It’s time to fire my Internet marketing company…
They were such nice guys. Really. Even now, as I look at the proof of their shadyness (I’m officially making that word up), I still like D. and T. on a personal level. However, I’m not about to pay them anything else for their “work.”
Let me explain…
Toward the end of summer, I got a call from the Internet marketing (and/or lead generation) company. Someone in their office had used my service, told someone who told someone, yadda yadda. D. called at the perfect time — I was getting nowhere with my own SEO efforts. (SEO, for anyone reading this blog who hasn’t heard of it, stands for Search Engine Optimization. It’s the process by which you get your website found by search engines.) I read a few books, checked out a dozen blogs, and did it myself. In the end, it MAY have increased traffic to my site by a factor of 1%. D. called me just when I was about to take it out on the dog.
Just kidding — we don’t have a dog. But since I won’t beat my children, a dog might not be a bad idea.
Anyway, we had a couple of meetings, spoke the same language, their tech guys liked the fact that I was the most tech-savvy client they had, and I signed a contract. The cost: $100 per month plus $15 per lead. Expensive? Yeah, but I was heading into the slow season, and I figured that while it would hurt, at least they’d be driving business to me.
That was about two months ago. Since then, they’ve sent four leads my way. The first: someone already on my calendar. The second: someone rescheduling their move. The third: someone whose friend mentioned MTB and then she did a search, finding the M.C.’s adword ad, and linking to my site. The fourth — I’m getting to that.
Let me see if I can shorten this up a bit.
The contract I signed was for certain services, but what I didn’t know is that they need me to migrate my website to a WordPress platform. Normally I wouldn’t have a problem with that, but my whole business is totally dependent on GoodBarry/Business Catalyst, a “business in a box” type of thing with a billion features that nearly automate the whole process from lead acquisition to invoicing. I don’t use all of it, but that’s only because I don’t have the time right now.
As it happens, everything that the marketing company does is based on some nifty WordPress template.
Last weekend I wrote to my contact their and asked if he could send me a list of things their doing to promote MTB. NO leads in two months? Give me an effing break. I’m actually glad they’re not sending any work my way right now because I can’t handle it. I HAVE TOO MUCH WORK! My contact, D., wrote back with all these excuses about how they really can’t do anything because I won’t relinquish control of the way I do things.
Lol. Me, a micromanager. Go fig.
I hadn’t responded yet because I was thinking — just considering, really — that it might be time to part ways. If they can’t do what they promised without me overturning two years of hard and profitable work, then this relationship, amicable as it is, has to come to an end.
And yet! And yet, I thought maybe they could still work out. MAYBE I could consider doing things their way.
As I was pondering this, I got a lead notification tonight while out on a job. Not five seconds after I got the e-mail, one of their top guys called and asked if I’d had time to review it. I hadn’t, and I’d call him later. But, when I looked at the lead, I noticed one absolutely critical field was missing — the “How did you hear about MTB?” field. This, obviously, is important for me to see so I know where my marketing dollars are working.
They removed that field. It floored me. I’m truly sorry for them, but that little field had thwarted their previous efforts to capitalize on my leads. So far, all the leads they generated came from MY hard work, not theirs. So, they just removed it.
That made up my mind. I need to get out of the contract.
So, I’m kind of back to square one. Anyone know a good (cheap) SEO/SEM company?
