• by Wendy Davis  @wendyndavis, May 8, 2006

Search engine marketers tend to be jacks-of-all-marketing-trades, according to a new report by Jupiter Research and sponsored by iProspect, slated for release today.

The report, based on a March survey of 276 search marketers, found that search marketers, on average, perform five non-search-related job functions. iProspect concluded that the diversity of tasks assigned to search marketers "is indicative of a less mature channel than many would have thought."

What other jobs did search marketers perform? About six in 10--58 percent--of respondents said they design Web sites as part of their jobs--while about the same proportion, 57 percent, said they work on e-mail advertising. Thirty-eight percent said they work on banner ads.

A sizable proportion also do offline advertising--at least some of which can potentially be integrated with search. Twenty-eight percent of search marketer-respondents also work on print ads; 22 percent spend time on direct mail; 9 percent are charged with radio ads; and 7 percent work on TV ads.

Slightly more respondents reported working on search engine optimization than marketing. Eighty-eight percent of search marketers said their job responsibilities included optimization, or ensuring that companies' Web sites appeared in the results when users queried on relevant terms. Just 77 percent said the same about paid search advertising, or purchasing pay-per-click ads.