I’m back from my West Coast trip spent visiting clients in LA and, of course, attending the DMA 2010 in San Francisco.  

For me, the biggest take-away from this year’s conference was a big affirmation that ICS is on the right track with our product/service mix and integration of online and offline marketing tools… and that we’re probably leading the crowd when it comes to integration. 

It seems to me everyone agreed that integrating your online marketing and traditional marketing is critical to growing your business.  But, not everyone had a clear understanding of HOW to do it – especially when it came to social media. 

The most insightful thing I heard presented on social media was this:  “Think of social media as a friend.  If you can’t communicate back and forth as you would with a friend, then social media is not for you.” 

Now don’t get me wrong.  I think social media has its place in our marketing toolkits, but the successful marketer will be selective on where and how to use this latest, shiny new tool. 

In fact, we’ve had great results in integrating social media as one online element (in conjunction with paid search that is driven by keywords and is geo-targeted and targeted online advertising).  We’ve combined these online tools with offline tools to target qualified prospects and motivate them to register online for automotive ride and drive events.  Results have been excellent. 

So, I’m just saying that social media makes sense in some situations, but not in all… and maybe all of this attention to the new shiny tool is a bit out of proportion with the real-world.

My advice:  Stay on the forefront.  Know the latest, cutting-edge tools available to you.  Clearly understand your customers, potential customers and your business challenges.  Then, decide which online and offline tools within an integrated strategy make sense for you.

I like Target Marketing Magazine’s research summary overviewing the growth factors in SEM, SEO, online advertising (a.k.a., Pay-Per-Click) and Email Marketing which are among the listed 16 online marketing trends.

More than 80% of marketers are using paid search and SEO and plan to expand search into more segments. As consumers search more online, Google’s AdWord inventory continues to grow.  All music to marketers’ ears as you expand your paid search and SEO efforts. 

Online advertising, “performance-based” media buys and integrated email marketing are also slated for substantial growth through 2014.

I asked Joe Ford, our strategic partner from NetVantage Marketing, to pull together a few of the basic things you need to think about.  He actually came up with several items for you to evaluate.  Here are Joe’s thoughts:

Like any marketing initiative, it is always important that your online marketing campaign get off to a good start. The pre-launch work that goes into a campaign can pay large dividends, and it can also save a lot money and headaches in the long run.

The following is a set of questions that can serve as a checklist when you’re looking to get a paid search campaign off the ground.  These are broad questions, in many cases you will want to dig deeper to properly investigate the value points of each area depending on the campaign objectives. You should be getting asked similar questions by your online marketing firm, or asking yourself these questions if managing your campaigns in-house.

1. What is the overall background and mission of the company?

2. What are the goals of your online campaign in relation to:

a. Brand positioning

b. Building awareness

c. Increasing leads

d. Increasing revenue via direct sales/ecommerce

e. Are there any offline/traditional campaign efforts that should be coordinated with the paid search campaign?

3. Has there been past work done in the online marketing arena?  If so, what were the metrics for success, and is there data that we can use to investigate?

4. Has there been web analytics in place to detail the performance of the current website?

5. How long has the website been in its current state? If there has been current changes, was the results tracked through web analytics?

6. Is there a greater emphasis on certain products or services than  others? Should we be marketing and driving traffic to certain products and services that are better sellers or represent higher margin?

7. What is the target audience profile, and what are the different personas throughout the buying cycle (this can have a profound effect on keyword selection)?  Are there any new audiences that we are trying to target with this campaign?

8. Either from current web traffic reports, or from a qualitative business standpoint, what are the keywords that your target audiences are utilizing to find your site?

9. What are the initial keywords that you feel you want to be ranked highly on for your business?

10. Are there any online channels that you deem necessary to be placed on?

11. What is the testing strategy?  What variables will be evaluated, and what is the cause/effect frequency that you or your firm has in place.  (This will be especially important early on in your campaign)

These examples represent a basic foundation of questions to gain the right information to form a strong campaign that hits target audiences and meets your online marketing goals. As you can see, there is a combination of qualitative and quantitative information that needs to be gathered. Keep in mind that these initiatives should be treated with the same processes and standards as any marketing campaign you conduct.

As you can imagine, starting a pay per click campaign without answering these above questions can lead to major trouble and a lot of reactive work post campaign launch.  It is important that this foundation is created as comprehensively as possible.  This will allow your testing platform and refinement strategy to have the best chance for success!