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Smart Not Small Business Friendly
Written by Lee Traupel
There is a firestorm of negative press regarding LookSmarts recent marketing stumbles via numerous discussion groups, including two of the oldest and most influential, I-Search and I-Advertising Digests. Most of the critiques center on LookSmarts inability to develop viable programs for SMB/SME (small to medium business or enterprise), the difficulty in managing their new pay per click Small Business Listings advertising program, and their overall lack of customer service responsiveness.
Many of us in the agency/marketing services world relied upon LookSmarts directory in the early days; especially as an offset to Yahoos my way or the highway attitude when they became the 200 pound gorilla in the marketplace So, its sad to say, but LookSmart appears to be morphing to just another portal with little marketing awareness of how to work effectively with the tens of millions of SMB companies that have rapidly embraced a web-centric business model. Their overall terms of services are geared for big companies and their SMB programs appear to be an afterthought at best!
One of the core issues that frustrates many small businesses is the difficulty in getting a listing that actually describes their company, products, and/or services accurately - to add insult to injury, you have to pay in some cases twice to have your listing upgraded. Apparently, LookSmarts editorial staff cant keep up with the demand, or is so pressured to maintain some internal quota their descriptions suffer accordingly.
LookSmarts new Small Business Listings program is simply not small business friendly. It is a complex program with lots of important details buried in an FAQ and there are some gotchas in the small print - including being forced to wait up to 90 days for the return of the upfront deposit of $150. and paying a setup fee for a listing; but having it deactivated when you exceed the dollar amount of your monthly click limit. I can understand their dropping the listing once you exceed your budget, but it does not seem equitable to charge $49. to setup the listing in the first place - your in essence subsidizing LookSmarts cost of doing business.
Weve found inconsistencies in LookSmarts stated Privacy program versus inbound e-mail traffic weve received from them over the past 3-6 months. Weve unsubscribed 3-4 times and still keep getting self-promotional marketing materials which are not of any value, other than promoting LookSmarts business. They are clearly not adhering to their stated privacy policy and to compound matters, our complaints have not been addressed via their customer service department.
So, if your an SMB company what are your alternatives to working with LookSmart? We would recommend your assessing Googles new AdWords Select program which is geared more for business of all sizes; but, I must warn you there is some complexity in setting up this type of program as well. But, you certainly get much more coverage with Google - their rapidly becoming the dominant search engine du jour with approximately 40% market share of all combined searches.
Inktomis Search Submit program should also be assessed as an alternative to working with LookSmart and as an adjunct to an existing Search Engine or Marketing program. They have partnered with some of the same companies that LookSmart is working with, including MSN, AOL, iWon, and many others. They offer very good value for the incurred costs, charging a nominal fee $39. for the first URL and $25. for additional URLs to have your web site crawled (assessed or indexed) on a regular basis for one year and sharing this information with the most heavily used search engines on the web.
Finally, you may want to consider utilizing standard pay per click (PPC) search engines to drive qualified traffic to your web site and/or looking at competitive PPC programs offered by LookSmarts competitors including Yahoo, AOL, Alta Vista and others. Overture (formerly GoTo) is the dominant market leader in the pure PPC market that can deliver a great deal of traffic. But, there are approximately 150 second tier pay per click search engines available for assessment and you should be able to leverage your marketing costs by carefully analyzing your keyword buys via some of these PPC search engines including Kanoodle, FindWhat, Sprinks and many others.
Lee Traupel has 20 plus years of business development and marketing experience - he is the founder of Intelective Communications, Inc., http://www.intelective.com, a results-driven marketing services company providing proprietary services to clients encompassing startups to public companies. Lee@intelective.com
Lee@intelective.com
Additional Articles by Lee Traupel
Absolute Top Five Search Engine Marketing Myths Uncovered
Along the Digital Watchtower
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Developing a Winning eCommerce Strategy
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Emerging Methods for Effective Search Engine Ranking
Forwarding your Business with Instant Messaging
Forget Conventional Marketing Embrace the Web
Fundamental Strategic Marketing Mistakes to Avoid
Googles AdWords Selecttm Groundbreaking Program
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Marketing to Todays Distracted Consumer
Marketing Trends from the Digital Frontlines
Maximizing ROI via Web Site Traffic Analysis
Realities for EMail Marketing
Online Advertising Sinks into the Abyss
Speed Kills on the Web
The New Marketing Landscape
Winning the Search Engine Wars
Your Design Firm Run Amuck With Your Web Site
Raising Capital in Todays New Economy
Redefining Distance to Market your Company
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