SEMPO Canada, the Canadian Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization (www.sempo.ca), needs your input to help grow the awareness and use of search engine marketing services by Canadian companies and organizations.

To date only 60 companies in Canada have answered the SEMPO Survey on Search Marketing. We’re Canadian, we can do better than that!

Time is running out. We NEED your support to get an accurate and trustworthy sample size.

Please take the time to answer the following survey, now:
http://www.sempo.org/learning_center/research/sempo_research/sempo_2007_state/

Why is this survey so important?
Canadians do not get Search Engine Marketing! We need to know why. There is a lack of understanding of the benefits and value Search Engine Marketing offers. As a result SEMPO Canada, a non-profit division of SEMPO.org, has raised the funds to invest in identifying how Canadian companies view and use search engine optimization and marketing. An international study has been commissioned which is now cross-segmented to include and isolate results specifically from Canadians . The results of this survey will be published by SEMPO in a free report on the status of Search Marketing in Canada. We really need your help to increase the number of Canadian respondents in order to provide valuable feedback to the Canadian Search Marketing Industry as a whole.

Your participation counts more than you think.

If you are willing, we ask you to please blog about this survey. Feel free to use copy from this e-mail or from the following blog.

Lastly, please email people who you know in Canada personally to ask them to take the survey. We appreciate any help you can give us!

With your help, we are hoping to bring the sample size of Canadian respondents up to (at least) 100 in the last week of the survey. Deadline of the survey is February 1, 2008.

More on SEMPO Canada:
SEMPO Canada, the Canadian Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization, is a non-profit association working to increase awareness and promote the value of Search Engine Marketing in Canada. This Working Group was founded in November 2006 by Ken Jurina and Alexandre Brabant and focuses on improving the growth, awareness and understanding of Search Engine Marketing (SEM) in Canada, including best practices in Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Link Building, and Pay Per Click Management, and how it uniquely pertains and is of relevance to Canadians worldwide across any sector, vertical or industry.

Your help means a lot to us in improving the growth of Search Marketing in Canada.

Thank you for your support,

Alexandre Brabant & Ken Jurina
Co-Chairs SEMPO Canada
canada-chair@sempo.org

Canadian Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization
www.SEMpo.ca
www.SEMpo.org

Don’t rely on creative hunches when optimizing landing pages and conversion rates. A combination of Google Analytics and Google Website Optimizer makes it easy to define a strategy and to run successful A/B and Multivariate tests, so you know which page elements work best.

In this webcast, Google Website Optimizer Authorized Consultants VKI Studios will demonstrate a step-by-step process for:

• Determining an appropriate test methodology (A/B, Multivariate, etc.)
• Deciding which page elements to test
• Developing test pages
• Implementing the tests
• Analyzing the results

You’ll also learn:

• How to identify opportunities for “quick wins”
• Why it’s best to start with a simple, A/B test
• The importance of keeping your tests running – even if you think you’ve already found a “winner”
• What to do when the test is over

When you follow a testing process your tests will cost you less and you will generate better results more often.

Register Today!

PRESENTERS
John Hossack, VP Business Development and Usability, VKI Studios
Tom Leung, Business Product Manager, Google

2007 saw growth and new initiatives for the internet marketing industry, unfortunately little of it came from Canada. For the most part, Canadian businesses have been doing a lot of watching and using, but very little investing.

Some of the services that reached out to Canadian businesses in 2007:

February – Microsoft adCenter comes to Canada
May – MySpace officially launches its Canadian version
July – Google introduces Google Finance Canada
August – MySpace launches Mobile Functionality in Canada
November – Google’s YouTube launches a Canadian version

A more comprehensive list of Canadian Internet marketing year in review.

Here at SEMPO Canada, we have been a strong supporter this year of the 4th Annual State of the Search Market Survey. In this role, we would really like if you could take a few minutes of your time and fill out the SEMPO Survey, especially if your are Canadian. A special portion was created for Canadian advertisers this year and we will soon be able to report back on it and assess the state of the Search Marketing Market in Canada. Here are some great reasons why it’s worth 25 minutes of your time to complete the survey:

You could win a 8 Gb iPod Touch

You could win one free pass to a North American Search Engine Strategies (SES) Conference

You’ll be the first to receive the summarized results of North America’s most comprehensive snapshot of the search marketing industry

You need to let Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, and the other major search players know your thoughts, observations, and concerns about where search is and where it’s going. We have heard directly from them and they all rely on this survey for information!

The survey is conducted by Radar Research, and all responses are kept strictly confidential. All results are aggregated and anonymized. The more people who complete the survey, the better the data we’ll be sharing with you.

Also, please pass along the invitation to any clients or friends who also use search as a marketing channel – this survey is not limited to SEMPO members. If you have any questions about the survey, please contact info@sempo.org. You can also reach Kevin Lee, SEMPO Director and Survey Team Lead (Kevin.Lee@didit.com) or Gordon Hotchkiss, SEMPO Chairperson (gord@enquiro.com) for more information about the Survey and how the data will be used.

Thanks for your support.