In today’s fast-paced digital world, outsourcing marketing efforts to contractors is a common practice for businesses looking to scale their reach without expanding their in-house teams. However, managing a marketing contractor can be a daunting task, especially for those who may not have a background in marketing. This article is designed for those who want to order marketing services, but don’t know marketing and can’t understand how well the contractor does his work. It will guide you through the process of controlling your marketing contractor’s work, what to pay attention to, how the contractor’s report should look like, and ensuring that your investment leads to measurable and meaningful results.

Setting Clear Objectives

The first step in managing a marketing contractor effectively is to determine the specific outcomes you wish to achieve. These outcomes should be tangible and measurable, such as:

• Increase in website traffic
• Growth in sales volume
• Rise in subscriber count
• Improved position in organic Google search results

Of course, the modern market is organized in such a way that it is impossible to agree in advance on very precise figures because in the process of implementing a marketing project you will encounter the opposition of competitors and technical features that do not allow you to accurately calculate traffic (for example, it may be cookie consents for websites or privacy policy restrictions when tracking conversions in mobile applications).

But the overall plan should be there. 

Setting a Realistic Plan

For example, you want to increase your sales volume by x2. That being said, you already know the conversion rate from visitors to your website to buyers. Let’s say it’s 1.5%. Also, you know that the site goes to 5,000 people per month. Attracting one visitor costs you $2. So, we can assume that to double your sales, you need to increase your budget by at least $10,000. 

If you have the opportunity to add such an amount to your advertising budget do not hurry to rejoice, because when you increase the volume of advertising, often can decrease the quality of leads and increase the rate per click, because you are competing with more solvent advertisers.

Discussing Marketing Landscape, Terms and Risks

But there is always another clause you need to consider. No matter how detailed your marketing plan is with your contractor, if you have competitors, then you can’t calculate all the numbers very accurately. Conversions, search visibility, and brand effect will be affected by competitors’ actions and changes in the market. 

Therefore, at the same time with the work plan and goals, it is necessary to discuss what deviations from the plan are acceptable, and what limit on the cost per click and conversion you are willing to set. If this limit is reached, the contractor should stop and look for another approach. A detailed marketing plan is pivotal, but it still must be flexible to adapt to market changes and competitor actions. When setting up your contract:

• Define acceptable deviations from the initial plan
• Set limits on cost-per-click and conversion rates
• Establish a protocol if these limits are exceeded, ensuring the contractor explores alternative strategies

Ensuring Effective Communication and Regular Reporting

Clear communication is the cornerstone of any successful contractor-client relationship. Determine the frequency and format of the reports you expect from your contractor, whether weekly or monthly. Especially at the beginning of work with the contractor, it is important to get reports from him as often as possible about the work done and the results obtained, so that you do not lose a whole month if the contractor does not work out. These reports should include:

• Detailed accounts of the work performed
• Results achieved compared to the set goals, including new users, sales changes, etc.

Initial engagements with a marketing contractor should include more frequent reporting to quickly identify and address any issues. Ensure the reports align with your objectives, providing insight into the effectiveness of the marketing efforts and areas for improvement.

Conclusion

Managing a marketing contractor requires a strategic approach, clear communication, and an understanding of the marketing landscape. By setting clear objectives, discussing terms and potential risks, and insisting on comprehensive reporting, you can ensure your marketing efforts are on the right track. Remember, the goal is not just to increase visibility or traffic but to achieve tangible results that contribute to your business’s growth and success.

In the rapidly evolving digital landscape, businesses are constantly seeking ways to maximize their online presence and attract more organic traffic. The allure of inexpensive marketing services often seems like an attractive pathway to achieving these goals. However, the real cost of opting for cheaper solutions can far outweigh the initial savings. This comprehensive guide delves into the critical decision-making process of selecting marketing services, underscored by a cautionary tale of a manufacturing company’s journey through the maze of digital marketing.

The Backstory: A Quest for Organic Traffic

Last year, a potential client asked us to help promote his website. It was the website of a manufacturing company. The client’s request was simple: to make more organic traffic, while all current clients came only by advertising.

When we started to analyze the site, we were very surprised. This site was specifically disabled from being indexed by search engines. That was done by the agency that did their advertising before. After turning off all the organics on the site, the previous agency tried to become indispensable in attracting customers through advertising and making money on it. Let’s leave the question of the ethics of such people outside of this article, but let’s pay attention to the fact that the client worked with this team for a long time and tolerated it. In the screenshot below you can see the number of indexed keywords, this was also confirmed by the analytics of the client’s site.

The Marketing Plan: A Blend of Strategy and Ethics

Our proposal to the client encompassed a robust marketing plan aimed at organic growth. We made a marketing plan, which included technical work, such as SEO, Local SEO, fixing site errors, and more mature marketing: brand building, work to attract new customers through existing customers, and creating a stream of reviews for social proof.

After studying our offer, the client said that the price we asked was too much for him and found a new marketer from Eastern Europe.

I was curious what the result would be, as I already knew that the chosen agency would limit itself to just buying cheap links to the site. And I was not mistaken. The result can be seen in the screenshot below.

From the very beginning, the site received a lot of new backlinks. But their quality was mediocre. Within the first month, 80% of these backlinks were removed and the site lost everything that the client paid for.

A similar situation was with indexed keywords. There was a slight surge in the number of organic traffic and organic keywords, but within one month they fell to minimum values again. Summing up, the client again contacted a low-quality contractor who did a templated job. The outcome – the client paid for zero results.

Key Takeaways

The True Cost of Cheap Marketing

• Long-term Implications: The allure of saving money can be misleading. The real cost includes lost time, missed opportunities, and the eventual need to invest even more to rectify shortcomings. Choosing a cheaper marketing contractor is often not the answer. Instead of getting cheaper, you may spend much time for which your competitors will simply overtake you. And it will be even more expensive to catch up with them.
• Quality Over Cost: A cheaper initial quote does not guarantee value. High-quality marketing strategies might require a higher upfront investment but lead to sustainable growth and better ROI in the long run.
• Knowledge and Control: Understanding basic marketing principles allows businesses to effectively oversee the work of their contractors, ensuring accountability and transparency.
• Choosing the Right Partner: Opt for a marketing partner who provides direct communication with a responsible employee, ensuring that you are informed about the activities, costs, and expected outcomes of your marketing strategy.

Conclusion

The journey of the manufacturing company serves as a stark reminder of the pitfalls of prioritizing cost over quality in digital marketing. As businesses navigate their digital marketing strategies, the emphasis should be on finding a partner who not only offers competitive pricing but also delivers value-driven results. By doing so, companies can avoid the high cost of low-cost solutions and set the stage for long-term success in the digital arena.

Among our clients, there are those who are not at all versed in Internet technologies and marketing tools. In this case, they can only rely on a contractor – a marketing agency that will help grow the business by attracting new customers.

The Problem Of Choosing a Contractor

When a client comes to us frustrated with the marketing results, we begin to work through the situation with them. The most common cause of problems is an unethical contractor who, instead of a full marketing mix, chooses only those tasks that can make good money. For example, it can only be online advertising, where the contractor earns his percentage of the volume of advertising or the quantity (but not the quality) of the transferred leads. At the same time, they are not engaged in the organic growth of the site and the client’s site is simply not visible in the search and in Local SEO.

Here’s a screenshot of one of our new clients’ organic traffic, with a previous contractor advertising for many thousands of dollars.

How to Choose a Contractor

1. The first thing you need to pay attention to when choosing a contractor is the reviews of his other clients. When looking at reviews, pay attention to whether they are real or fake – what names and companies are listed in these reviews.
Ask the contractor if he can give you the contacts of some of his clients so that you can verify the veracity of the reviews and clarify how the clients liked the cooperation.

2. Results. Studying the same reviews or communicating with other clients of the contractor, try to understand what has changed with these clients, and what new results they have received thanks to the contractor. At the same time, it is important to understand the numbers – how much the influx of customers has changed, how marketing costs have changed, and how much sales have changed.

3. Experience of the contractor in the market. We all want to work only with very experienced and reputable specialists. But now the era of the formation of Internet marketing is coming and new agencies are appearing on the market every month. It is very difficult for them to get the first customers because everyone wants to work only with those who already have hundreds or thousands of reviews.

A certain monopoly is being formed among those who began to provide marketing services in time. However, this does not mean that they will have better quality services. Therefore, if your contractor is a new agency or startup, find out what experience the team members of this contractor had before the creation of their agency. Whether they have worked in marketing and whether they can demonstrate their achievements.

4. Price. This is one of the last factors to pay attention to. At the same time, neither a very high nor a very low price will guarantee high or low quality. It all depends on the abilities of the team and the standard of living in the region where the team is located.

5. Arrangements. As you know, no contract will allow you to describe all possible risks. But the risks must be minimized. Find out in advance what responsibilities the contractor leaves for himself, what he needs from you, and how transparently he will conduct business for you. More on this in the next section.

How to Control a Contractor

When a contractor hides nothing from you, he freely gives you access to all the tools that he uses. You should be able to log into your advertising accounts or marketing consoles and see how much money has been spent, how customer traffic has changed, etc.
But, even if you do not want to understand marketing tools, do the following:

1. Define your customer acquisition funnel. For example, an advertisement -> going to a website/landing -> filling out a form or making a call -> processing a call by a company representative -> collecting leads in CRM -> analyzing the quality of leads by those responsible for working with clients.
2. Get a detailed report from the contractor on the stages of this funnel for which he is responsible. For example, in the first three stages. Next, with your account manager, compare the report provided to you with how many customers you actually converted into paying/buying something from you.

3. Compare external signs. Compare the numbers that the contractor gave you in the report with how much your customer traffic has changed – be it calls, customers visiting your office or store, or installing an important app from the App Store.

4. If you still have questions, discuss them with the contractor, and try to find out whether something is just an inaccuracy or the contractor is hiding any information from you or does not report on the money spent. I wish you success in developing your business.

 We are always happy to help you with our marketing services or free consultation!