How to waste your money on a Marketing Campaign
So, you hired a marketing agency to manage your next campaign on social media and to make all sorts of arrangements on your website. Your goal is to hit the first place in Google searches. Now, you are ready to forget about them and book a flight to Cancun and spend two weeks with your wife on vacation ignoring everything. “Oh, I’m so happy to have these marketing guys on board, they will totally nail it!”, you tell to your wife right before the plane takes off.
Worst idea ever! Let me tell you something about marketing coaches: they know how to sell ideas, products, and services. They know how to make them so attractive, so appealing, so irresistible to your target market that consumers will crash your server hosting the e-commerce application. Or even, flood your Facebook’s inbox with hundreds of messages asking for additional information. But one thing is for sure, they just know about your business as much as I do about how astronauts manage to sleep without gravity on space (although I could easily look into this on YouTube).
Several misconceptions about the role of marketing professionals and the way they do their job frequently leads to disastrous results. Failed digital marketing campaigns and thousands of money thrown into the garbage can.
101 Before Hiring an Agency
Here are some things you need to clarify before even thinking about hiring a marketing professional either an agency or a freelancer. Does not matter if you are a small business owner or the new sales manager (especially if you are generation X) of a large firm, you must:
• Set a goal. Before you even send an email requesting a quote, think about what you want to accomplish: Do you want more customers? Are you trying to release a new brand or product?
• Put numbers to your goal(s). In digital marketing, we are not only used to unleashing our creativity to try to make the next viral post and make it to traditional media headlines. We like numbers: how much are you willing to spend both on developing the marketing campaign and the paid promotion on Google, Facebook, Instagram, etc., What do you expect in return for what you are going to spend, yup! Famous ROI (return on investment).
• Explain your plan. Have you ever tried to explain to a 4-year-old kid why Sunday Night Football game has just made it to overtime? Well, that is why you need to explain to your newly subcontracted marketing team what exactly is going on with your business and what are your expectations! As simple as you can, and make sure they completely understand.
And what about after hiring an Agency?
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• Schedule follow-up meetings. Think twice before leaving your new marketing guy or team unattended, Like I said, marketers interpret your needs and translate them into videos, animations, illustrations, etc., but you need to make sure all of that reflects what is on your mind. Make sure you make adjustments before it is too late and get a call from your boss or your most loyal customer complaining about that Facebook post that just reached a thousand likes in less than an hour.
• Cheer them up! “You are doing a great job!”, those are the sweetest words you could say to someone who has been having sleepless nights squeezing his or her brain to come up with the best way to promote your business and make it shine among the sea of ads been seen every second on smartphones and (yes, we still use them) desktop or mobile computers.
Years of experience have led me to sit with my clients before even signing a contract and explain to them that a digital marketing campaign is a joint responsibility between us and them.
As we are the experts on obtaining the best CTRs, CPAs, engagement rates, largest reach, etc., (all that technical and boring stuff we look into to measure results). Our client needs to get involved in every step of the campaign or campaigns -if we are under a long term contract, things will only work great if we work as a team, and the market will respond to that in a very positive way.
I do not want to keep you from hitting click on “Book now” to get the best deal on your next vacation trip, I just want to make sure you spend a great time snorkeling and enjoying margaritas while watching a beautiful sunset at the beach.
Let’s work together on that? Contact us and find out how we can help you!
Follow me on Facebook: @RoblesSerranoJesus
Jesus Robles.
CEO, Mark3ting – Digital Marketing Solutions – Facebook: @Mark3tingForAll
