Hi Derek,
I hear your points and they are points I've heard many from many companies over down the years. I am sensitive to your situation and I've been in the SEO and web design industry for a very long time. I also worked as a software engineer and I've been a partner in a number of start-up companies including ones that are non-tech. I've helped fund 6 businesses in the past decade, sometimes with as little as €5k to play with in the "seed" capital stage.
If I may - I'd like to respond to your point re: budget and affordability and perhaps I could balance it from my side?
Not all but most of our businesses used SEO - it's something I have found naturally easy - but there are plenty of products that SEO doesn't suit or isn't the best. So I've seen plenty of other marketing campaigns and they have included:
- Flyers
- Attending Exhibitions
- Stands in Shopping centres
- Cold Calling
- Mail shots
- E-mail marketing
- PPC
- SEO
- Newspaper Advertising
- Banner Advertising
These are in no particular order. In some businesses (like selling water filtration systems) - we found we could make €10k in a weekend in a single shopping centre - but not through any amount of SEO/PPC work. But when you take into account the cost of insurance, pop-stands, equipment people - each shopping centre cost about €1k per weekend.
Flyers cost about €500 per 500 houses if I remember correctly. We even tried delivering many ourselves with a friend who owned a fast food place. This had by far the worst return. Even though we only spent a couple of thousand, the return was 0.
Newspaper and print advertising, has for all businesses I've been in, a complete loss. We've had plenty of enquiries but it was a case of educate and sell and it never worked out. Advertising, particular for consulting type businesses often meant spending €1.5k - €3k for a full page or advertorial.
Cold calling - most of the time we used an agency - was quite successful. We had to pay around €390 per qualified meeting arranged - we got to stipulate the criteria and qualifying conditions - and out of ten meetings, we normally secured 3 projects. But you have to commit to at least €12k (with the particular company we used in the UK)
Exhibitions were hit and miss - you could spend €300 or €30k (if you take a big stand in a big EU or UK exhibition) - and the return depended on many factors.
BTW - is there a guarantee on Accountants, Solicitors?
Where am I going with this?
Well, none of these marketing programmes had any
guaranteed return. They all started out as trials, which carry risk. Most businesses in their first year spent €25k on marketing and only €10k of it was profitable but that made up for the rest of it. We had to learn which forms and combinations of marketing worked. Sometimes its not the marketing, it's the approach. Eventually, you select the best performing tactics and hone and improve them.
We've never seen SEO not work where we've taken on a project. We've had to decline many projects, we've had to re-advise, warn and even suggest people take a new look at their business strategy. I've done that 3 times this week. We've had to cancel a couple of projects (just 2 in the past 2 years luckily) where the business objectives were "save us, we're in real trouble, in the next 2 weeks" - which wasn't feasible - although we did suggest working without billing at least until the business stabilised but that isn't a really fair situation to be in.
Of the clients we've retained, I've an excellent working and very personal and friendly relationship with all the directors in those companies. Some of them for 9 years.
If you hire an solicitor to sue somebody - there's no guarantee or fee cap - you pay as you go - the more time your case gets used up - the more it costs.
SEO can't be sold as a can of beans with guarantee's and comparable levels of service.
When you buy as a business, you buy on a contract - not as a consumer.
I would suggest that the companies listed in the top 10 for "SEO" in Google would charge about €5k - €10k - but
this is just a guess for a single Irish website in a medium competitive range. It's impossible to say but thats my gut feeling. I would say we're lower than average, but quite well ranked still. This is generally a 6-12 month engagement. It often covers a wide range of related internet marketing sections : User interface, design, trust, ecommerce, advertising, content, search, etc
To me, SEO has always seemed the cheapest and most reliable way of marketing : you get people who are ready to buy your products now. And that's why I setup Primary Position. Simple Really.
To give an example, in December we took on a German client in Spain. We were given a brief and are benchmarked against a German SEO vendor. In 30 days we've not only secured their first UK client but we've completed our ROI. In other words, we've paid for ourselves.
If you can put €1 into the web and make €10 back, then how is it expensive?
Thank you
David