Everyone knows that assessing the effect of marketing on a business is difficult.
Yes, it is much easier with internet marketing. You can start tracking the cost of leads and sales in a couple of hours.
But, if you have a long lead cycle or work with the upper stages of the funnel, then marketing becomes more difficult to evaluate. There is a delayed or difficult to measure effect.
Be that as it may, the further into the woods … the more difficult it is to assess the effectiveness of marketing. And it’s not just about channels – it’s obvious. We must not forget about the specialists who set up the channels.
And my opinion is this: in most cases, the agency’s services – whatever it does – are overvalued.
Today we’ll talk about three reasons why this is so and UK Marketing Management as a foundation in the world of marketing campaigns.
Reason # 1. The client does not always fully understand what is happening
Over the past couple of years, customer awareness of the latest internet marketing trend has increased. True, most clients still have a vague idea of what SEO, targeting, or contextualists are doing.
It seems that they are doing something and, it seems, their actions give the result. But if you don’t fully understand how something works, then you don’t understand how much it costs either. Since the client does not understand the essence of the work, then a priori overestimates it.
If the client has a full-time marketer, then, in theory, he solves this problem. He has enough knowledge to understand the composition of the service and the specifics of the work of each channel.
But let’s imagine the situation. A new marketer has joined the company. The company is already working with contractors on each channel and management is pleased with the results.
The marketer says: yes, there is a result, but you can get more for this money. And the marketer is faced with a choice: either change the contractor in the hope of getting a better return on investment, or leave it as it is.
Not every marketer will take risks, which means the client continues to overpay the contractor.
Reason # 2. Internet is more efficient
Many companies think badly. Or they don’t count at all. They go online hoping to get cheap sales. They think that the result on the Internet is momentary.
By presenting the internet as the eighth wonder of the world, companies are overpaying for internet marketing services in the expectation that margins will persist.
It may be so. Only not many companies realize that absolutely any market first grows, stagnates, and then experiences a recession.
Some industries are already feeling a drop in the effectiveness of internet marketing. Companies are starting to change contractors with enviable regularity and cut marketing costs.
As a result, they come not to overestimate, but to underestimate marketing services. To be more precise, they spend so little on marketing that it does not give any result. Therefore, money is wasted.
Reason # 3. Excessive belief in a contractor
The third reason largely stems from the first. Not understanding how internet marketing works, companies place undue faith in its toolbox. According to them, internet marketing will solve all their problems. In practical terms, faith is shifted to the contractor.
In this case, the client pays a lot to the contractor, but from his point of view, the costs will pay off and will be done quickly.
If the agency is not very honest, then it will confirm the client’s expectations by promising mountains of gold. The task of such an agency is to suck money out of the client to the maximum.
If the agency is honest, it will try to explain to the client that the result will not come instantly. But in my experience, if the client is not initially aware of this, he will not be able to prove it.
If the company has a full-time marketer, then it is his task to make a strong-willed decision to change and choose a contractor. There are several points to consider when choosing a contractor.
Select a contractor with experience in the field
I have said more than once that cases are not a panacea. But this does not mean that they are absolutely useless.
If a potential contractor has experience with the same topic, then at least it will not take time to swing. The contractor understands the essence of the industry, the customer’s request, and the competitive environment.
In short, experience will not be superfluous.
Find a contractor in the same city
There is much less control over an agency located in another city. It’s not just about meetings. Just a distance issue. When a client is close – in the same city – there is a feeling of additional control. Email Address Lists can be added.
The biggest mistake is to take a contractor in a different time zone. I had experience working with clients from the Far East, and such work cannot be called effective. You have practically no time for communication, and the solution of ordinary issues takes several days.
Negotiate a bonus payment system
A rare agency will agree to operate without a monthly fee. But trying to cut the agency’s check by agreeing on a bonus is possible.
Questions arise, how, for what to accrue the bonus, how to calculate it. In practice, they are solved, primarily by debugging end-to-end analytics like Roistat.
Most of the agencies are quite ambitious and believe in themselves, and therefore will agree to the bonus system.
It’s not about knowing what the contractor is doing and when – personally, I really don’t like such control, and it definitely interferes and annoys me. It’s about understanding what the contractor is responsible for, how he plans to move, what to do.
The contractor must have a work plan – periodic and one-time – and a description of the mechanism for its implementation.
The task of the customer is to track the execution of the plan and agree on its correction.
Do not chase the most expensive / cheapest
If a company asks the most, it doesn’t mean that it does the best. There are simply those who agreed to pay her more than everyone else.
But the cheapest contractor is not an option either. Miser pays twice.
