Marketing analysis business idea

[Richard Savill]

Hi everyone, sorry if this has been posted to the wrong section of the site. I was interested in getting some feedback from the community if possible.

I'm considering starting a marketing analysis business aimed at SMEs. This would involve the customer paying a set fee for a detailed report on their online footprint; from how easy their business is to find, to web design and usability through to comparing them against competitors.

The customer would 'build' the report by selecting the different analysis elements from a list, each with one set fee. The end report would give recommendations for each aspect of their online presence. Some of these would be easy, free fixes they can do themselves and others could involve purchasing further web design, branding and web analytics services.
Do you think there would be any demand for this sort of service?

I know there are free tools for judging SEO of a website and other places where people will give first impressions for free (such as the thread on this site), but do you think business owners would happily pay a set fee for all the information in one report and produced by a marketing professional?

Sorry for the long post!
Rich

 

[Calvin Crane]

As someone who has spoken to many web owners my feeling is that they do not give enough thought to their websites. They simply don't see the value they give. Sad but seems to be the case.
You could simply try and get on the phone and call a few SME's and ask them if they would pay for your service. You might start to see what I mean. Let us know how you get on.

 

[dotcomdude]

I'm kind of in this game, as for the past 15 years I've been selling website design & promotional services to clients.

The biggest problem I think you'll have is that your ideal customers 'don't know what they don't know'. So if they don't realise their website isn't working as well as it could, they also won't know what to look for to fix it - and hence won't find your business.

It's more of a consultative sale. If they like and trust the person that is making recommendations to them, they're much more likely to act on what they're told.

I think you'd need a fantastic marketing campaign to get this message across to an audience that isn't really looking - and if it was that easy, all of the big domain and hosting companies would have the industry sewn up (which they don't).

 

[Richard Savill]

Thanks for the replies guys, that's a great point that people may not even consider their online footprint. Maybe I'll have to stage interventions with them!

 

[antropy]

I think this would be a hard sell because people are willing to pay to see something fixed or improved. This is paying to be told what they need to improve but will have to spend more money to see these improvements. The problem will be companies already provide less detailed reports highlighting how a website and SEO can be improved but for free. It might be worth a shot but I wouldn't get your hopes up (sorry to disappoint). Alex

 

[Richard Savill]

That's another good point Alex, I guess most owners would want to see an improvement with the initial outlay. No need to apologise, that's why I wanted to seek feedback before I plowed ahead.

 

[redigo.]

This is what we do for our cost reduction services. We review their current outgoings on everything from Energy, telecoms, stationary etc and make recommendations on how and where to reduce costs. We offer this as a free service as a sort of a 'foot in the door' model and then make our money from the changes we implement

Could you not go down that route of offering the analysis free of charge and then implementing the changes at a cost our outsourcing the changes to providers for a commission/finders fee ?

 

[Richard Savill]

That is something I considered and definitely worth taking a second look at, as I wouldn't be able to charge a huge amount for the reports anyway. I know it's not the same business but what sort of conversion rates do you see from your initial free reports?

 

[redigo.]

It is around 90%

Slightly different though because when we implement the changes we dont charge the client, we receive a commission from the new suppliers for the business we put their way, hence why we have a large conversion rate from our clients and none of it costs them any money.

The difficulty is convincing the business owner that our review is completely free and you would be suprised how my business dont take us up on the offer

 

[fisicx]

I don't want a report on my 'online footprint'. I want you to tell me how to make more money.

Show me the financial benefits of implementing your fixes and I will pay you to fix them.

Don't even mention that you are a marketing professional - that would send me running in the opposite direction.

 

[Richard Savill]

Redigo ah right in that case it would be a much harder sell when you start asking for money to fix their issues.

Fisicx you're right, there has to be a financial benefit to taking on a service otherwise there's no point.

 

[NickGrogan]

marketing analysis business

Great idea, a lot of companies need help with marketing and if you can deliver results then this is valuable.

detailed report on their online footprint

Oh, sorry, you want to sell SEO reports, not marketing analysis. - They are very different things.

Plenty of free options, very limited value and just an excuse to tell me to upgrade my WordPress theme/hosting, etc.

If it was a valuable service, you'd call it what it is, rather than trying to hide it in something else.

 

[AllUpHere]

As soon as the client finds out that you offer the services to make improvements, the analysis loses its value. It just becomes another 'free report' like the rubbish every seo and web designer tries to give in desperation when they don't know how to market their business.

To be able to charge simply for advice, the advice needs really to be impartial. I cant see value in a report from a web designer, telling me I need to spend a load of cash on web design.

 

[fisicx]

Redigo ah right in that case it would be a much harder sell when you start asking for money to fix their issues.

But as a marketing professional you would know how to sell this.

I get calls and emails all the time from people asking for help. I spend 5 minutes pointing out the obvious problems with the marketing and wait for them to ask me to sort it. They don't have the time or the skills to do it themselves. They don't want a report, they just want it fixed.

 

[Richard Savill]

Thanks everyone for your feedback, there's a lot to consider here!

 

[Andy Harris]

Another perspective ...

Our product (software) helps businesses to identify problems with their websites/marketing, and that's how we try to sell it.

However, businesses mostly use it in a different way (identifying companies that visited their website).

Here's where it becomes relevant to Richard's post - only when we get properly into dialogue with our customers and ask a specific question, do they start to use our product in the way it was intended.

That specific question is:

Give us the url of just ONE product or service that you want more enquiries about/sales of?

SMEs don't want marketing analysis - but they will be more responsive if individual pain points are surfaced and it's not going to cost them the earth to fix them.

 

[Ziggrs]

I think that there might be some potential in your business, but with some adjustment to your idea. Why don’t you try to make good market research and get better overview of what those enterprises would be willing to pay for. You will eventually get an idea where to focus and develop your business

 

[The Byre]

I don't want a report on my 'online footprint'. I want you to tell me how to make more money.

This!

I have a friend who has a company that does exactly this - but (and here's the REAL problem) the changes required go deep into the company and often a total marketing restructure is required. That costs real money and his company only gets paid by results - so they can only take on customers with at least £5m in turnover. Usually it's car dealerships, manufacturers, larger regional retailers and similar operations.