Optimized for the Future
By: Maria Sample
iCrossing's Noah Elkin is helping to push the search marketing firm's ideas about optimization and innovative services.
Noah Elkin is the director of industry relations at iCrossing, which was recently named Best Search Agency of 2005 by industry trade publication OMMA. iCrossing, started more than nine years ago in Scottsdale, Ariz., is jumping into new arenas, such as the mobile search market, and expanding client services to include content creation and website design.
Elkin is responsible for iCrossing's public messaging and interfacing with high-profile analyst firms, along with sitting on industry committees, such as the Interactive Advertising Bureau, the Direct Marketing Association and the Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization, which puts him in a unique position to observe the online advertising industry from a variety of angles. Elkin, who previously worked as a senior analyst at research firm eMarketer for five years, has a Ph.D. from Rutgers University and received a B.A. with honors from Columbia University. He recently spoke with Revenue senior editor Maria Sample about winning industry accolades, providing services for the little guys and where search marketing is headed.
Maria Sample Your company calls search marketing "reverse direct marketing." How would you describe it?
Noah Elkin It's something of a philosophical shift in how customers and businesses interact. Customers are now actively searching for brands and products and services, for information. It's a seismic shift from a typical push-advertising model where you get an email message or a TV spot or a regular print advertisement. It reflects the degree to which the customer is in control. With reverse direct marketing, a customer has already given an indication of what he or she is interested in. Search, as we like to say, is like a giant focus group.
MS What's the main difference between iCrossing now versus 1998?
NE Our recent restructuring of the organization into three main service lines - marketing services, marketing technologies and marketing properties - is a major shift. Another difference is the building of expertise in these separate business units. And the addition of certain services like creative is one of the biggest changes, not only for us, but also for our space as well.
MS What has remained the same at iCrossing since 1998?
NE Certainly the talent of our people has been the constant, and the expertise across the board has been a constant since the start, and it's something we're very proud of. It will drive us forward as we expand. And as we continue to receive accolades from the industry, it will enable us to attract the top talent that we've become known for.
MS What has changed since iCrossing won the OMMA award?
NE We've been building really powerful partnerships with the world's leading brands for more than seven years now, and along the way, really changing the ad agency landscape by helping clients connect with their customers anytime, anywhere, however they want, wherever they want, whenever they want. We feel the OMMA award is a great honor. We're really proud to have worked so diligently to build these kinds of partnerships that we have with Fortune 500 companies. That's a tremendous validation of the work that we've done, and it sends a message about the potential that search and commercial brand marketing have for helping businesses interact at a much higher level than ever with their customers.
MS How is iCrossing different from its competitors?
NE As our founder Jeff Herzog likes to say, iCrossing has been an innovator in search advertising since before Google was Google. What we have that's unique is our full-service approach. We're not just a search engine optimization vendor; we're a fullservice marketing connection. I think that's a major differentiator between iCrossing and other companies. We've really been growing the company with the evolution of search as a medium. I think it's that kind of vision that puts us on the leading edge, helping to drive the future of advertising - with our in-house expertise on the services side and also on the technology side. We're the largest independent agency out there, and we back up our tremendous talent with our market research, our strategic alliances, planning and client services with our proprietary technology. That's a one-two punch that most other places can't really boast of.
What makes us different is that we have this expertise in market research that provides clients with the deep-dive analytics about their company and industry. We give them the knowledge and tools to help succeed by planning how to accomplish short-term goals and long-term opportunities, using a full array of tools and services organized around search.
Another exciting differentiator for us is the creative service we offer. It's one side of the business that we've really been building in the past year, and it's really going to grow quite a lot in 2006. It's everything from copy to actual website design, all organized around improving and maximizing both user experience and optimization of search. We see ourselves as a one-stop shop when it comes to advertising online as well as through emerging technologies, mobile included. We are launching a major mobile innovation called mCrossing, expanding our expertise from natural search optimization on the Web to global devices.
MS What's the most important service your company offers?
NE The most important service is the fact that we offer all of the services, but our strength is expertise in natural search optimization. It's been able to help prepare us to expand to mobile devices. Bear in mind that natural search results are clicked on 80 to 85 percent of the time, far more than paid search. It's very important to have that grounding in natural search; it's the bedrock of what we do. It's important to have strong expertise, and we've been able to complement that with strengths across the board as well as market research and our agency services.
MS What kind of search are you going to be capitalizing on in the next year?
NE Mobile search is a very exciting opportunity in the year ahead. Global is one initiative, and certainly local search and classified search - yellow pages. We'll have a product geared toward the small- and medium-sized business market organized for local search that will be going out toward the end of the quarter.
MS I've heard a little criticism that some of the smaller businesses can't afford the products you offer.
NE That's why we built this technology in-house - that's a real differentiator as well, that we build all our technology platforms inhouse. Technology is the largest department in our Scottsdale office. Continued on Page 2...
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