traditional marketers are coming for our jobs - #stateofsearch 2014

Traditional Marketers Are Coming for Our Jobs

Ruth Burr Reedy

State of Search 2014

@ruthburr #stateofsearch

East Coast Blizzard 2009 by BKL on Flickr

https://flic.kr/p/fyhNar


This is What I am Talking About

SEO

PPC

Email

Social Media

Content Marketing

Digital

TV/Broadcast

Radio

Print

Direct Mail

Telemarketing

Traditional

For the purposes of our conversation today, here’s what I mean when I say “traditional” vs “digital”

marketing.


Wolves fighting over food by Tamboko the Jaguar on Flickr

Traditional marketers are starting to make a play for digital marketing business in a big way,

and we have to be ready.

https://flic.kr/p/ndZRQj

@ruthburr #stateofsearch@ruthburr #stateofsearchThis is Sinclair Broadcast Group, a $1.6 billion

TV broadcasting company with a terrible website.

Thanks Clayton

@cedorrisfor this

example!

@ruthburr #stateofsearch@ruthburr #stateofsearchThis is Sinclair Digital Solutions, a full-service digital marketing agency run by the owners of

that terrible website.

January 8, 2014

@ruthburr #stateofsearch@ruthburr #stateofsearchHere’s what Sinclair Digital’s website looked like

in January of this year.

“U.S. advertisers’ spending on digital advertising will overtake TV in 2016.”- http://adage.com/article/media/digital-overtake-tv-ad-spending-years-forrester/295694/

@ruthburr #stateofsearch@ruthburr #stateofsearch

@ruthburr #stateofsearch@ruthburr #stateofsearchSinclair Digital’s service offering may not look

like much...


Loud laughter :D by trasroid on Flickr

https://flic.kr/p/9ZoHvg


Sad Seal by Nathan Rupert on Flickr

It’s not always going to be so funny.

https://flic.kr/p/5ug6av

@ruthburr #stateofsearch@ruthburr #stateofsearchRegardless of the quality of the services provided, it’s still a huge influx of new

competition into our market.


A Fool and His Money by David Goehring on Flickr

Our clients and prospects don’t know as much about digital marketing as we do – they don’t always know

what to look for in a quality service provider.

https://flic.kr/p/9KU6T1


Bella “shake hands” by Ian Main on Flickr

You mean I can get all my marketing with one vendor? You got a deal!

The idea of having one vendor for all your marketing sounds sweet – plus traditional agencies can cut clients a

deal on bundled services that digital agencies can’t.

https://flic.kr/p/28jwQ


“The Mad Men” by Finnur Malmquist on Flickr

Traditional marketers are very very good at selling themselves. They have amazing creative

portfolios and know how to sell marketing.

https://flic.kr/p/5Tpdm6


337/365: The Big Money by David Muir on Flickr

Traditional marketing agencies and big media companies also have a lot of money and a ton of creative resources to

put into building content. That money also means…

https://flic.kr/p/4eQKXu


Genius – Wile E. Coyote – Chuck Jones by Gwendal Uguen on Flickr

…(if they’re smart) they can invest in hiring and training digital talent. We can’t trust they won’t

know what they’re doing forever.

https://flic.kr/p/cguCf9

The Skills that Pay the Bills


Keyword Research

Content Strategy

Link Building

Conversion Rate Optimization

Content Marketing

Online Networking

Market Research

Brand Strategy

Public Relations

Focus Groups

Creative Design

Offline Networking

DigitalTraditional

Plus, modern digital marketing has a lot in common with traditional marketing – many of the same skills, metrics and

mindsets lend themselves well to digital tactics.


Anastasia, 1997 20th Century Fox

Most of us learned SEO on the job – it’s naïve to think that traditional marketers aren’t capable of

doing the same thing.


The Social Network, 2010 Sony PicturesHaving so much more money and resources may look like

an unbeatable advantage, but it makes for business mistakes that digital marketers can capitalize on.


Big numbers

Fast results

Over-commoditization

Under-hiring

Top-Down Management

Traditional marketers are used to big money and fast results. This can lead them to underestimate the time and effort it takes to be successful, under-hiring and over-commoditizing digital.

@ruthburr #stateofsearchThis approach leads to some terrible SEO. That’s bad for them but it’s also bad for us because it

makes SEO as an industry look bad.


Starting Small

Realistic Projections

Custom Solutions

Smart Hiring

Investing in People

Smart traditional/media companies are starting small and growing a program, taking the time to learn how to be

successful, hiring smart and investing in success.

@ruthburr #stateofsearchThat’s the real competition.

For Example

@ruthburr #stateofsearchOPUBCO DMS (where I work) started out as a 2-person division of newspaper ad sales, now it’s a

34-person agency.

Traditional Marketers Are Going Digital!

@ruthburr

Penguins by son_gismo on Flickr

@ruthburr #stateofsearchSo how do we compete with our new competitors?

https://flic.kr/p/6bq5r9


Educate.

Gone are the days of doing SEO in a black box. We have to teach our clients what we do and how it will make them money; we also have to educate in the industry to ward off crappy SEO.


Specialize.

We can’t compete on breadth of services; we can compete on expertise and results. We do digital and

we do it well.


Be marketers.

Being marketers means talking about #RCS, which all boils down to – how am I making you money? Digital has a powerful ability to demonstrate ROI.


Not hackers.

Hackers, 1995 United Artists

It can’t be about tricks and exploits anymore. That means it can’t be about number of pages, number of links or page

1 rankings. It has to be about the business.

Don’t Compete on Price.

@ruthburr #stateofsearchIt’s a race to the bottom.


Suit up.

Traditional marketers are great at selling themselves – we have to be good at it too. We have to be able to create

beautiful, delightful experiences.


Playing Wolves by Tambako the Jaguar on Flickr

Despite my scary slide before, traditional marketers don’t have to be the enemy.

https://flic.kr/p/mF8jYX


Find Partnership Opportunities

DesignUX

Develop

SEOSEM

Social

Technical SEO

CMS Provider

Offline Content Strategy

Online Content Strategy

Another way to compete on breadth is to partner strategically to offer a fuller set of solutions. You can even partner with traditional agencies – now your competitor is your partner.

@ruthburr #stateofsearchIf you own a digital marketing agency, I know

where you can find some potential buyers!

@ruthburr #stateofsearchIf nothing else, traditional agencies are probably

hiring.


(Soon to be called something cooler)

Ruth Burr ReedyHead of On-Site SEO

+RuthBurr

@ruthburr

http://www.linkedin.com/in/ruthburr

Holla at your girl.