Search Engine Optimization: Find a Partner and Run, Day-Timers’ Exec Advises

For Tom Tweedie, senior director of consumer direct marketing at Day-Timers, it was pretty easy to convince upper management that search engine optimization was necessary for the day planner cataloger because there are so many benefits to having a full-fledged SEO program. He shared several key “selling points” on paid search and SEO during a session at last week’s Internet Retailer Conference in San Jose, Calif.

What you should communicate to your boss regarding the value of finding the right search partner:

* the opportunity is huge;
* search drives offline conversion;
* direct mail drives online search;
* you’ll acquire more new customers;
* search agencies have done this before; and
* you’ll need a top-level commitment first to make this happen.

“Make the agency understand your business,” he said. “Day-Timers is very unique in that we’re a seasonal business selling dated calendar pages. So we have one order per customer per year, one line item. So, it’s very important to understand the scale and how you’re going to optimize.”

Tweedie said that you can use direct marketing rationale for working with a paid search agency. For example, if acquiring new customers at a breakeven is your success criteria, the following ROI calculation could be used to justify a $25k spend per month on search optimization:

* average order amount is $50;

* gross profit per order is $25 or 50 percent margin;

* 1,000 customers to recoup $25,000 optimization spend.

He added, however, that if only 80 percent of customers are new, then you’ll need 1,250 total customers to justify the $25k spend to acquire new customers at breakeven.

He also outlined some key search engine optimization obstacles:

* dynamic URLs/session IDs;
* poor internal linking;
* lack of unique content;
* temporary redirects;
* vanity domains;
* minimal external linking; and
* lack of unique meta data.

He also advised that marketers keep on top of other potential opportunities, such as blogs, mobile search, social networks and others. “Invest the time and money to make a difference,” he said. “It’s no longer enough just to be online. [In search,] we’re coming back to traditional direct marketing and return on investment measures.”