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Six Things Your Marketing Agency Shouldn't Do
| Guest post by: Christine Slocumb |
Article Overview: The marketing agency you hire should not need to be reminded that they are working for YOU and owe you their best effort to achieve your goals. Why then, do agencies sometimes act like they are working against you?
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Free Download - Organic vs Paid Search Marketing - The Pros and Cons By Christine Slocumb |
Six Things Your Marketing Agency Shouldn't Do
What goes through
your head when you face one of the situations listed below with regarding to your marketing or ad agency? Eternal
patience, resignation or homicidal thoughts?Depending on how bad things
are, the latter two reactions are understandable (but don’t act on the last
one!).
Scenario #1 – You hire them,
and they develop a design or copy that is . . . BORING!You sit there and
stare at it and want to cry.Even if you manage to catch the attention of
the terminally nerdy, they will quickly figure that there’s nothing interesting
there.Where’s the WOW factor?Did it die on the way to the
homepage?Can they actually make it through the technical specs they spew
out day-in and day-out to actually create something that might interest
ANYBODY? You should get outstanding, knock-your-socks-off web design,
enthralling video, eye-catching special effects (see #6 below), edgy logos, and
outstanding, grabby taglines that stick like peanut butter to your pancakes
instead of gravy on a wall.
Scenario #2 – You spend more
time holding their hand than you do taking care of your customers.Sigh .
. . . How did you get so lucky?Hey, we all start somewhere.Fact of
life, can’t get around it, and shouldn’t be a problem so long as there is someone
experienced to run the show.However, if your “project manager” still has
acne, and has your phone on speed dial, using it every hour or so to “check in”
and ask questions, call the person in charge and ask if you can have a
(well)-seasoned project manager that can answer his or her own questions.
Scenario #3 – They don’t track
metrics.Say what?If your marketing agency is not tracking your
hits, visits, sales, then you better get used to the idea that the flushing
sound you hear is not the commode – it’s your marketing dollars leaving the
planet.Bluntly, there is no excuse for not tracking marketing campaigns
with the number inexpensive analytics tools available today. Custom web landing
pages and dedicated phone lines also make it possible to track almost any campaign
– offline or online.And most importantly, if your website isn’t
generating the traffic you expect, or the web bots aren’t reporting back to the
mother ship and kicking you up to page one on the search pages, SOMETHING IS
WRONG!Get on them and get them to track the stats.Otherwise, make
them a statistical casualty and find a marketing agency that will give you
metrics.
Scenario #4 – Campaign
overkill.The phrase “target market” isn’t in the lingo for nothing.Your
marketing firm should think both strategically and tactically.Adjustment
in your marketing campaign(s) should be made based on quality
feedback.The shotgun approach – multiple campaigns in every conceivable
venue and format – will eat through your marketing dollars like a herd of cats
through buttermilk.One or two approaches ought to work.Don’t pay
for their experiments.
Scenario #5 – Campaign life
support when the patient is dead.The campaign is sitting there like a
quivering bowl of Jell-o and getting about the same sales results.It’s a
dead horse and the bones have been scattered.If they can’t show you how
it is magically going to come to life and produce visits and paying customers,
tell them to give it last rites and move on with something more effective.
Scenario #6 – You get all
“flash” and no “action.” They give all the “bells and whistles” without any
substance. Pretty Flash animations mean nothing if the content doesn’t compel
your prospects to act. Glitz without “call to action” is meaningless. No one
going to spend more than 2.3 seconds on your website because there is nothing
there to grab them.If your Flash animation is entertaining your visitors,
but they don’t go beyond the insipid marketing message on the homepage, you get
a gold star for effort and nothing else.
Is your marketing agency guilty of
any of the above? Throw them to the curb. You can have it
all, with a marketing agency that knows how to blend sparkle, results and service.
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About the Author: Christine Slocumb RSS for Christine's articles - Visit Christine's website Click here to visit Christine's website   Preparing to Write Killer Web Copy for SEO and Visitors Alike Whats Great About Google Organic vs Paid Search Marketing The Pros and Cons Stand Out with Web Video Setting the Right Marketing Budget for Your Company |
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Carol
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- Here's mine... I'm now off to make an offering to the business planning gods for their help in getting to these goals & beyond.
To the combined success of Prophets 2 Profits!
-----------------------------------------
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Kevin's Case Study #11 - A New Forum Category?
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2009 is a new year and I'd like to create a new forum category to jazz things up! In the past, there's been some interest voiced about adding a "Social Media Marketing", "Online Marketing", "Internet Marketing" or "Online Promotion" category.
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Thanks
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