Talk to almost any marketing executive about search engine marketing (or SEM) and soon after their eyes will glaze over and stifle a yawn and then start talking enthusiastically about the weather.

I suppose, on a general level, this is perfectly normal as it’s not exactly a topic of conversation you’d bring up in a social context like a bar. But, on a business level, it’s somehow a strange phenomenon when you’re trying to educate them on how to expand their business model.

The industry itself, of course, talks incessantly about its benefits and the best practices, but unless you’re a party to this cosseted cabal, the concept somehow eludes outsiders. Perhaps it’s just far too too dense a subject.

According to a recent article by Search Engine Watch: “Quality SEM is a significantly undervalued service and yet it has the potential to transform the profitability of any business. Its cost-effectiveness as a marketing tool is far superior if compared to more traditional marketing methods and yet, in spite of this, many management team executives, sometimes wholly ignorant of its advances, refuse to acknowledge it. The article goes on to suggest that SEM might even be the “largest change management project in history”.

“Educating people…is part of changing the industry’s image, and quality SEOs share responsibility in creating this reality. However, since this value proposition is not yet understood by many management team executives, it often lacks the executive support it requires both in terms of financial resources and supporting needed operational changes.”

V9 Design and Build agrees. The trick is to convinve executives that, going forward, search engine marketing is the online key, using article writing, press releases, professional blogging, blog commenting, podcasting, social bookmarking and all other related Web 2.0 methods to achieve extended marketing exposure to their products and services.

See SEM podcast

Search Engine Marketing podcast

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Source: AFP

Google on Tuesday synched applications available online as services with Outlook email programs, continuing a push into workplaces historically dominated by Microsoft software.

Google Apps Sync for Microft Outlook lets Web-based programs by the California Internet colossus work with its rival’s email, contacts, and calendars.

“Over the last year, we’ve had a razor-sharp focus on making it as easy as possible for businesses to deploy Google Apps,” Google engineer Eric Orth wrote in a posting at the firm’s website.

“Today we’re excited to remove another key barrier to enterprise adoption of Google Apps with Google Apps Sync for Microsoft Outlook.”

The move comes in the wake of Google enabling people to use its Gmail web-based email service offline and making software interoperable with Blackberry smart phones popular with business users.

Google Apps Sync for Outlook is included in Premier online application packages available for 50 dollars per year per business user. It is free in online services that Google provides for education or nonprofit groups.

“Many business users prefer Gmail’s interface and features to products they’ve used in the past,” Orth wrote, indicating the company is not giving up on convincing businesses to switch to its web-based email service.

“But, sometimes there are people who just love Outlook. For them, we’ve developed Google Apps Sync for Microsoft Outlook.”

Google Apps synch to Microsoft Outlook email

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