Another windy morning in Chicago last Thursday ushered in an intrepid LoSasso quartet to The Drake Hotel. Awaiting LoSasso President, Scott LoSasso and Vice President, Mark Hollingsworth were professors from colleges and universities around the Midwest, plumbing the depths of LoSasso’s interactive marketing expertise at the 2011 Spring Marketing Management Association Conference. The talk was organized by Don Jones and resulted in great dialogue between area professors and our LoSasso team.

The presentation addressed changes in the marketing industry and what businesses are looking for in new hires, especially those undergraduates hot off the presses. Particular attention was paid to content driven interaction: the driving force behind creating a space for consumers to interact with one another and with businesses. Industry forums and social media (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, FourSquare) have become the new quilting circle or local watering hole where information is readily exchanged, available and digested at a rapid pace.

The message was clear: the toolbox has changed but the fundamental principles of marketing have stayed the same. Developing a relationship with a client is still at the core of those principles; it is the way in which we enhance that relationship that has grown to include social media, SEO (search engine optimization) and the need to build a presence both physically and virtually for every client.

Frequent and consistent messaging continues to be of utmost importance but a close second is the need for silos within businesses to break down. More than ever, direct marketing and public relations are completely meshed together: communications and marketing departments have to interface constantly to maintain that consistent messaging for optimal success in their campaigns.

The discussion was also centered around best practices for hiring and what makes a new hire successful. Scott LoSasso initiated the conversation by outlining optimal job candidates that contribute to a team work environment. Incoming new hires are strong writers, positive team players, involved in an array of social media platforms, creative thinkers and detail-oriented. For more information about skill sets businesses look for in new hires, visit iMedia Connection.

Thank you to the Marketing Management Association, Don Jones, The Drake Hotel and all in attendance for a great open discussion about our evolving industry!

While 106.5 million viewers tuned in to the New Orleans Saints Super Bowl XLIV victory, a great majority also anticipated the creative commercial debuts. This year, many companies topped the list: Snickers featured a football-playing Betty White, Denny’s urged Chickens to lay low, Budweiser created a house completely made of Bud Light cans, and a life-long friendship between a Clydesdale and bull.

But it was Google’s low-production, highly emotive “Parisian Love” that made the biggest impact in the online viewing aftermath. As of February 11, the commercial gained over 3.4 million views on YouTube; the next in line with 1.7 million YouTube views is Doritos “House Rules.”

This year’s Super Bowl boasts viewer numbers so high, it ended the 27-year reign of the M*A*S*H series finale as the most-watched U.S. television broadcast ever. (There were 70 million fewer Americans back in 1983, making Sunday’s Super Bowl technically lag behind the M*A*S*H finale in share numbers.) Still, it’s an impressive feat: as record-breaking numbers of viewers tuned in Sunday, and word spread online, Google’s Parisian Love spot received the most hits.

It’s no surprise that the Google name is so highly recognizable it trumped brand giants like Doritos, Budweiser, Coca-Cola, Volkswagen, Dodge, and Dr. Pepper. As our society forges on with the online revolution, it seems only fitting that Google, the brand that just happens to be a powerful search engine, was viewed more than any others on the Super Bowl 44’s YouTube channel.

Here is part one of the new LoSasso SEM Minute video series, episode titled “SEO and PPC”. This is a brief intro video about a few basic SEO and PPC factors. As the series progresses, we will be discussing many search industry issues ranging from questions like, “Do meta descriptions matter?” to “does PageRank sculpting help my site?”

Is there a specific Search topic you would like to learn more about? Please submit a request in the comments below.

Mike Hernalsteen is the Senior Interactive Marketing Specialist at LoSasso Advertising Inc., a Chicago based interactive agency where he develops comprehensive online marketing strategies for leading B2B and consumer brands. (See more posts by Mike)

With several thousand advertising, marketing and PR companies in Chicago, maintaining first position in the search engines is an unrealistic objective for a tiny agency in Ravenswood – yet there we are – #1 in Yahoo! for the term “Chicago marketing agency”. Now, in the spirit of full disclosure – we are currently on page 2 in Google – down from our all time high on Google of #3. Organic search marketing can be a vexing concept. It is so much more nebulous than most forms of advertising that it often gets pushed to the back burner – or handed off to in house marketing staff person with little time or training. This is a mistake. The dynamics of marketing have changed a great deal in the past 5 years. Search marketing is the fastest growing discipline in the marketing world. And if you have not committed to a search strategy, now is the time. Most of your competitors are spending fewer dollars and will be slower to move. This gives you a time advantage that can pay dividends because organic search takes time.

About 7 months ago we were virtually invisible to the search engines. Ranking below position 100 for just about every keyword we wanted to show for. Since we were constantly pushing our clients to do a better job with their search marketing, we decided to walk the talk.

As a small shop, we maintain a lean staff, so we required lean plan for our SEO work. We redesigned our site using best practice architecture, incorporated a blog and began actively publishing highly relevant content with embedded links to our site and to other legitimate resources. We have also utilized social media such as Facebook, Linked in and Twitter to provide more traffic and visibility to our site. We have employed a few other tricks of the trade, but all has been done with a relatively modest time effort.

The key to this effort for our agency and clients is the continuous learning of our online marketing team. We have dedicated specialists for search marketing and web development. We encourage continuous development, and require that they spend time each day staying current with best practice.

The most common mistake in this part of our industry is the casual approach that many marketers take to this very important component of their marketing strategy. Search marketing is a discipline that requires distinct and separate skill sets that include web development, search engine optimization and pay per click ad management. And while it may be an anchor point, search marketing is only one component in the rapidly evolving digital marketing space.

eMarketer chart

There is great opportunity in digital marketing, but managing and executing this work is still a great challenge for many marketers and agencies. This is reflected in the active turnover of agency relationships in the digital space as recently reported by eMarketer.

Scott LoSasso is President of LoSasso Advertising Inc., a Chicago based interactive agency specializing in content marketing strategies and customer acquisition for leading B2B and consumer brands. (See more posts by Scott)

SEO, or Search Engine Optimization, is an evolving field that requires constant monitoring by a professional interactive agency. While a do-it-yourself approach to search engine optimization might seem like the fastest and cheapest method when seeking to improve your site ranking in the search engines; the truth is, doing it yourself can end up costing you more time, effort and money – and deliver less than satisfactory results.

A professional SEO consultant can point you in the right direction at the beginning of the process. If your site is floundering, they can help quickly identify what may be going wrong and develop a plan to boost your results.

Unlike a paid search (pay per click) campaign, organic search takes time to achieve results, even if you’re “doing everything right.” Working with an SEO specialist lets you focus on your business, not on the ongoing monitoring and adjustments needed to achieve and maintain good search results.

Knowing what techniques are effective, and allowed by Google and the other major engines, is critical. Experimenting with questionable techniques – known as “Black Hat SEO” – in order to boost results is one of the fastest ways to get your site banned from the search engines. A reputable SEO specialist knows what works and won’t risk using questionable tactics that could do more harm than good.

Make sure you work with an SEO specialist that understands your business. For a firm to deliver strong search results, they need to understand your business, your customers and how those customers are searching for products or services like yours. If a company promises the moon, but doesn’t want to learn more about your business, its probably time to look for another partner.

Developing and implementing ethical, effective search engine optimization techniques includes a wide range of activities. From research and planning through optimization and results tracking, SEO is an intensive process. People searching online for products or services like yours are hot, qualified leads. Make sure you are there when they are actively seeking to learn more or buy.