Marketing managers have enough challenges to deal with than cope with incumbent SEO agencies pitching to do work that sounds suspiciously social in nature. Nevertheless, SEO has changed and requires lashings of social engagement for success. For results; SEO agencies must now be allowed to engage with audiences and influencers.
The immediate solution is to integrate Search and Social. That sounds easy but it isn’t. Most brands have separate Search and Social budgets, managed by different people and Marketing and PR are completely separate departments.
I blame the PR industry’s failure to get into digital until it was too late. SEO grew as a specialism and Social followed. The circle is complete and now all three disciplines are straining to unite again despite corporate and agency structures that resist it.
What can you do if you can’t find an agency with Search and Social chops or are unable to execute the dramatic internal restructures necessary to manage the channels?
One solution is to use frameworks. Get your Search and Social experts (be that one or more agencies) to work within the same artistic vision as your Creative agency. That might mean agreeing on themes, the types of messages any engagements would create and styles up front so that any outreach assets created fit the overall plan. Equally, that means getting the Creatives to agree on ideas that are useful and interesting to audiences. Media transforms creative work from art to marketing, after all.
A similar approach is to ensure your Social and SEO agencies coordinate and cooperate on outreach. It is likely that both agencies will want to do it. If the Social agency insists on doing it then establish what good looks like in terms of results and hold. For balance you must also give them the chance to review and feedback on the engagement plan before they begin the outreach.
By Andrew Girdwood, Media Innovations Director at DigitasLBi.
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