the rest of this entry »

Borrell Research released a report on the Economics of Search Marketing for firms catering to local—ReachLocal, Yodle, MarchEx, WebVisible, and others.  Companies in this space churn up to 90% of their clients every 6 months, meaning that they lose clients as fast as they can gain them.  The Kelsey Group confirmed this trend last year, citing the inability of these companies to deliver leads.

Clients will stay on a few months in good faith, giving the lead gen’ company time to make the phone ring.  At a certain point, pleas to allow the system more time to “optimize” and concessions not to leave break down, leading to more churn. Read the rest of this entry »

photo credit: craigCloutier

Most larger Internet marketing agencies and in-house shops are configured as departments of specialists. It’s no wonder! In today’s complicated world PPC, ORM, social media, link building, affiliate networks, analytics, content creation, video, public relations, SEO, vendor and account management (whew) all require experienced and nuanced practitioners. Read the rest of this entry »

For years now our search-specialized marketing shop has worked with “traditional” advertising agencies,  who’s clients ask them for services we provide. While ad agencies have discovered their digital-metamorphosis involves an intense learning curve, trial and error and experience-most figure  out their appropriate place at the search table after training.

However, since their clients need help right away, it often makes sense to seek out interim and long term search partners to augment immediate creative and production. Professional search-fluency requires a very serious commitment of human resources and dollars. It’s hard to keep up without a dedicated search team.

That’s where we come in. Depending on the situation our support ranges from turnkey handling of projects, production components for the agency to use as part of larger campaigns and training. Sliced any way, we strive to empower our advertising agency partners because there’s more than enough work to go around and nobody needs to feel threatened. Read the rest of this entry »

aimClear is approached by traditional advertising agencies, often with rich history and too-often in stagnation or slight decline, seeking advice for growing online reputation as experts. Whether marketing regionally or nationally, it’s seriously powerful stuff to be perceived as an expert. Read the rest of this entry »

Many thanks to our corp of bloggers this week in San Jose. Specifically, great job to Todd Mintz, Jennifer Osborne and Charlene Jaszewski and to Matt, Manny, Laura, Nam and Kat back at the office.

There’s noticeably cache’ of additional content these guys (in the androgynous) cranked out, which we’ll share over the next week.  In the mean time, there’s plenty of terrific coverage out there– including my favorites, SEORoudtable and TopRank. There always seems to be a huge amount of during-conference-buzz surrounding Search Engine Strategies gatherings, especially SJ. Read the rest of this entry »

Traditional advertising agencies help clients to better target and reach customers with brand and other messaging. Market research begets branding-think, PR planning, advertising strategy and media buys. Creative development, campaign design, and production lead to ad placement.

Common channels include television, radio, print, and now search and social media. As nearly every media channel folds into the dashboard, search marketing firms have grown indigenous capabilities which overlap and even exceed many traditional advertising agency’s capabilities. This totally blurs the lines of who does what. Read the rest of this entry »