Should you sell off your web marketing work to the lowest bidder?
The business-to-business service market trends towards commodification. As soon as something works and someone makes some money others follow – driving up the cost of doing business for everybody by undercutting existing pricing and increasing advertising saturation.
Online, where the true global economy is brewing, it’s hard not to compare services on price considering the sheer volume of options available.
I called a prospective client the other day after she emailed me asking to discuss our recommendations and rates.
“I’m looking for affordable SEO services,” she said.
I’ve had the misfortune opportunity to work with and for a few sales-oriented SEO agencies in my day. If I learned by example, I’d cringe at the word “affordable” in cases like this. The general understanding: this lead is a bargain hunter, a tire kicker, whatever you’d like to call her. She’s looking to get a Rols Royce for the price of a Ford Pinto.
I recently met a friendly gentleman whose business card seemed to come out of a holster.
“Hi there, I’m John.” The company name on the business card – we’ll call it “Acme Promotions.”