As I come across small business clients on a regular basis, the common problem I find is an inadequate budget for internet marketing (especially SEO), and a lack of knowledge about how to optimize the budget for the best optimization of the site. The small budget could be caused by one or more of the following scenarios:

• The business owner may be unaware of the role of internet marketing in the context of the overall marketing and communications budget. Although integrated marketing communications, as a marketing concept, has been around for a few years now and is becoming increasingly prevalent, there are many businesses without the basic comprehension of how various marketing media can interact with each other to effectively push a message, brand, campaign, or website as an authority or celebrity in that industry or niche. 
• The business owner may have hired a website developer who may not have the internet marketing experience to recognize the type of investment (in terms of time and money) required to start and maintain an integrated internet marketing campaign, employing SEO, SEM, SMO, and other disciplines. Being in the dark him/herself, the business owner often assumes that the website developer will have a knack for that "computer stuff."
• The business could have a marketing department that is, itself, not aware of the advantages of an integrated marketing communications campaign and prefers to use conventional media. When the business owner comes along with the website launch as a project, it is possible that the marketing team downplays the need for, or effectiveness of, internet marketing, or downplays the cost of optimization and maintenance.

If the lack of budget is caused by one of these aforementioned issues, sometimes it can be resolved with a meeting or an information session between the business owner, the marketing staff (if applicable), and the internet marketing firm. You can often discuss these things to work out a more realistic budget and timeline so that all parties are on the same page, or at least in the same book. However, if the lack of budget is caused by a genuine lack of capital available to the business - then what? 

I'm sure there are a host of internet marketing firms out there who deal with "mom and pop" shop websites on a daily basis, and wish they could help their clients bring in more visitors, establish themselves as an authority in their niche, create more inlinks and a buzz in the social media channels, improve the site's ranking in the SERPs, and keep this process chugging along like a well-oiled machine throughout the years. Alas, such a process requires commitment, dedication, time, and money.

Search engine optimization, search engine marketing, social media marketing, affiliate marketing, copywriting, link building, reputation management - all of these efforts take well-researched, organized and dedicated campaigns over a specific time period, tailored for your client. Some things can be done quite easily, while others require more expertise and more investment of time and money. You know this. However, while internet marketers preach to the choir about SEO prices, there are countless shady companies out there promising unrealistic results at one-time package prices of $599, $999, etc. If business owners are not very familiar with the industry to begin with, some of them might think "How hard can it be to make my site popular? I can only afford this much right now, so I'll go with this company (Acme Fraud SEO Company) and we'll see what happens."  Quite often,  small business owners find it easier to understand a convenient, affordable package, and are more willing to look for a quick fix, despite the fact that it is hard to deliver results with such a small budget.

So what would you do in this scenario? (Spoiler: no answers provided - this post is a request for your answers.)

For small businesses trying to break out into their industry, with a real need for an internet presence but a very small budget, can you really package SEO and streamline the process? I believe this is dangerous and irresponsible, and bound to damage your company's name and the reputation of internet marketers in general. This practice of trying to push SEO packages with unrealistic promises to mass amounts of clients (as if it were stock photography, website templates, php scripts, ebooks, etc.) has been going on for quite a while, and it is about time someone (or everyone) started to regulate it and start educating people about the work that goes into internet marketing, and its associated time and money costs.

What is your contribution towards educating your clients, and business owners in general, about fair pricing and reasonable timelines for SEO projects? What lengths would you go to for a new business owner and potential client, to prevent them from becoming the next prey of a fraudulent company?

I'd love your take on this - please kindly respond with your comments, opinions, and solutions. In future articles, I hope to outline strategies on how to bridge the gap of technical misunderstandings between you, the internet marketer, and the new business owner. Also I'll try to write about how to help business owners fit internet marketing (with a dose of reality check) into their budget, and fit integrated marketing communications into their business model.