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I think link-whore might be closer to the truth.

All humorous name calling aside, the topic that we’ve been discussing is a company’s decision to outsource Search Engine Marketing/Optimization, or do it in-house.

To bring you up to speed, this all started when Gary wrote an article a few weeks ago in which he theorized that if a company is considering bringing SEM in house, there aren’t any good reasons not to. Since then we’ve gone back and forth on email discussing the topic, and I started a pretty good conversation about it on the Cre8asite forums.

Last week Gary posted a follow-up on his blog about the topic, and I’m just getting around to formalizing and posting some of my thoughts here.

My position on this one is pretty straight-forward: companies can experience tremendous value from having a strong relationship with a web marketing agency. The fact that I run a web marketing agency makes me inherently bias, but that’s really only part of why I’ve come to this conclusion.

The two biggest factors that weigh in are that we’ve provided so much success for our customers that I truly don’t believe they could have achieved on their own (big self-plug, I know). The other is that I keep imagining the looks on my customer’s faces if I approached them and said, “all the work we do for you, the development, the design, the crm integration and lead management system development, the SEO, the PPC management … what do you think about bringing that all in-house?” I can’t predict the exact reactions, but I think most of them would say, “why do that, when I can just have you do it?”

I’m not using small organizations as my example. I’m talking about companies that spend hundreds of thousands of dollars every year on web marketing.

That takes me back to a big point, and back to Gary’s blog post.

The first point that he re-addresses is on the topic of SEM being core to a business. I’ll consent to this point. If all you do is sell something online, then you had better figure it out for yourself. I could still make a very strong point that an agency relationship would be valuable if not necessary, but I do think you’ll need in-house talent in this case, either way.

Gary’s second point is cultural affinity (how suited your organization is to actually pulling off SEM in house). My case hovers around one central point: what skills and talents does it take to do web marketing effectively?

Once a company has decided what internal resources that have currently, and what they think they can obtain in a cost effective manner, then they can start to decide on whether or not to outsource.

In my opinion, to completely replace an agency relationship, and do SEM in-house, a company will need:

- At least one talented designers capable of website and landing page design.

- A copy writer that understands writing for the web, and that can create effective PPC ad text.

- A usability expert that is capable of correcting issues that are highlighted by web analytics (shopping cart funnel optimization, etc). OPTIONAL

- A web developer that is capable of managing the website and shopping cart system, as well as creating systems to manage leads, or integrate off-the-shelf packages into the site if necessary (email systems, etc).

- Someone knowledgeable enough about PPC to run and optimize the campaign (yes, bid management tools can do some of this).

- An experienced SEO.

Now I can hear some of you throwing your hands up. You don’t need all of those people to do SEO! But remember, this is something that is essential (core) to your business, and it’s important that you have the talent and capability to do it right.

It would be easy to argue that you don’t ABSOLUTELY need all of these, but then it would also be easy to argue that if you’re not going to hire all of them, why not just use an agency that already has all of these skills built-in?

Gary does make a solid case with his third point regarding scale advantages. No one has ever signed up as an Awecomm PPC customer because we can buy clicks cheaper that you can buy them yourself. I’d argue that through testing, bid management, ad text management, and most importantly landing page optimization, we would get more out of your budget, but that’s not directly tied to a scale advantage - that’s just talent and experience.

I have to disagree with the next point about “fear.” I’ll agree that there’s nothing mystical or magical about PPC or SEO, but there is a learning curve. Gary compares it to learning to buy radio spots, and I can’t agree with that comparison. To take it a step further, there is a LOT of knowledge and talent that goes into constructing a finely-tuned web marketing campaign. I’m not talking about tweaking title tags, alt tags, and keyword saturation. I’m talking about segmenting online users, creating personas, developing pages that address their needs, testing and adjusting over time, and driving conversions through the roof.

I agree with Gary that there will never be a right or wrong answer to this question. It’s something that every business has to decide for them self.

The discussion does bring another issue to light though; what should you really be looking for in a web marketing vendor? I can see a lot of companies picking an organization with the wrong skill-set, and then being disappointed with the results and the relationship. I think the answer to that one will be different for every company as well, but there is definitely a methodical way of approaching the issue.

Hopefully I can enlist Gary’s help with fleshing out the selection process. I think a lot of companies could benefit from it.

UPDATE (3/12/07): Gary posted a follow-up on his blog with some good insight and kind words.  Definitely worth reading.

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