Measuring up to Forrester’s big 3 for search?

February 9, 2009 – 10:33 am by Hugo Guzman

A colleague of mine recently passed along a PDF copy of Forrester’s latest report on U.S. search agencies. In it, Forrester asserts that three agencies have set themselves apart from the rest of the pack; iProspect, iCrossing, and 360i (ironic that all three have the letter i as a foundation for the brand, huh).

Reading through the report, I started to come away with the distinct impression that my agency, and likely many others, aren’t as far off the pace as Forrester is suggesting. Mind you, I have a wealth of respect for this organization and their body of research. That said, if you consider the variables used to come up with their assertion, it becomes apparent that there are likely a plethora of other providers that were not included in this report but can also measure up in the enterprise space.

Forrester evaluated just seven agencies (the first signal that a lot of babies were thrown out with the bath water) against 72 specific criteria, which resided in three major buckets; current offering, strategy, and market presence.

I won’t recap the entire report, but I will recap a few of specific variables that seemed to be key performance indicators:

1) Percent of clients using vendor for both paid search and SEO: The big three were all at around 40%.

2) Focus on enterprise-level companies ($1 Billion+ in annual revenue): The big three all play in that space.

3)Automated tools and platforms: All three rely heavily on automated process to help streamline search efforts and efficiency. The big three leverage technology heavily in order to improve their search offerings.

So what’s my main takeaway after reading through this report? A flashback to one of my favorite all-time movies; Groundhog Day.

There’s a particular scene in which Bill Murray asks his love interest to list the things she looks for in a man. Murray then proceeds to say “me” after every quality that his love interest provides.

Zeta has its fair share of clients that engage in both paid search and SEO.

Zeta has its fair share of Fortune 500 clients.

Zeta has its fair share of technology, extending across paid search, SEO, social media, email, and analytics.

Or as Bill Murray would have said, “Me, Me, Me!”

If you’re reading this piece, ask yourself if you measure up in these categories. And if so, please leave a comment letting everyone know that your firm can also “bring it” when it comes to a true enterprise-level search offering.