A case for your value as a marketer.

I read Aaron Goldmans post, “Should Marketers Outsource Search" on Media Post, and a flood of memories came in.

Before I get into my reaction, a little background will lend context. I started off in DM with direct mail and telesales for a local theatre. After a couple of years, I joined a large ad agency in the media group becoming a planner and buyer for television, radio, print, and OOH for consumer package goods and automotive clients. My next stint was in a national yellow pages agency. By 1994 I was working with clients and account teams to develop YP strategies as well as developing our first on line ads programs (can you say Prodigy? – if you have to ask, don’t bother), which naturally morphed into SEM. Anyway, I came to the YP clients with brand experience, strategy development and segmentation know-how derived from a fairly diverse background.

I can tell you that most of the clients we talked to thought Yellow Pages was a no brain-er. The only thing that kept in-house departments at bay was the fact that it was labor intensive. You couldn’t just bring in a person and have them do it. So, how is this relevant to SEM outsourcing? What it did was provide the opportunity to demonstrate the unique skill sets and abilities that are really required for the “no brain-er” media. Eventually respect for our value was achieved by:

1) Learning and clearly demonstrating our knowledge of the clients’ industry, brand and products. Professionally, this put us (if not yet our medium) on par and in some cases above the client in their eyes (you’d be amaze by how many people know their brand and products, but lack insight into the industry as a whole).

2) The next key factor was using this knowledge to develop media specific strategies that tied in very closely with the general media and overall company strategies. It was through the strategic use of our medium that we demonstrated to the clients that not taking it in-house was a wise strategic move as much as it was a good financial move.

Lessons learned: Don’t allow yourself to be relegated to talking only about search. Engage the client in strategic applications beyond search and beyond online. Through a consistent application of your knowledge beyond the basics, beyond your medium, you instill a level of respect that earns you a seat at the media table. At the large agency, we always started with the clients’ business objectives, then tailored the media strategies accordingly. There was no presumption on the part of the client that they could take media buying in-house. Not because buying a :30 second spot was too difficult. But because they did not have the knowledge needed to develop the strategies to know if a :30 second spot was even the right answer (actually, we all knew it was before we asked the question ).

I have since left the yellow pages industry. Interactive pretty much consumed most of my time there, and for a while now, consumes all of it (professionally). But the same lessons apply. I see our client services team demonstrate these realities every day. I can not remember the last “search” conversation I had with a client that did not expand well beyond search and into their business.