Despite the uncertainty in our near-term economic environment, the market drivers for continued growth in the search marketing industry remain strong. However, a major challenge for the search marketing industry is being able to operationally adapt and manage growth as we face a national shortage of qualified professionals.

This talent shortage will likely continue for the next several years and directly impacts the decisions you make regarding your company’s search marketing strategy. In the following, I answer several common questions that you may have around what is causing the shortage and what it means for you.

While I recognize that sourcing search marketing professionals can be difficult, is there really a “national shortage”?

Yes. The search marketing industry today exhibits the two characteristics that drive any labor-constrained market: 1) a demand for qualified professionals increasing at hyper-growth rates; and 2) the supply of professionals not growing fast enough to fill the demand.

• As has been extensively covered, the search marketing industry is projected to double, or even triple, over the next five years.
• The SEMPO 2007 State of the Industry survey projects SEM expenditures to double from $12.2 billion in 2007 to $25.2 billion in 2011
• Forrester’s 2007 Interactive Marketing Forecast projects search marketing to triple in size over the next five years.

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