MarketingSherpa has issued its annual “Marketing Wisdom for 2009 – Marketers & Agencies Share Real-Life Stories & Lessons Learned” showcase. Get your copy now:
http://www.marketingsherpa.com/Wisdom2009.pdf

Topics covered this year include email, search, mobile, optimization, testing, lead gen, direct mail, analytics, advertising, PR and video.

Plus three trends surfaced:
1. EMAIL IS NOT DEAD – Personalization and optimization are key
2. BUILD SOCIAL NETWORKS – There is value in building one-to-one relationships
3. SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION – Natural search produces significant ROI

Thanks to MarketingSherpa and Red Door Interactive partner, Omniture, for putting out this valuable information!

Paid search is still evolving into a complex, multi-faceted channel that has brought tremendous promise and online marketing star power. However, it has also defined many obstacles such as trademark policy issues, affiliates competing in the space and the corporate re-structuring of search teams so they can best handle the millions of keywords and campaigns.

The complexities of paid search have reached a critical point. Companies need to re-evaluate/re-build their internal search team infrastructure or consider utilizing outsourced professional SEM services to stay ahead of the game.

View more highlights from the Search Engine Strategies conference in New York last month.

There is a misconception that social networking is the exclusive domain of teenagers ~ analysis confirms that the appeal of social networking sites is far broader.

Even in the era of agency consolidation, search continues to be sold as a stand alone service. Is it possible to put together a decent performing search campaign in a vacuum? Sure. Does it deliver the best possible results? Definitely not! As powerful as a carefully orchestrated search initiative can be, it becomes significantly more so when you add user experience (UX) and analytics to the mix.