iCrossing's VP of communications reminds marketers that technology alone won't assure search marketing success.

When we think of interactive and search engine marketing, we often tend to focus first on the technology that digital agencies use to achieve a broad range of campaign-specific goals. Serving banner advertisements and bidding for paid rankings on search engines are just two elemental objectives that spring to mind. Search marketing, in particular, historically has had a decidedly technological bent to it. In fact, this quality is what allowed for the birth and rise to prominence of many companies outside the advertising realm altogether (including the one I work for).

However, from its roots as a technology-based discipline designed to elevate clients' visibility and drive traffic to their websites, search engine marketing has evolved into a more mainstream marketing practice, whether as a standalone service or part of a broader agency offering. While it is true that some agencies may possess better technology than others, what it all comes down to is relationships: Do you understand your clients' businesses? Have you established trust? Are your teams hard-wired with theirs? These are the crucial questions that need to be asked and answered.

My company, for example, employs a skilled mathematician whose focus is to write algorithms that power our tools and technology and make them interface seamlessly with the search engines. It would be nice if her work alone were sufficient to run the business, but marketing really is not a set-and-forget business. In order to effectively respond to the crucial questions outlined above, skilled mathematicians must be complemented by skilled teams of media and client service managers who know their clients' businesses.

Still, we are just as likely to hear about a company's technologies as its people. In part because search engines function on the basis of algorithms (and function effectively, judging by the number of relevant results they return), we labor under the notion that algorithms are inherently efficient. At the very least, "algorithm" has become a buzzword whose complexity has been obscured by marketing-speak.

Successful search marketing campaigns cannot be put on auto-pilot, and predictive modeling alone, as good as it may be, cannot account for every eventuality. Variables are constantly changing: seasonality, trends and current events require analysis and human intervention.

Let's take the example of a major automaker that experiences a large-scale recall of hundreds of thousands of its vehicles. In a highly competitive market, this is a situation that can deal a serious blow to a brand that markets itself on the quality of its products. It is also a situation that demands a proactive response by the automaker and its search marketing agency-- to ensure that proper information about the recall and the remedies the manufacturer is putting in place are disseminated.

Back in June, I wrote here about the power of a blended approach to paid and natural search budgeting and the cost benefits of keyword selection informed by analytics from both campaigns. In a situation like the one our fictional automaker is going through, paid media is very effective at getting important messages to market quickly (and this applies equally to more positive scenarios and seasonally specific messages as well). But ensuring that those messages actually get to market is not something that should be left in the hands, so to speak, of algorithms alone.

Marketing is all about connecting with customers, and for marketing services firms, it's also about connecting with clients. In this realm, technology is an enabler of relationships, but not the glue that holds them together. In the early days of search marketing, it may have been possible for technology to take precedence, but today, it's an approach of people plus technology that carries the day.

Noah Elkin, Ph.D., is vice president of communications at iCrossing. Read full bio.