In business, there are many things a business owner needs to get good at. We learn over time the pains of not doing certain things that are less fun or seem to be less important but the reality is that we must be very disciplined in keeping up with things… It’s called, “Wearing Many Hats”. You know, we have the staff and HR hat, the Project Manager hat, the Public Relations hat, the Accounting hat, Payroll hat, Sales & Marketing hat, Problem solver and client services hat, and the list goes on… Depending on what kind of business you’re in, you may also be the technical expert, the forecaster, and the financial analyst. With all this going on, it’s important to recognize that you can’t possibly do everything yourself. Even small businesses rely on a lot of other businesses for their specialized services like attornies, accounting firms, printing companies, associations, distributors or vendors, IT companies and certainly, marketing companies.
Marketing companies just like in many other business segments have had to make many changes to keep up with the new ways things get done. I see many marketing companies that are still amazingly pushing for print ad development, catalogs and don’t even have a good website themselves. In this blog post, I thought I would give anyone reading this my 2-cents. Being that I grew up in this rapid advance age of technology. 20 years ago I was selling fiber optic cable and connectivity that has been the foundation for much of today’s amazing connectivity. I was once a product manager and marketing manager for a technology company. That’s what lead me to become a web designer. Most of my professional life from 1990 – 2012 I was either in charge of new business development, product launches or running my own small businesses. Most of the time, I did all at the same time. I love how now, it gives me such a great understanding when working with either business owners or marketing managers at larger companies.
Things to look for when you need a marketing firm
Who
Who’s on the team and what experience do they have? I see many very nice websites for marketing companies particularly digital ones that never tell you who they really are. No names, no contacts, no bios… Watch out for these…
What
What is their specialty market or markets? Sometimes this can be a trojan horse. I have noticed that digital marketing companies that push hard or claim to be exclusive in the medical field are charging a premium price. What they have figured out is how to tease, tantalize and impress medical practice owners with many key phrases and a “we handle it all” approach. What I have found by recovering many of these accounts is that they charge high monthly fees and use canned content that they most likely develop then serve out to all their medical clients. Pretty smart, the development cost is split by so many premium paying customers. They often promote the, “we make sure you’re listed in hundreds of search engines” and offer to manage your online reputation. Facts are that this is make-believe. Only a business owner can truly protect his brand and there are only three search engines that even matter. It’s Google, Bing & Yahoo. Make sure you are an owner of your own Google business listing and be sure to give genuine responses to any bad reviews.
When evaluating, I would ask for references and proof of SEO results. don’t blindly believe their story.
When
There are a few items under “when”. When did the business start? When was the last project you handled launched? When do the terms of any contract expire? and When can we expect to see results?
Where
Where is your office? Do you use programmers from other countries? Many marketing firms especially older ones have deals with overseas marketing development and SEO companies in India. It might work for some but I know from doing this how customized everything needs to be and I can’t imagine trying to explain my local and regional needs to someone that can’t actually drive around the neighborhood.
Why
Why should you use them? Of course, any good salesperson will have this answer easily on the tip of their tongue but ask him or her why the last customer that left them decided to leave? That’s a stumper.
It is very important to hire a marketing company to help your business. Just be cautious because not all marketing firms are the same. A good company like Pinwilz Company will be upfront and honest with you about what the costs will be, what the benefits will be and set fair expectations. Our goal is to help you grow.
