BT Web Clicks
Today I received a phone call from one of my clients who said that they had a BT engineer with them. OK. I thought, what’s going on here…
They then proceeded to ask me “what do we rank for on google?”, my response was “your company name, unless you request otherwise”.
They then went on to mentioned that “the man from BT” can get us listed “at the top” of the search engine for “our keywords”.
Naturally I reply to this with a sigh, but how they can they go around making such statements? It’s so unethical to make these kind of claims.
After reading their marketing bumph, I found out what they meant by “at the top”. What they are offering is the ability to list as the “sponsored links” in search engines, which appear “at the top”.
They requested my email address to send me “further details” through, below is the marketing email I was sent. I couldn’t wait to pull it apart.
This isn’t at all a review of the BT Web Clicks service, in fact i’ve not used it, it’s simply an analysis of their marketing blurb.
BT webclicks is a new service that guarantees as many or as little hits on your website based on your particular need.
Example. Anybody searching search engines such as google yahoo and msn for the specific type of business they need will be presented with a choice of various differenet company’s. What we guarantee is not just a priority sponsored listing. We absolutely guarantee that we will the will actually click on to your website searching for whatever your key words say about you. Ie car hire chaueffeur driven
WRONG: You can’t guarantee anything you have no control over. You have no control over our websites or any of the search engines. No matter whether you think you do or not, even if you are using deep packet inspection for targeted advertising, which is against your privacy policy and thus against the law.
If we don’t achieve the level of clicks you want we will give you your money back for the percentage we don’t achieve. Furthermore we are that confident of our product that we will allow customers to trial the 960 package for 3 months and can terminate the agreement if they are not happy at the end of this period.
EXPENSIVE: According to the BT Web Clicks Prices, you’re charging between £1 and £15 per month per click. So, 100 clicks in a month could cost you £1,500. Why would I do that when I get get 100 clicks a month for free using organic methods?
BT Web Clicks - Search Engine Marketing for Small Businesses Running a small business is hard work, fortunately your Internet Advertising doesn’t have to be Do you run a small business in your spare time or know someone who does? If so, BT is launching a new service which could help you save time and money.
WASTE: of time and money more like. Small businesses are vulnerable, but they’re right, running a business doesn’t get any easier, just like huge corporations are going to continue to try and trick you trick you into buying something you don’t need. If your business is important, spend the time and money doing it yourself, rather than paying BT to do it.
Internet Advertising is the fastest growing advertising media in the UK, fuelled by the tremendous growth in the use of the Internet. But small and medium sized businesses are missing out on much of this usage because advertising on search engines is complicated and time consuming.
NOT ALWAYS BEST: Just because it’s the fastest doesn’t always mean it’s the best, this is because it’s very competitive, and just about everyone has some involvement these days. This is why Google have now started using other forms of media including TV, audio and print. Whatever gets results.
BT Web Clicks is a new Internet Advertising product that helps small and medium businesses by taking away the pain of advertising on search engines, leaving them to concentrate on their business. It offers customers a fixed amount of leads to their website for a fixed monthly fee. It is backed by a guarantee1 that offers them money back for undelivered clicks.
PAINKILLER: Yes, using BT Web Clicks is much like using a pain killer, it block the pain, but they don’t actually give you a solution, and just like pain killers, they wear off after a while, unless you keep paying for them. Instead invest in a consultant who can act on your behalf.
Setting up a search marketing campaign on the major UK search engines can take up to 30 hours, however, customers placing orders for BT Web Clicks will have our expert team identify the keywords relevant to their business, create the advertising text, and place and manage the adverts on the major search engines including Google, Yahoo and at least 12 other search engines.
HOW LONG?: Last time I checked, planning and setting up a search engine marketing campaign should take about 30 minutes, not 30 hours. If choosing relevant keywords, creating advertising text and signing up to Google Adwords takes 30 hours, you must be stupid.
BT Web Clicks
Get more customers to visit your business website!# Sponsored links on multiple search engines
# Experts choosing optimised keywords
# Fixed prices to suit your budget
FREE: None of this actually costs money, just your time. How much is your time actually worth? If it’s worth more than BT are charging for this service, I recommend you hire someone else to read through this for you.
BT Web Clicks is a search marketing service for your website or online shop. This service creates your business’ very own sponsored links on both major and local search engines, such as Google and Yahoo, in order to drive relevant leads through to your site through carefully chosen keywords.
FREE AGAIN: Creating your very own sponsored links is a FREE service offered by search engines. You only have to pay for them to appear on search engines for the keywords you choose.
Who will benefit from BT Web Clicks?
Your website is the first step in getting your business online, but how are people looking for your type of products and services going to find you if they don’t know you exist?
MARKETING: There’s lots of ways people can find out you exist. You shouldn’t rely on paid online marketing exclusively, there’s plenty of free methods and other medias to explore.
What is BT Web Clicks?
Many people start researching through search engines for both local and national suppliers - so whether you’re a local business such as a florist, takeaway restaurant, or hairdresser looking for local customers, or a specialist mail order company selling nationally BT Web Clicks can help.
WHAT?: People do what? I don’t think they do, they use yellow pages for local information. Don’t let them trick you.
What do I get?
# Keyword generation - our team of experts analyse search engines and choose the keywords that are going to generate you relevant leads to your site.
# Advertising text - we use professional online copywriters to create a text ad for your website to attract customers.
# No admin - our automated systems connect directly with the search engines to bid on keywords and upload your sponsored links.
# Fixed budget - you choose the budget so you know exactly what you will spend each month, all backed by a guarantee.
# Leads direct to your door - when a customer clicks your sponsored link they go straight through to your website and not through any other online directory.
# A monthly report with number of click through to your website - you can monitor your traffic and increase package if necessary
GUARANTEED PIECE OF CRAP: Here’s how I see it. A guy puts a guarantee on the box ’cause he wants you to fell all warm and toasty inside. But they know all they sold ya was a guaranteed piece of shit. That’s all it is. Hey, if you want me to take a dump in a box and mark it guaranteed, I will. I got spare time.
What does this mean for my business?
Getting visitors to your website is the first step in getting a paying customer so promoting your site in the right place is vitally important. Search marketing is a proven way of generating leads directly from both major and local search engines, however getting it right and running a search marketing campaign to generate quality leads can be both time consuming and costly.
With BT Web Clicks you get the opportunity to use expertly chosen keywords and professionally written advertising copy that are all relevant to your business. This helps ensure that the visitors that come to your website using a sponsored link are looking for the products or services that your business supplies, and more likely to become your customer.
THE REAL EXPERT: They aren’t the real expect, YOU ARE, yes, that’s right, the real expert is YOU! After all, it’s your business, you know your customers better than anyone else, right?
If you need anymore information don’t hesitate to call Yours sincereley, Mark Clark Sales Executive: Cheshire and North Wales BT Directories
Email: [email protected]
Mobile: 07918717465
THANKS: Thanks Mark, you’ve been most helpful. I enjoyed writing about this. Now watch as I rank on the first page of google for “BT Web Clicks”.
Joseph said,
May 31, 2008 @ 9:20 pm
I think you’ll find this is harsh denigration and sour grapes directly from a person who charges for SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) How much do you charge? My business recently signed up to BT Web Clicks, I have a letting company and passed my internet marketing over to BT, I really don’t have time to learn the ins and outs of this. I know BT Web Clicks saved me alot of money on a certain consultant i used to use. And its delivering more enquires than the guy who used to be my “consultant”
Steve said,
July 2, 2008 @ 9:49 pm
Beware all you search engine optimisation specialists being paid big fat salaries for sitting on your lazy asses all day. Bt Webclicks works harder than you, delivers better results than you and costs less than you… dear oh dear, do I detect panic in your text? The bottom is about to fall out of your little world… The fact you a had time on your hands to write such a long rant is a clear indication of how hard you work for your clients…not very!
hm2k said,
July 4, 2008 @ 12:15 pm
I think you guys missed the point. *grin*
Steve said,
July 8, 2008 @ 10:04 pm
Not at all,
The fundamental flaw in your attack… You don’t tell us how you would go about delivering the exact same results for your clients and what you would charge for the service, and what would you offer them as a guarantee. Alright, so you managed to get on page one, but what does this mean to me… not a lot unless you can tell me how many clicks have successfully generated on this page as a result, and how long it took to generate them.
You have also retyped the marketing blurb rather than cut and paste, so you have, and I assume, by error, missed out some of the original text.
Incidently, the Geneva software platform that BT webclicks uses to generate the clicks to customers websites has just been voted the No1 internet product of 2008 in the USA by the AeA, and is now also the number one way in America in which customers search for the details of businesses from which they intent to buy. Now… the worlds biggest internet users can’t be all that wrong!
hm2k said,
July 8, 2008 @ 10:29 pm
That’s because I don’t sell SEO as a product or service, but as consultancy, there are no guarantees.
The text you see is the text I received by email, if i’ve missed it out its because it wasn’t sent to me correctly. The more text the better really.
It doesn’t matter what platform they use, it’s the way in which they try and sell it that is the issue, thus why I provide their marketing blurb, and not details of the product.
junior1138 said,
July 12, 2008 @ 8:37 pm
You have leveled some serious and unfounded criticisms. I will try to answer them sensibly.
Guaranteed Service. Any service or product can be guaranteed. BT guarantee to deliver a set level of referral. Failure to deliver results in a pro-rata refund. I believe this meets the current popular definition of guarantee.
Expensive. Define expensive. I am typing this on a G4 PowerBook from Apple. It cost 1200 quid, three times what an of it’s time PC based laptop wold have cost. The machine is now approaching it’s sixth year of use. The bulk of businesses qualify for the £1/click with the higher cost packages reserved for higher margin generating companies.
Waste. Small businesses are vulnerable, I agree. What makes better sense, a drop of 500 leaflets that might reach 1% of your customer base, of a marketing plan where you only reach customers that are looking for you.
Not Always best: You answer this by saying 99% of the population is on the web. Erg, you reach 99% of the population. I fail to see the objection.
Painkiller: I fail to see how this is different from the service you offer. Your solution is ongoing as is the BT solution.
How Long: Most Plasterers and Horse Riding Equipment suppliers are, in my admittedly limited experience, tend not to be skilled in the fine art of creating source code. You might be able to knock up keywords inside an episode of Doctor Who, but the average plumber isn’t as skilled in HTML as you or I.
Free: yes, it does only cost time, assuming you have the requisite skills. BT offer the service if you don’t.
Free again:”You only have to pay for them to appear on search engines for the keywords you choose.” So, not free then.
Marketing: Webclicks can be used as a standalone product, or in conjunction with any other plan. It depends entirely on the product or service that is on offer.
What: Perhaps you should join BT as part of the market research team. I spite of being a lone ranger web designer, you seem to know more about UK buyer research than a major conglomerate telco of many decades does, in spite of them having scores of staff who do only this.
GUARANTEED PIECE OF CRAP: in lieu of any sensible debate, you resort to playground stile abuse. Ofcom will tell you that the warranty is of legitimate value. BT are regulated by something called compliance that prevents them from saying a great many things. Perhaps you could draw upon it’s wisdom.
THE REAL EXPERT Customer can produce websites on their own, but that won’t suit you either as they will be at best amateurish and at worst, well, I guess you get the picture.
It is my belief that you see WebClicks as a clear and present danger to your business. I also believe that you will have been charging exorbitant prices for your service and are now feeling threatened by a simpler and more cost effective customer solution. Correct me if I am wrong.
hm2k said,
July 14, 2008 @ 9:30 am
Thanks for your kind words, but you totally missed the point. Web Clicks is no threat, if it was, I’d be attacking the platform they use instead wouldn’t I?
I’m just not happy in which they try are trying to trick my clients.
Steve said,
July 19, 2008 @ 8:20 am
To hm2k,
Is BT tricking your clients or simply luring them away with an offer of a much better service? You can’t attack the platform because a world leading authority in web marketing tools (the AeA) has declared it is the number one way in which Americans now find a businesses from which they wish to buy. If you were the concerned and decent consultant you perceive yourself to be you would be recommending BTwebclicks and BTwebclicks Plus to your clients as a cost effective way of generating contacts to their businesses. If you really have a serious problem with the way that BT has marketed Webclicks simply raise a complaint with Ofcom, better still, why don’t you speak to one of many many many many many many many many many BTwebclicks subscribers out there and see if they think they have been tricked or if they are more than happy with the results they’re getting, where else after all, can you buy a customer for your business from just £1?
As a SEO consultant you should have no problem identifying a Btwebclicks subscriber… they’re the ones that appear in a prominent position on the results page!!!!!
Now… who’s trying to trick who here? And no… I’m not missing the point!
Neil said,
August 12, 2008 @ 10:07 am
I signed up to Bt Web Clicks back in March of this year and todate have had ZERO correspondance from BT. I have tried emailing their address but it bounces back! I have searched around forums and others to have had this same proble. I have tried their Live Chat system on the BT website but to no avail. I have spent much time on the phone via the 0800 800 152 number being passed from pillar to post but no one seems to know what to do. As I type I am currently on hold (26mins and 7secs!) for the VAS team?
What I would love to know from the Pro comments above (and I am not against this product - I just haven’t had it!) are you BT Web click customers or BT sales people? If you are sales people then I understand your need to defend, if you are customers then I would love to know how this is working for you and if you have had any problems conatcting them or if indeed you have a contact number. I note the mobile number above in the email but feel its a little early in my problem solving to call this one yet (albeit I am in the Chester and North Wales area!)
29 mins and 4 secs now but my call is important to them
Neil
Steve said,
September 9, 2008 @ 6:55 pm
Neil, Did you sign up online or did a sales rep came to you? If the latter, he or she would should have left their contact details, My rep has been great, which is a bit unusual I know! There were a few teething problems at the start (I also started my clicks in March) such as no monthly reports and a bit of a lack of communication from BT directly, but after a few phone calls to the rep that sold me the clicks everything has been running smoothly, I have also since doubled my package of clicks as it works so well for me.
If you can’t find the reps name and number it should be on the order form at the top, failing that, try the email or phone number below, I think they have a dedicated number for webclicks customers now but I don’t have it…sorry.
or 0800 833 400 without choosing from the automated options.
Hope that helps
Valerie said,
October 6, 2008 @ 3:11 am
I stumbled on your site from the Open Cart forum. Great site and a wonderful post! Just last week I had a client ask me if her new site was search engine optimized. She wanted to know if I could get them to the top of the Google search results. Um…no. My SEO services? Top notch. They consist of adding some META tags - keywords, description - and a robots file. That’s IT. On a good day, I may even submit the site URL to a few engines. I don’t offer SEO as a service and have never recommended a SEO service to anyone - probably never will. It actually tickled me because the client is a local CHURCH.
I coded my first web page in 1996. I remember going to sites by IP! I say that to say I’m a veteran and I’ve seen all kinds of crazy stuff make money online over the years. I think for the most part, SEO is a bunch of hooey. There are some great pay per click services and I’m sure it makes sense for larger companies but IMHO, and I agree with you - depending on the business/organization, most are better off spending money on strong local marketing and advertising campaigns.