Warren Pattison: Search Engine Marketing & Internet Strategist

The economic forecasts of a looming recession are starting to get more and more bleak. Every passing headline seems to indicate we are no longer in stormy conditions, but officially in the dark ages.

The economy is now in a recession,” Harvard economist Martin Feldstein told The Boston Globe over the weekend. “It will last longer and be deeper than the last two recessions, which lasted only 8 months from peak to trough. It could well be longer and deeper than the recession in the early 1980s that lasted 16 months.

With recent news of Bear Stearns going from over $80/share to going belly up - being sold for $2/share in just a few days, times are dire.

However, if you’re in search marketing, things are good. Well, according to economic theory that when the going gets tough, the tough start looking for accountable channels that can easily attribute performance to costs.

Greg Jarobe points out some developments on search being recession proof and how traditional marketers need to start looking into search.

Another point for in-house marketers to recession proof yourself (I need to take some notes on this) come from Steve Harr in his Clickz article. With his article he points out that you need to show historical value and forecast performance plans in 1, 3, 6 and 12 month segments.

Defining your value to the company is a straightforward process. It involves gathering historical data showing past results, and presenting near- and long-term plans for future results:

1. Pull together an historical view of your efforts
Demonstrate the dollar value to the company wherever possible. This goes back to understanding how your company makes money and knowing your role in that process. You may need to extrapolate if there are no direct paths to the monetized events (i.e., if 15 percent of visitors normally convert, assume 15 percent of the SEO traffic converts). Be as specific as possible, using page and product level performance if you have the data to back it up. What you need is a trail of revenue contributions.

2. Have 1-, 3-, 6- and 12-month plans.
Here you are showing a clear path from past performance to future potential. Your plans need to include projections based on past performance and future expectations. An integral part of this plan is your active management of the program. Show how your presence is going to influence the outcomes.