Blog Post
5 Reasons Why Digital Agencies Are Awful
Molly Berard • May 19, 2020
If you're a business owner who outsources marketing efforts, there's a very good chance that you've been burned by an agency at least once. They make everything sound fantastic, and the results are anything but. Sound familiar? You'll agree with these five reasons why digital marketing agencies are awful.
Digital marketing is crucial for businesses these days. Having a strong online presence is a must-have if you want your brand to stay at the forefront of consumers' minds. Unfortunately for business owners, managing digital marketing on your own isn't usually feasible. A lot of work is required to produce quality content that will get attention. Because of this, many companies turn to digital marketing agencies for help. More often than not, this turns out to be a terrible business decision because the "agency" you signed on with is not delivering the results they promised. Thousands of business owners have been burned by digital marketing agencies before, and these are just five of the many reasons why they'll never go back to an agency.
Overpriced
The ultimate goal of any business tends to be making a profit. It can be extremely hard to do that when you're paying astronomically high monthly fees to your digital marketing agency. Most digital agencies overprice their services under the guise that they do top-quality work and they have a team of trained professionals who will get your brand to the top. We assure you, there is no reason to pay thousands of dollars per month for services that aren't working for your business. Digital agencies are notorious for claiming to be the best of the best, and they like to reflect that idea in their pricing. Think about all the coffee shops that claim to have the "best coffee in X city". We all know that isn't true. The same thing happens in the digital marketing agency realm. They cling to a false notion of superiority and think that entitles them to charge more for their work. We're here to say that actually, it doesn't. Don't let a digital agency overcharge you. Always check into other agencies and compare prices. There are some agencies that are more expensive because they do offer the best of the best, but if you're looking at a small agency in the middle of nowhere, you shouldn't be paying an arm and a leg. Trust us.
Oversell and Underdeliver
This next issue is a huge point of contention. So many digital marketing agencies oversell and underdeliver. For example, an agency may promise that they'll handle your managed social media for you and guarantee 1,000 new organic followers in a month. No, actually, you can't guarantee that, because it isn't going to happen. Maybe this is the only agency to make you that promise so you decided to work with them. When the one month mark comes around, we can say with certainty that your organic growth of 1,000 followers does not exist. That's an impossible goal for even the best digital marketing agency to reach, but it's promised to clients anyway. This happens far too often in the industry; a digital agency makes promises they can't and don't intend to keep. They'll do or say anything to make a sale, and you find yourself up the creek without a paddle before you know it. If the deal seems too good to be true, it usually is. Always read the fine print in your contracts with digital agencies before you sign on. It's also a good idea to do research of your own to figure out which services you think will do well for your business. Plenty of digital marketing agencies will throw on services just to make more money, and you have every right as a business owner to notice it and call them out on it. Don't fall for empty promises. It'll save you time, money, and headaches later on.
They Aren't Actually Good At the Job
Realistically, just about anyone could start their own digital agency if they wanted to. And they can hire anyone, regardless of their experience or degree. Of course, you'll never really know who's working for your business because you only have a few points of contact with the company. You could have a group of friends from college sitting around in an office working on your social media marketing in between races on Mario Kart. You don't know who you're getting when you sign up with a digital agency unless they are transparent (most aren't).
As with any job, employees could have a degree in the field, and still, just fall short. For example, maybe the team is composed of "digital marketers." Sounds great, right? Well, in school, they only learned about traditional channels of media and never actually touched any digital marketing at all. They're winging it as they go, attempting to master social media advertising using your business as a guinea pig. If you ask us, that doesn't seem fair to you at all. If you're turning to a digital marketing agency for managed social media help, you deserve to have a knowledgeable team. Unfortunately, that isn't always what you get. Oftentimes, you won't realize that your "agency" has no idea what it's doing until all of the money you spent for social media advertising is gone and you have no results to show from it.
You Have No Idea Where Your Money is Going
Another huge issue that business owners have with digital agencies is not knowing exactly where the money is going or why it's going there. Maybe you pay $500 per month for "social media marketing". That's a bit vague, isn't it? It would make much more sense to know how many posts to expect and on what platforms. Likewise, if you're paying for social media advertising, you should be allowed to see the campaigns and ads, as well as the targeting and budget. The last thing you need is for a digital agency to be using some of your money as intended while the rest simply disappears. As sickening as it is, plenty of business owners have had it happen. Sometimes, the agency may not be stealing directly but may be providing you with unhelpful services or mistargeted ads. Regardless of the specifics, you should be privy to the exact expenditure of your money. Any respectable digital marketing agency will be happy to discuss the breakdown with you or show you a game plan for your money. If you had kept the digital marketing in-house, you'd have a detailed book about your budget and spending. You deserve access to the same information when you work with an agency. Of course, some of the fees are related to labor and time spent. Even still, you should be able to communicate with the team to find out what portion of your money is going where. If they don't want to tell you, it's time to find a new digital agency!
They Have Too Many Clients and You're Just A Number
Lastly, let's discuss the age-old issue of being just another number to an agency. Because digital agencies have teams of people, they are known for spreading themselves too thin and taking on many clients at one time. The more clients they have, the less personalized your experience will be. If your business is just one of the dozens, something is bound to fall through the cracks. Not to mention the probability that no one is actually taking the time to understand your brand. Some digital marketing agencies even use template posts in their social media marketing. By this, we mean that all caterers will get the same post and all gyms will get another. There is no branding involved because the whole post is just copy-pasted to your social media accounts. You're paying good money for managed social media, and you deserve much more than that. A good digital agency will give you your own success manager and will take the time to understand your brand forward, backward, and sideways. A truly great agency will not take on too many clients because they're focused on the quality of work, not quantity.
Does this mean that you should give up all hope of finding a good digital marketing agency? Of course not! The BusySeed team prides itself on its ability to overcome all five of these issues. We keep costs affordable so that you can get the most out of your digital marketing. We don't skimp on the quality of work either so that you get a great value. We always set realistic expectations with new clients, and we're honest about what services you do and do not need. Our business developers make custom packages for each potential client that only features the services that will help you reach your goals. Our team is made up of only the best of the best. Each team member was hired based on their skill sets and portfolios of past work. We only hire candidates that show they will bring knowledge and value to our team. Just about all of our teammates have marketing degrees and those that do not have been in the industry for years. When it comes to transparency, you won't find a better digital agency than BusySeed. We send out weekly reports about ads, posts, and overall insights so that you have a week by week understanding of where your money is going. Our Client Success Managers are also always happy to set up a meeting to go into greater detail if you so desire. We have plenty of time to meet with you because we don't spread ourselves too thin. We only take on new clients if our workload is completely under control. We believe that you deserve personalized treatment, and we know that overworking ourselves will not give that to you. BusySeed is all about quality and we can help you with countless aspects of digital marketing including managed social media, social media advertising, website development, SEO and ranking, reputation management, and more! Call (888) 353-1484 to get started with a digital marketing agency that won't let you down. We guarantee it.
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