I recently had the chance to talk to a non-profit organization about SEO/SEM. The topic of SEO/SEM didn't come up at first, but I started to wonder how a non-profit does SEO/SEM.
Since I've been in the industry for a while, I have a good idea of how much professional SEM costs, and it's hard for me to believe that a non-profit would invest in it knowing that it can be hard to measure in some cases.
What you are about to read is an interview with the American Cancer Society High Plains Division's Director of Online Communications.
First, let's take care of the small talk. Who are you and what do you do?
I'm David Neff, and I'm the Director of Online Communications for the High Plains Division of the American Cancer Society.
What does the online communications director do?
My main job is to take care of the design and maintenance of the website, including any upgrades and any email campaigns we run. This includes any online business we do.
Do you do anything to get your websites to rank higher in search engines?
Actually, no. At this point, we don't do any search engine marketing other than submitting to DMOZ and Google. Most of our advertising is done through print ads, banners, and online ads like Google Adwords. We don't go out and position ourselves on our own.
Now, we've talked before, and you said that the American Cancer Society has a few sites, some of which you are more in charge of. Why doesn't the Cancer Society spend money on placement?
It's not high on our list of things to do right now. We are very busy promoting our sites offline, which I talked about earlier.
Is there a reason why SEM isn't a top priority?
These kinds of decisions are made at a higher level, and not many people know how they work. There are no real "baby steps" you can take to get into it. In fact, I don't think they [management] even know that much about it. It's not really on [their] minds.
I've worked with big companies like yours, and I've found that an "SEM Evangelist" is usually needed to get a SEM campaign off the ground. There is one person who is the campaign's leader. Has anyone in your office tried to make a case for it?
Not right now, but I'm starting to see results from things I've told you about, and the early results are pretty good. Also, other media I see have made me think about it. Maybe the best time to start pushing for an SEM campaign was in 2006.
You said earlier that you do other advertising on the Internet. How do you advertise for the American Cancer Society on the Internet?
We've put banner ads on a PDA tool and on a lot of the biggest websites. Look at sites like https://www.webmd.com to find PDA sites that doctors read. We also talked to https://www.motricity.com, and even though we advertised a free product on a lot of partner sites, we had to pay full price for those ads.
Next, we want to sell a golf pass that will save you money on green fees at any Texas golf course. So, we'll soon be putting ads for those, too. When the time is right, we will also run Google ads for these.
As a marketer for search engines, I know that Google ads are usually pretty good ways to get people to visit your site. How well have they worked for you before?
We've got a lot of clicks from the Google ads in the past, especially during the holidays. In some ways, they have been better than banner ads.
Which parts would they be?
Return rate. In the past, we've seen that some banner ads brought in a lot of people and interest. We did notice, though, that during the holidays we had a lot of views but not as many sales.
So you're saying that your Google ads are bringing in more customers?
Yes, for sure.
Who takes care of your Google app?
(Chuckles) I do, unfortunately.
Why do you say "unfortunately"? Is it a hard job to do?
No, it's not hard. I just don't look at it very often because I have so many other things to do. We just don't have enough people to handle it well.
How did you decide which keywords to use for your Google campaign?
We got together in the department of communications, sat down, and started looking. We just made a list of the words we thought people would use to look for our product.
Then, we used the Google Sandbox to get ideas for other keywords, and then we put together our campaign.
You're happy with Google, right? Is that the only way you pay to advertise? Or have you/do you use Yahoo?
No, we haven't looked into it or done anything else like that. I'd like to at some point, but I'm the only one doing it right now, and I don't have time.
How many websites do you run?
I take care of a total of nine.
And are all of the websites you run about Cancer?
No. We have a blog site for college-aged kids. It helps them stop smoking and deal with the pains they have to go through. We just changed how the site looks and are now ready to launch it again. With this site, parents are encouraged to get involved in their kids' schools so that the kids will be healthier. There are also a lot of other things.
How are these sites doing?
The quit now the blog is getting a lot of attention. It seems to be very well-liked by the people we want to reach.
Do you promote each other on all these sites?
Yes, without a doubt. When we do a quitnow blog and print campaign, for example, we make sure that brochures, ads, and other print materials match the site.
Another site we run, has also been redesigned and made to look like posters, brochures, and other printed materials. We definitely try to do full campaigns so that the themes are the same all the way through.
So, do you think they've done a good job with this branded approach across different media?
Definitely. We've really stepped it up to make sure that our print campaigns and our websites are the same. Right now, it is one of our strong points.
What do you wish you could change about your online campaigns?
The most important thing would be to look into Yahoo ads and everyone else besides Google, but I don't have enough time to do that.
I'd also like to learn more about search engine optimization, but I have to find a way to get management on board. I need a one-page document that says, "This is why you need to do SEO," so I can show them we need to do more.
Do you think that the people in charge of your company are against SEO?
Not really, no. It has to do with education. I need to find a way to explain to them why it's so important, but I don't know how to do it without getting too technical.
David, thank you for your time. It was great to talk to you. What is the one thing that anyone in our community could do to help the American Cancer Society?
Gosh, I'm not sure. I know we need help, but there are so many ways we could use it. As a group that doesn't make money, our budgets are always tight. I guess just spread the word about us. We have a lot of websites that we use to spread healthy messages and others that we use to raise money. We would be very grateful for any help we can get with these.
He said that if you can do anything to help this good cause, they would really appreciate it. If you can use your SEM skills to help spread the word, they would really appreciate it. For example, you could add links to smaller sites like the golf pass sites or the quit now site.
