If you’ve started a business, you know you need to wear many hats. You also know you need to look for expertise to fill the gaps you can’t fill; a great accountant, a savvy lawyer, an experienced sales rep. As a part of your online business strategy, search marketing is no different. SEM is not a “set it and forget it” discipline. Though there are stories, for most companies, one SEM strategy does not a business make. After 12 years in web marketing and 8 years in search marketing, if one empirical lesson could be shared it would be this, a relationship with a good search marketer is as good as gold.

Here is Top 6 List for Building a Search Marketing Relationship

1. Know that you’re ready for a relationship. If you’re more interested in the “Get listed on Google for just $149.99″, pursue that. “Life’s lessons are very rarely transferable”. Every business owner should have one bad experience with trying to get search marketing on the cheap. Then you’ll appreciate it when you’re getting great value. If you understand that search marketing adds enormous value to your online business and that it takes time to implement and maintain, you’re ready. If you believe you need to invest in a search marketing relationship so you can reap the benefits of that alliance, you’re ready. If you’d rather try “speed dating” (spend $149 every 6 months to try some get to top of Google quick scheme) you’re not ready. If you request proposals from 10 different agencies in the hopes you’ll learn some search marketing “magic” and do it yourself, you’re not ready. Invest slowly in the relationship just as you would with any other. Start with a small project and let your search marketer provide you with great results. You wouldn’t get married after one date, nor would you hand over every penny of your marketing budget after your first meeting. But your willingness to investment in the relationship is the first step.

2. Don’t start with “What is this going to cost me?” This is a very important question and any search marketing professional worth his/her salt will create an SEM plan that gets positive ROI and grows your company and they will share with you the details of that plan. But asking us “what is this going to cost me?” is like asking a dentist how much it’s going to cost to maintain your teeth for your lifetime. There are a lot of variables. Do you brush and floss regularly? Do you eat a lot of sugar? Will you have an accident that requires emergency service? Will you keep your 6 month maintenance appointments? The dentist doesn’t know how much it will cost during a lifetime to maintain your beautiful smile, but he does know how much the next cleaning will cost. Same with search marketers. Let’s get down to specifics, share your product or service, how competitive the space is, what your goals are, in which strategies you’re willing to invest. Then a search marketer can create a project plan, outline strategies and projected outcome that will create an expectation for results and return on investment. But don’t call and ask “What is search marketing going to cost me?” Some clients use a pay for performance model. They don’t mind paying the agreed upon percentage of sales generated by search marketing efforts because they’re making money. Some clients use a fee for project model, they don’t mind paying because they know their search marketer will establish and achieve their goals. They learned this over the course of the relationship. Share your business goals. Give the provider some tangible expectations so they can deliver what you need.

3. Research and interview different agencies and consultants. It’s a bit like dating. Just because someone is great, doesn’t mean they’re great for you. Know what’s important to you and push for that. If you like to see simple dashboards for your analytics and don’t want to be bothered with the nitty gritty details of how you got there, share that. If you want to know of every adgroup result, comment shared, link pursued and social network mention, share that. Review how your search marketing agency or consultant shares reporting details. Ask the tough questions NOW, during the interview process. Don’t wait until you’ve signed a contract then tell your vendor you have a big reputation management issue or that you don’t think you can afford it. During the proposal phase is the time to share details of your needs, openly. Just as in dating, don’t wait until you’ve been together for 2 years before you share that you want 5 kids, maybe your potential partner doesn’t want any more kids. Research and interview and make sure it’s a good fit, from a business standpoint and from a personal standpoint. If you don’t have a good relationship that meets both of your needs, it will be short lived and you’ll be starting over with a new vendor. If done correctly, you’re going to create a relationship that lasts for the lifetime of your business.

4. Create long and short term goals and reward accordingly. We all want to see progress. Create tangible, quantifiable goals so that you both know when you’re winning. And be happy about it. John Steinbeck summed it up best in “Travels with Charley”. He acknowledges that many things in life that run smoothly, without attention or pain or unexpected results often get ignored; the faithful wife, the perfect child, the car that never needs repair. If you’re search marketer is providing consistent results and you’re happy, let them know and reward them for their efforts.

5. Treat your Search Marketer the way you want to be treated. These are tough times, but the reality is that good search marketing professionals are busy. They can choose their clients, the same way you can choose your vendors. Know that investment in the relationship will gain you results. Continuing the momentum of a web project created for you works better when you’re invested in the relationship. If every other month you’re doing RFP’s for new projects and you’re not reading your monthly status reports to understand benefit of search marketing efforts, your vendor may look for other relationships.

6. Give the relationship time to work. Will your relationship with your search marketer be perfect? Probably not. Will they disappoint you at times or miss a deadline? Chances are, in the course of the relationship, you may be disappointed. But, as with any relationship, look at the big picture. Your search marketing consultant has brought you quarter after quarter, 100%+ gains in revenue. Are you really going to start interviewing other agencies because they missed the mark this one time? And if the answer is yes, you may be that business owner who is never happy, who never finds the right vendor, who always finds fault in results, no matter how compelling. You may never find true happiness with your search marketer. But, just as in relationships with friends, spouses, children, siblings and family, you have to make the commitment to the relationship to truly know what fruit it will bear. And if, no matter how well your search marketer performs for you, you still want to “play the field”, do it. Just know you’re new vendor will find it suspect if you’re asked “what didn’t you like about your last search marketing provider” and you don’t have an answer.

If I could be granted one wish as a search marketer, it would be that business owners lose the idea that search marketing is magic and that one great campaign will launch you into super wealth. Search marketing is like many other things in life; raising a child, creating a wine, being fit, becoming good at a sport, creating a successful business, you have to make an investment. “You cannot create success upon any other terms than upon the terms of equality.” Invest in the relationship with your search marketer, just as you would in any other important business relationship. (I’d love comments from the business community and search marketing community on this topic).

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