LeadQual Expands
This early part of 2008 will go down as one of the most memorable times in the history of LeadQual. Our client list in all our products from Search Engine Marketing (SEM) to Search Engine Optimization (SEO) as well as our Lead Qualification Service has been growing rapidly and as a result both the East Coast & West Coast offices have been knocking down walls (literally) in order to make room to bring in new talent.
Our Search Engine Marketing Team is located in Emeryville right in the heart of the Eastbay coast. We’ve recently moved into a new office located in 6001 Shellmound St. #325 right next to the infamous Public Market known for their great variety of international eateries. No more Subway 5 times a week, thank goodness. Our office is newly furnished with spacious tables arranged in an open atmosphere conducive to promoting teamwork as our guys are always hard at work exchanging creative ideas to improve our client’s accounts. We’ve bought new more powerful computers to crunch those 50 megabyte excel files for analysis and new network gear for faster connectivity. The newer members are already taking it for granted while the older members continue with their “back in my day” horror stories. Good times.
Search Market Grows
Speaking of new members, the Search Engine Marketing industry is very unique in its job market situation. In this time of recession, Search Engine Marketing (at least at LeadQual) continues to grow. The Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization has reported the industry has grown nearly 30% from $9.4 billion in 2006 to $12.1 billion in 2007. Year over Year growth has been slower but this is reflective of the maturation of the search industry. It is well recorded that SEO and SEM are rated second and third respectively as the most effective among all online and offline marketing tactics. The first being internal email marketing. For this very reason, despite the slow economy and smaller overall marketing budgets, many of the big SEM spenders who have optimized their campaigns to ROI continue to allocate more of their marketing dollars to SEM. Overall SEM budgets are expected to grow and this is consistent with what we see with our clients. In an economy where Return on Investment is so important, Search Engine Marketing when implemented well and optimized properly becomes an extremely attractive solution.
Grabbing Talent
Despite the growth in SEM, it continues to be difficult for Search Engine Marketing companies to procure good talent. There are plenty of people looking but we pride ourselves in taking whatever time and resources to find someone we know will succeed and have the experience to bring great value to both our team and to our clients. I have noticed that the awareness level of Search Engine Marketing has been growing in the last few months. Some higher institutions are starting to touch upon SEM and SEO in their e-commerce courses. Others have simply become more familiar with online marketing and want to enter into this hot field. I feel extremely blessed to have gotten into this industry early and have been urging my friends to get in while the industry is still young. LeadQual is always growing so be sure to check out open job opportunities in our career section.
Search Marketers! What is your feel for the market? How has your hiring experience been?
Paul LeeSr. Manager of Web MarketingLeadQual
