Matchmaker Marketing...who are they? help!

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BPM-UK

BPM-UK

Free Member
Oct 2, 2007
124
11
50
Bromsgrove, Worcestershire
  • #1
    Just had a call from an annoying sales person who wouldnt get off the phone...suppose I was too polite to hang up.

    He was going on about guarenteeing me top position on google for printers in the Worcestershire area.

    Told me to try it for 30 days and then was pressing for my details so he could charge me £140 for the month! and then £20 per keyword phrase after that

    Anyone know who they are and what they do?

    :|

    Thanks

    James
     
    BPM-UK

    BPM-UK

    Free Member
    Oct 2, 2007
    124
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    Bromsgrove, Worcestershire
  • #4
    They are matchmakermarketing.co.uk

    I should have hung up really, but as I used to sell media a few years back I tend to listen too much...:eek:

    The chap said he found my details on Yell.com but he couldnt tell me what my company name was or my address...strange that as he found me!!!

    Always dubious on cold calls...rarely buy anything unless I know what its about.

    Amazed how he told me they are only allowed to target one sector per region and I could be the printer....number 1 in google !

    mmm smell something fishy about it all
     
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    BPM-UK

    BPM-UK

    Free Member
    Oct 2, 2007
    124
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    50
    Bromsgrove, Worcestershire
  • #6
    Hi had a call from Dave Bracey today, who is owner of matchmakermarketing.co.uk. He saw my thread on UKBF about his company (Hi Dave if you are seeing this)

    Dave apologised for the sales person who annoyed me a lot and assured me they only use adwords only in attempts to improve rankings and never promise number 1 positions via optimisation etc. The guy who promised me the number 1 spot in Worcestershire obviously needs his hands slapped...just cant remember what his name is. Would have been annoyed if I had signed up.

    Cheers

    James
     
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    G

    garethparkin

    Free Member
    May 8, 2008
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    Barnsley
  • #7
    These con artists sorry to say but that is what they are focus on people with little knowledge of google who probably think an adword is a natural link. They pick long tail keywords such as 'printers berkshire' because they are cheap and then charge per month for them knowing full well that although £120 don't sound much it is in effect a rip off for what they will be paying for the clicks. I hate these people with a passion and I don't believe the response you got was genuine because I believe the tactic is to not mention 'adwords' and to dupe the customer. These people give reputabale seo people a bad name - I say more of naming and shaming them!
     
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    C

    coastalkirsty

  • #8
    My site saw a fall in over 25% in hits after taking matchmaker marketing advice.

    They in my opinion do not offer good value for money. invest some money in good SEO of your site rather than their google offer. No good being number one for something, if nobody is looking for your keyword.

    Really I should have known better.
     
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    W

    WorkingfromHome

  • #10
    I was wondering, with so many "scams" giving cold calling a bad name how can businesses effectively market?

    If Matchmaker were genuine for example and we all now have a standard defensive response how would they get that fantastic product out there? I mean to be fair, being Page 1 on Google as a the only plasterer in Worcester Naturally listed through genuine SEO would be pretty good wouldn't it?

    So how would a company market themselves?

    Search engines are only good if somebody already knows they need it
    Nobody reads papers anymore
    Mails shots cost a fortune and convert poorly meaning you need to charge more for your service
    Leaflet drops are equally ineffective on a national scale

    It just seems that if you have got a genuinely fantastic product that cold calling is the only way to get in touch with the businesses who might need it and keep your costs down, but because you're cold calling nobody of worth will speak with you. Probably not the right topic for this thread it seems that these kind of "scams" are ruining it for honest companies who want to offer budget solutions for people
     
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    MKW

    Free Member
    Feb 10, 2009
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  • #13
    I was contacted last week firstly by New Approach Marketing and then a few days later by Matchmaker Marketing (both who operate out of Altringham, Manchester and have exactly the same price structure etc, so probably one in the same)

    Matchmaker were more convincing but wouldnt sign up there and then as still had my doubts, and as soon as hung up did a search and found these posts and a few others - not a single one singing their praises.

    They rang again yesterday after I missed their call Friday, said not interested read too much bad press and had my doubts from the start how they can get you on the 1st page for a top search phrase 18 hours 21 mins a day (so I was told) when it basically only cost £20 a month for each phrase (knowing what it costs me via adwords and im not constantly 1st page). Wonder if they would turn you down if said you wanted to be on first page for "insurance" or "fashion"

    Anyway said not interested cut him short and hung up, listened to answerphone last night and had two messages from them. He even said guess you hung up on me yet didnt get the message and is still trying to sell me their rubbish product.

    If he comes on again he will get a tornado of abuse and hear my potty mouth until he does finally get the message not to contact me again, sometimes you have to be blunt and rude with these people.... they promise the earth but am sure they couldnt even deliver pizza!

    Out of interest is it possible for companies to buy up clicks at heavily discounted rates? They said if I paid £1000 in clicks they would get them for about £80.
     
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    T

    The Dreaded Lurgy

  • #14
    This all sounds really familiar to another recent thread about a company called Adword reseller, they were owned by sphere marketing and had another synonym as well - and of course turned out to be extremely dodgy. I think the thread was called google reseller!
     
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    debbidoo

    debbidoo

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    Apr 10, 2008
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    Gwynedd
  • #15
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    Jheath

    Free Member
    Aug 30, 2008
    346
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    Lincoln
  • #16
    I had a call from Matchmaker Marketing the other day, they rang us on a local number we have for the Hull area. "Google have asked us to call you because they only want one company locally for each business sector" etc etc "Our consultant is in the area, can he come and see you?"

    I was intrigued to see how far it would go, and whether it was bare faced lying or just a well meaning but wet-behind-the-ears telemarketer. They didn't seem to get the idea that we were in Lincoln not in Hull, but make the appointment anyway. It snowed heavily that day but they never phoned back to re-appoint. Shame, it would have been interesting.

    The problem is many companies are not web savvy and will get stung - not nice.
     
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    AVDave

    Free Member
    Mar 12, 2009
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  • #20
    Hello All!

    I felt the need to register and reply to this thread. A bloke called Chris from Matchmaker Marketing rang me last Thursday trying to sell their Google £20 key phrase deal.

    Now I consider myself quite Google/Web savvy but on this instance I rushed for my credit card, even to the point I paid on my personal CC not at the time being able to find my work one. The reason for this was what Chris had actually offered me was for just £20 I could have a key phrase of ANY length and contain ANY words. Chris then stated that ANY combination of words within this key phrase would be returned top 5 of sponsored links!! I checked with him exactly what he was offering over 4 times. I could barely believe my luck as we currently spend around £600 with Google. If Chris's claim had been true I was heading for a £500 a month saving.

    So I paid and agreed that Chris would ring back the following morning for my key phrases. The next morning I spent ages reading out my cleverly constructed key phrases that covered every service we provide. Chris had confirmed that I would have my adds up and running by Monday.

    I hadn't heard anything by Tuesday so decided to ring up and ask for an update. I was told my key phrases were far too long and would never work. Of course this is the point it all came clear. The chap admitted that Chris was new and needed training!! The offer is of course for an exact phrase followed by a location 'Plasma Hire London' for instance.

    I have since submitted my 5 key phrases and I guess the next 30 days will give me an idea of how good value the service is. In some respects it could still be excellent value as one of my key phrases has a minimum front page bid of £6.50. My advice would be is to simple put the keyphrase in google and you can easily work out CPC and estimated traffic. If this amount is over £20 then it's a good deal for you
    I will report back after a month.

    Cheers

    Dave
     
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    P

    paulypaulo

  • #22
    Hi there, ive read abit about them and know a guy who has a private building company who used them last year. I think you guys need to listen/read what they are actually offering, they can give you cheap clicks because they are a google click brocker....they buy millions of clicks in bulk on the cheap and can shift them cheap because of this. They dont guarentee organic front page, they guarentee the sponserd links. If you think about it there sint a contract so its hardly a scam. but you guys are wrong about doubting the serive i think....read it carefully.

    I havent ever been cold called but i imagine those guys are annoying know it alls...they usually are. hope this is a bit more helpful.
     
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    erikam

    Free Member
    Jul 1, 2008
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  • #24
    Just had a call from them and this female was so annoying...glad I came on here...I said I would check out the website first and she told me just to key in 3 key words and their company would come up....how daft does she think I am !! The company name brings up much more interesting comments . Said she could rent my villa in Cyprus all year as I would come up first on a search... Won't go down that road ....:):cool:
     
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    OldWelshGuy

    OldWelshGuy

    Free Member
    • Jun 12, 2008
    15,879
    6,836
    South West Wales
    www.owgmarketing.co.uk
  • #26
    There are lies, Damned lies, and crocks of sh!t, and the above 'buying in bulk' is the latter :D

    I had one customer who were a household name, spending £seven figures per year and THEY couldn't by millions of clicks in bulk. fair to say Google didn't 'quote them happy' :)

    Why not just front up and say 'we use adwords, which is a pay per click system, we are very experienced in it, we can save you a lot of money and get you business and we charge you a fee for doing this.

    THAt would be honest and there are people making a decent living doing that.

    Why the need to lie?
     
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    T

    top-click

  • #27
    paulypaulo - not want to reply?? Hmm, maybe your post was a one off?

    This is a forum after all, you are allowed to post again and comment!

    On one level I'm hoping that you are a misguided 'friend' of Matchmaker, sticking up for a mate. I would hate to think you actually worked for Matchmaker with that level of understanding of the industry!

    Come on, why don't you post again and let us all know your thoughts!

    Rob
     
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    N

    nickybc

  • #28
    garethparkin said:
    They pick long tail keywords such as 'printers berkshire'
    Click to expand...

    This is not a longtail keyphrase and probably has a relatively high volume of searches per month. Obviously the phrase is very vague, but this method allows beginners to get a web presence.

    I don't have a problem with companies that do this sort of thing, although I do have a problem with misselling and companies that do not follow through with what they have offered.

    My background is in SEO incase you were wondering.
     
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    S

    steve67

  • #29
    couple of points...firstly, he should not be using yell to source his call data as there is no way of checking if the co you are calling is TPS registered , and secondly if he was from a reliable company then surely he should be able to at least tell you your company name or even the owners name ! Yet another firm giving telemarketing a bad name, is'nt the first and definately wont be the last........
     
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    W

    Whatswhat_sian

  • #32
    Hi

    Matchmaker Marketing targetted our business directory in Ireland - Whatswhat.ie. They must have called 1,000's of companies ina few weks. We first heard because a few of our customes said they'd been contacted by 'Google' and then they phoned me directly regarding a website I have on our directory. Big mistake. Apparently Google allow them one space in the natural top 10 listings to sell - no one else gets that space!!! Yeah sure!! They actually told a girl that Google were doing this via them because the Queen had visited Google headquarters and asked what they were doing for small companies. She fell for it unfortunately.

    I've reported it to Google and they are investigating the matter, primarily because they use the Google logo on their emails. I have over 150 emails from our customers who have been contacted. It's very sad to hear from a lot as they do not understand the workings of Google and have been completely tricked into hadning over their money.

    Today I got an email from a company in France who had been called and emailed today he saw my thread on an Irish forum so wanted to let me know they now seem to be targeting France aswell.

    Please see this thread on Irish Business Women forum regarding it for more details and the Google response so far:- (as I'm new to this forum I can't post the thread. Go to Google.ie and type in "IBW Matchmaker Marketing")

    I realise that this sales practice is very hard to stop but the more people that are aware the better.

    Thanks

    Sian
     
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    *Lexxy*

    *Lexxy*

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    Sep 20, 2008
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    East Midlands
  • #33
    just did a quick search as i thought Matchmaker might already be on here somewhere...

    delightful young man called Gareth rang earlier, started going into his spiel about being 1st page on google, sponsored listing, no contract blah, blah etc. i politely said that it wasn't really convenient to talk as i was on my way out (& i was! :eek:), but he just flipping carried on :rolleyes:

    i would have ended the call sooner BUT he was seriously annoying me with his 200+ searches on YOUR area of business in YOUR town last month (when i KNOW that's just not true :mad:)

    so, i fired up the laptop, proved him wrong & he quickly bobbied off! :p

    he was adamant that google adwords/keyword tool thingy was clearly showing loads of searches, but looking at the same page as he was, I pointed out this was only on Broad seach criteria. this is ok for when you are looking for adwords, but if you're searching for what's been looked for, you've got to use Exact as the criteria. (that's what i've been told by various knowledgable folks & that's what i'm sticking to).

    had a quick google (oh, the irony :D) & there's plenty of complaints about them floating around. it really annoys me that they must catch so many people out & get £££'s off them!
     
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    independant adwords pro

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    Jul 14, 2009
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  • #34
    I used to work for matchmaker marketing, Do not believe a word they say.
    First of all Dave Bracey does not own the company he is or was just a salesman when i worked there. They do say they buy there clicks in bulk but believe me they dont, all they do is manage an adwords campaign for you.
    it is a good product, and the concept does bring in results, But dont take the product of matchmaker that company just misleads you into an agreemant. they will say anything to get your cc details, There are other ways that you can have exacly the same product with a much more honest and reliable sevice. Or there is a cheaper option with a independant consultant like myself who would work from home, so we dont have large overheads, and can also offer you the same product with better service for just a fraction of the cost, you would be charged on the hours spent on your campaign.
     
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    JElder

    JElder

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    Jul 2, 2008
    1,142
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    Southampton, Hampshire
  • #36
    steve67 said:
    couple of points...firstly, he should not be using yell to source his call data as there is no way of checking if the co you are calling is TPS registered
    Click to expand...

    You could use a checker before you made the call - but Yell.com specifically says that you cannot use their website to build lists of companies for telemarketing.

    If you want to use Yell.com data, you have to pay for it through their owners, Experian.
     
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    S

    scott graham

  • #37
    Just wanted to ad my experiences with all that deal with matchmaker/top spot marketing or what other company name they fall under. there must be a lot of very gulable people in business who are willing to throw good money after bad.
    A company oh lets say a skip hire company in dublin(ireland) can apear with 5 keyword phrases. so lets say one of them is skip hire dublin this company will apear in sponsored links for those searches what matchmaker doesnt tell the customer is there is only 320 searches per month carried out for that keyword phrase and normally the click through ratio is average of 3% so that means they might be lucky to get 9 clicks to there website. now doing the maths 100 clicks can result in 1-3 sales depending on your website and the products your selling.

    this company is now targeting a lot of business in ireland and i would advise anyone to go to google adwords tool. This will give you the exact amount of searches for the keyword phrases that this company is offering you.

    you will be amazed at how little the searches are for the keyword phrases they provide you with. BUT THATS HOW THEY MAKE THERE MONEY. :redface::redface::redface: They make it by not having to pay google that much for your clicks because there isn't many.
     
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    FLAUK

    Free Member
    Jul 7, 2009
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  • #39
    I've had a couple of calls from matchmaker marketing.

    Yes, they DO pretend to be from google and no they DON'T mention adwords until you press them on how the results will display.

    They are con artists in my opinion and anyone who needs adwords management should look elsewhere for a reputable company who are up-front about their services.

    Not surprised they have come on here pretending to be a satisfied customer as this thread now shows just below their site when searched for in google. Maybe someone should start a thread called 'Matchmaker Marketing - Who are they? - They are scammers' to help warn people off.
     
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    A

    Amt

    Free Member
    Sep 18, 2009
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  • #40
    Guys

    They are total con artists they ripped my off and processed my credit card for £119 stg without my permission. They also operate under
    zthmedia.co.uk . have a look at canyoutrustthem.com to view my complaint

    I implore anyone else to file a complaint against them who they have also rippe off.
     
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