On the Way Home, Pick Up Some SEM at the Store?

Is Search Engine Marketing an art or a science? While we're having that debate, we should probably consider one fact: SEM is now a commodity - and, as Search Engine Journal tells us, it's on sale at Wal-Mart's bulk stores, Sam's Club. Small businesses are encouraged to buy some kind of SEM program via Sam's Club's "LeadConnect" program. For somewhere between $25 and $100 a month, they get submission to various search engines (for whatever good that may do) plus a few other simple techniques.

SEJ's editor, Loren Baker, wonders if this is a good or bad thing for the SEM industry as a whole. I'm not sure, but I think it's more proof that an awful lot of businesses out there still don't understand the tremendous changes taking place in the business world as a result of our improved communications skills and techniques. These are the same companies which, only a few years back, were still wondering whether they really needed to be on that Internet thing. Now, they are wondering why they need an experienced search marketing firm to help them when they can buy "the same services" from Sam's Club for $25 or so every month, not that it  seems to be helping them much.

The commenters on SEJ have it right. There will always be bottom-line types who care only about the price. SEM needs to be sold on the value, not the price. It's all part of the long, slow educational process. As communicators, most of us have a long way to go to help others understand.

Hat tip: MediaPost