The husband is still carrying his new bride, but no longer across the threshold of their new house. Click to see how lost they are.
The analogy can be made here that too many prospective SEO and even SEM Pay Per Click clients are postponing investing in Search Marketing (or newlyweds in the big investment of their own home), due to the many "pitfalls" they have either experienced themselves already, or have heard about from word of mouth or articles. Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt (FUD) along with Ignorance on the part of prospective Search Marketing clients is holding back the benefits these prospective clients could receive, as well as the growth of the Search Marketing Industry.
Some of these prospective client's fears are well founded in many cases though, as Jennifer Laycock says in "Does the World Need an SEM Match-Maker?": "It's not at all unusual for me to hear from business owners that very much want to invest in SEM but that have simply been burned so many times by bad vendors that they're not sure any good ones actually exist." This does not even take into account all the SEM prospects who haven't tried SEM for the first time yet!
Jennifer then asks the tough questions of "Do you see a need for some type of search marketing match-maker? Would you want this to be overseen by an actual professional organization like SEMPO or SMA-NA? Should it be overseen by someone within the industry, or by one of the popular discussion forums?" After many years of bringing buyers and sellers together, my opinion is that there IS a need for a "match-maker", or broker, or intermediary, but it would be extremely challenging, time consuming, and expensive to do it the way Jennifer outlined. It would also require a lot more compensation than a mere "salesman's referral fee" that Jennifer alludes to when she says: "I think if you had someone that was really familiar with a wide range of companies and could confidently send a business off to one of them, you could set up a decent business model. The service could be free for companies looking to hire a vendor, and vendors could pay a referral fee to the service the same way that they would to a salesman."
As for who should oversee this challenge, my experienced opinion is that it should not be done by any SEM "insider" Consultant Company or Professional Organization. There would always be that overhanging cloud of "FUD" on the part of prospective SEM clients that there was favoritism of some kind going on. Even if there were no financial "kick-backs" going on, too many industries have a "good old boy" network of referrals based on "You scratch my back, and I'll scratch yours". This doesn't necessarily mean that the client is going to get a poor referral, but most clients want a more AUTONOMOUS, OBJECTIVE, & UNBIASED point of view for their referral (as well as professionally knowledgeable).
Lastly, Jennifer brings up a great point and opportunity in her Small Business Ideas Forum" post when she says: "At the same time, I also think there is great value to the idea of a company or service that creates RFPs. I'm seeing this as an extension of the matchmaking service. Basically, someone that would come in to your company and would spend time figuring out what you need to have done. Then would write up the requirements, guide you through the process of selecting a firm and then walk away before the work starts." As a former Realtor Broker, this could be similar (depending upon how it is set up) to when a real estate agent is both the buyer's agent and the seller's agent. I never did understand how one agent-broker could "assist sellers in marketing their property and selling it for the highest possible price under the best terms and assist buyers by helping them purchase property for the best possible price under the best terms." This quote comes from the Wikipedia definition of "Real Estate Broker".
Jennifer nailed it when she said in her forum post: "Then that person (people) would have to be trusted to make the best decision for everyone when making a match." The keywords there are "TRUSTED TO MAKE THE BEST DECISION FOR EVERYONE"! This buyer and seller AUTONOMOUS, OBJECTIVE, UNBIASED REFERRAL TRUST (along with Professional Knowledge) would be worth more than what many SEM's would be willing to pay, in my opinion. WHAT DO YOU THINK?
Animated image courtesy of www.artie.com.
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