With a continued bleak economic outlook worldwide, the ability to driveconversions and stretch shrinking marketing budgets is more important thanever. "Regardless of the market -- retail, real estate, construction,finance, etc. -- companies must maximize their return on marketinginvestment more so than in a good economy due to increased competition forthe eyes and ears of prospects," said Steve Lawrence, research analyst andauthor of the research report "What Does It Take to Create Best-in-ClassSearch Engine Marketing?" Aberdeen's data reveals that the Best-in-Classsee an average return on marketing investment of 108%, while IndustryAverage firms only recognize a 16.5% return. "Companies, large and small,will need to justify to their executives the successes and failures insearch marketing efforts in a quantifiable way or risk losing budget. Andnote that traditionally Marketing budgets tend to get cut first whenevaluating spend."

The research data also reveals that 79% of the Best-in-Class provide accessto real-time or near real-time analytics and 74% provide historicalanalysis of SEM initiatives. These numbers compare to 58% and 42% forLaggards respectively. Companies that do not analyze the data that theycapture online and offline not only risk not maximizing search enginemarketing efforts, but also jeopardize a chance to justify budgetincreases.

The report discusses the importance of having formal processes and policiesin place for delivering leads to the sales team and the fact that 68% ofthe Best-in-Class utilize a customer relationship management technologysolution to support their search engine marketing efforts. With thedownturn in the economy having closed-loop marketing in place will maximizeonline and off-line marketing efforts.

Ultimately, to obtain a competitive advantage companies need to employ acombination of strategic actions, capabilities and technologies. Chapterthree of the report outlines the specific actions organizations should taketo attain Best-in-Class status.

A complimentary copy of this report is made available due in part to thefollowing underwriters: Hubspot, iProspect, and Covario, Inc. To obtain acomplimentary copy of the report, visit:http://www.aberdeen.com/link/sponsor.asp?cid=5360

For additional access to complimentary Information Technology Research,please visithttp://research.aberdeen.com/index.php/Information-Technology/

About Aberdeen Group, a Harte-Hanks Company

Aberdeen is a leading provider of fact-based research and marketintelligence that delivers demonstrable results. Having benchmarked morethan 30,000 companies in the past two years, Aberdeen is uniquelypositioned to educate users to action: driving market awareness, creatingdemand, enabling sales, and delivering meaningful return-on-investmentanalysis. As the trusted advisor to the global technology markets,corporations turn to Aberdeen(TM) for insights that drive decisions.

As a Harte-Hanks Company, Aberdeen plays a key role of putting content incontext for the global direct and targeted marketing company. Aberdeen'sanalytical and independent view of the "customer optimization" process ofHarte-Hanks (Information - Opportunity - Insight - Engagement -Interaction) extends the client value and accentuates the strategic roleHarte-Hanks brings to the market. For additional information, visitAberdeen http://www.aberdeen.com or call (617) 723-7890, or to learn moreabout Harte-Hanks, call (800) 456-9748 or go to http://www.harte-hanks.com.

© 2008 Aberdeen Group, Inc., a Harte-Hanks Company451 D Street, Suite 710Boston, Massachusetts 02210-1928Telephone: (617) 854-5200Fax: (617) 723-7897www.aberdeen.com

Media Contact:Stephen LawrenceAberdeen Harte-Hanks(617) 854-5346stephen.lawrence@aberdeen.com