Everyone is aware of the common things you would look for in a potential digital marketing agency / contractor to help with your business. Important things such as;-
These are all important things to know and feature in the list of most people’s decision making when choosing a digital marketing partner.
Of course, a digital marketing agency may still give you superb results even though they do not feature on page 1 of Google for your search. A search like ‘SEO Perth’ will likely deliver the larger agencies on page 1.
There is nothing wrong with this and you may plump for one of those organisations, however, larger organisations have a bigger team, much bigger advertising budget, can create more content, get more backlinks and thus (I really am trying not to use the word ‘manipulate’ here but struggling) influence Google results.
What an agency does for themselves and their own marketing they may not do for a small customer who has a small budget.
A smaller digital marketing agency may be boxing smart and ranking for less competitive, longer tail keywords. Maybe something like ‘SEO Perth northern suburbs’.
If you are a small business with a small budget then surely being canny with your money and making your budget extend further would be a great asset for an agency to display in their own marketing right?
Another thing that may be of interest to you is knowing who you will work with during your time with an agency.
Your first post of call with a larger agency is commonly a sales rep or maybe even a tele-marketer.
Let’s just ignore the tele-marketer for a moment and focus on the sales rep.
There are commonly 2 types of people in sales, hunters and farmers.
Hunters range far and wide and they find and slay the beast. Then the tribe comes in and they cut it up, cook it and preserve the rest for later meals.
The hunter eats their share then goes back out to hunt once more. They have no interest at all in the beast once they have killed it and eaten some of it.
How many of you have been treated shabbily by a hunter? They got their order then return your calls for a short while UNTIL you have a problem that needs solving.
They are no longer interested in your problems once you have been caught and digested. Your problems are then someone else’s problem.
The farmer (or the herder if you like) is the opposite. They are also capable of stalking and roping the beast or planting and growing the crops.
The farmer is in it for the long term. They nurture their fields, however, they can only nurture so much at a time. Too much and it all goes awry.
I hate to say this but it is true. In many industries, hunters are the most successful sales people because they are focussed on killing beasts and not tending crops. So they kill more beasts.
If you have a large agency you must employ hunters otherwise you will simply not get sufficient revenue to feed YOUR hungry beast (i.e. your monthly payroll).
Small agencies and one or two people consultants are invariably farmers. They do not have the overheads and they are focussed on forging long term relationships with clients because this is the best way to survive i.e. small list of clients with a small churn of client accounts.
I know who I would choose when making a larger or ongoing purchase / commitment. A farmer every time… How about you?
So I am going out to buy some new trainers right.
I run longish distances regularly and I go to the gym 3 times a week doing a combination of aerobic exercise and weight.
I have wide feet so I need an uncommon size (width 4E to be precise).
I go to the local shopping centre and into a shop selling sports equipment (BTW there are SO MANY shops in shopping centres selling trainers these days. How many pairs of trainers do most people have?)…
Back to the point 😉
The sales assistant shows me some trainers and starts to tell me about all their features and the amazing awesomeness of the cushioning impact of the foam in the sole.
After the spiel I ask ‘are they available in a width of 4E in my size?’. The sales assistant has no idea at all and goes away for a while to try and find out (the answer is invariably ‘no’ BTW). I exit stage left and find what I need online.
So, maybe a poor example as this is a transactional sale of a commodity, however, in this case the sales assistant was trying to sell me a pair of shoes so they can make their sales target.
What I needed was a custom solution for my specific circumstances.
A different approach may have been to ask me about what I needed the trainers for, then to find out a bit more about my exercise regime, then to ascertain whether I had any strange anatomical requirements, right?
By using this technique the sales assistant will have invested my time in defining a mutual solution to my problem. They may still not have had the trainers in stock, however, they may have sufficiently invested me in the solution such that I may have let them order me in a pair of said trainers rather than walking out of the store.
I have heard it said that when the chips are down I would rather work with someone who I dislike who can get the job done quickly and expertly rather than someone who takes longer but is polite and responsive.
Now if my nuclear power station was about to go all ‘Chernobyl’ on me then I am in 100% agreement with the above.
I think it is fair to say, however, that different circumstances require different solutions.
I have personally found that some of the most important (and lucrative) information I have gleaned from clients has been through simple conversations with questions and answers that have taken us down multiple rabbit holes.
Now I may not be the most technically proficient Google ads creator or coder in these here parts, however, once I get to the nub of a problem my customers have identified with their customers then I am more than capable of researching that, formulating a strategy and running with the results. In fact, I am bloody good at it!
Too many people in our industry have pre-conceived ideas based upon their own technical knowledge and experience. They need to try and understand the nuance by listening to their customers.
Ever worked with someone who is never wrong?
If a mistake is mode on their watch then there is always a valid reason for that mistake or, worse still, the mistake was caused by someone else.
This person will go to great lengths to explain to you all the reasons why they were not to blame. Sometimes even before the problem is fixed.
Once again Chernobyl anyone?
I would much rather work with people who make mistakes, own up to them then get on and fix them.
Why? Because I make mistakes as well. It is not the end of the world. If I didn’t have a go then I would never make mistakes.
One thing I have learned in my career and in my life is that even if you know for sure the problem is not yours and you did not cause it it still is far better to NOT point fingers but to own the problem as a team.
Because one day the problem will be yours or of your making and you will need the team to help you fix it…
So, that’s it! I am sure there is much left over for another blog post in the future.
Always think long and hard before spending your hard-earned on digital marketing.
You need a partner that will be around for the long term. One who listens and you can get on with.
One that may make mistakes here and there but will put their hands up, fix them and get on with the deliverables.
A date with the prettiest girl in the class may impress your mates, however, she might not be the best girl to spend the rest of your life with…