It’s Not Search. It’s Not Marketing. It’s Business.

By Lance Neuhauser, Managing Director, East Coast

I enjoyed Aaron’s rants last week, but my opinion of a rant, a la Dennis Leary, is a bit different. Now, this is what I call a rant…

You know what I want folks?
I want it all.
I want the whole thing.
I want the CMO, the CFO, the CTO, the CIO, the COO, and the CEO to recognize me, the search guy.
I want them to greet me with open arms as if I’m truly part of their business family.
I want them to see me, to hear me, to call me and to bring me with them wherever their decisions may take them.
And I want them to answer when I knock on their door.
Better yet I want a key to the door.
I want to live in the home with my fellow business brethren.
I want to come inside, kick off my shoes and have a drink before I take my seat at the all important dinner table.
After all I’ve had a long day at work.
I’ve been driving all day.
Driving leads.
Driving sales.
Driving truckloads of customers right to the doorstep of our home in a Mack truck that looks and acts like Optimus Prime.

So how do I get there?
I’ve got two words for you: Profit Margins.
I recognize that search is nothing more than a tactic, albeit the most successful tactic to date, but none-the-less, one tactic in a long line of tactics used to figure out what the heck people are thinking.
I recognize that non-integrated search is like trying to play music on par with the Beatles using only a set of spoons, a tambourine and chirping cricket.
Phrases like inventory levels, supply chain, operating costs, customer retention efforts, lifetime value and amortized costs are a part of my everyday vernacular.
I am a part of the most informed set of marketers in the history of marketing, and use data to make statistically significant business recommendations.
I pour Kool-Aid that tastes like a genuine business relationship and not bad-marketing schwag.
I aim to influence, to inform and to educate.
I want Search Marketing to be what we can and should be.
Mr. CEO, I think you hear me knockin’ and this time I’m coming in, because I’m bringing my three friends with me; Supply, Demand & Point of Diminishing Returns!

Now, who’s with me?!?