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Value Meal Or Consulting That Provides Value? 
By: Lee Odden 2007-08-15 Most people like things simple and pre-packaged solutions do well to attract mass market appeal. Just look at the popularity of value meals at popular fast food restaurants and other consumer products.
In the business to business world, the simplification of products and services into such groupings is not so practical, Did you want the #3 or #4 enterprise CRM software package?. Yet judging by the inquiries many search marketing companies get, it is high in demand: Can you tell me about your SEO packages?. This is particularly true with the trend started at the turn of this century towards the commoditization of search marketing consulting services. At that time the task of improving online sales via search engines was a predictable matter of optimizing meta data and on-page copy, submitting to directories and search engines. Of course, this is the search marketing industry, so things have changed. Sustainable search marketing strategies and tactics are somewhat in flux as search engines continually improve search quality and refine anti search spam methods. Social and personalized search as well as Google Universal are monumental changes most marketers are still trying to understand and adjust to. However, for the most part the same fundamental principles of promoting a web site are still true: Make it easy for a relevant audience to find your content and buy from you. In addition to those principles are the need to provide platforms and tools for interaction and engagement. Audiences are becoming more and more accustomed to the social aspect of buying and researching online in the form of ecommerce social networking and media. Whats curious to me is that some search engine optimization companies continue to rely on the simplification of services into packages. For the most part, these services are focused on the value SEM market of budget focused small businesses. I understand the need to simplify things for the buyer, but it really doesnt serve the client very well to predefine what it will take to solve their online marketing problem. This is especially true with all the unknowns of social media and search engines pulling more data sources into standard search results. Not only are some agencies perpetuating the value meal packaging of services, but many client side marketers perceive search marketing as something to be understood in terms of predefined sets of services that are proportionately scalable. I wonder how many sales conversations wind up with a selection between Platinum, Gold or Silver SEO services? Oh, and did you want some fries, oops I mean social media with that? Such a model of sourcing vendors is a better match for selecting greasy food than $100k/year search marketing consulting. Preset packaged services for most web site marketing projects really arent going to solve company online marketing problems with any degree of predictability. Each situation is unique in that what it takes to hit a home run for one company web site is entirely different than another. That makes it a bit more challenging to find and compare SEO vendors and certainly makes it more challenging to scale as a SEO consulting company, but it is the reality of modern search marketing. Imagine two B2B technology companies: One is an older site with 1000 or so pages of well organized, optimized content updated/added to monthly. Another with 500 plus pages with a similar state of site architecture and optimization but also includes a regularly updated blog, a podcast and periodic video. While there are many more factors to consider ranging from links to editorial and content creation resources, the second situation provides the search marketer with a lot more/different assets to work with for the purpose of promoting the web site. This doesnt mean situation #1 is a lost cause. In fact, it may have even more opportunity if a commitment to creating and promoting content in more formats than standard text is made. Whats important to note is that the execution and delivery of consulting services would be different. Offering the same set of pre-packeged services to both companies will either limit the search marketing agency or the client in reaching the desired online marketing goals. It is only through the unique consideration of each situation that will allow real value in consulting to be provided and client online marketing objectives to be achieved. http://www.toprankblog.com/2007/08/seo-services-value-meal-or-consulting-that-provides-value/ Tag: search engine optimization, seo, seo consulting Add to  Del.icio.us |  Digg |  Reddit |  Furl Have a bookmark! - 
About the Author: Lee Odden is President and Founder of TopRank Online Marketing , specializing in organic SEO, blog marketing and online public relations. He's been cited as a search marketing expert by publications including U.S. News & World Report and The Economist and has implemented successful search marketing programs with top BtoB companies of all sizes. Odden shares his marketing expertise at Online Marketing Blog offering daily news, interviews and best practices. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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