Your Marketing is Too Expensive
In a time of holding company “mergers,” there’s a lot to be said about how unattainably expensive these companies have made decent marketing talent, as well as the day-to-day financial incentives of these conglomerates. (Brands, are you really being served?) But, that’s for another and more pugnacious day.
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I want to talk about the opposite end of the spectrum. The agencies out there that purport to be servicing smaller clients at confusingly cheap price structures. Since we started Nephew and began talking to business owners and potential clients, almost every single one has had the same version of a story like this:
“Well, I’ve been paying an agency to make sure our website content is ordered correctly. I’m not quite sure what they do.”
“For a while I was paying an agency to do some SEO and social work, and they made a mess of everything.”
“I was paying an agency monthly to create content, and they never did anything.”
As much as I want to rant about how these fly-by-night agencies give all agencies a bad name, what I’m really here to say this:
Small business owners, and marketers for small brands: If you signed with an agency or service because it felt surprisingly cheap, and if you don’t know what you’re getting or aren’t seeing results, your cheap marketing is too expensive. More succinctly, paying something for nothing is too expensive.
What might this look like in practice?
The niche industry service package:
We provide digital marketing services for funeral homes! We only work with funeral homes, so we know your business. For $950 per month you get a website, SEO, and 4 social posts.
(Now you’re stuck in a templated system that was not customized to your needs, isn’t designed to pivot, and extracting yourself will be painful.)
The subscription-based website:
Your business gets a custom website, delivered in days, for only $300 per month
(Before you know it you will have paid thousands of dollars more for your website than you should have.)
We’re seeing a real hollowing out of the middle when it comes to marketing services: the bigs are racing to become bigger and even less accessible, and there is a nearly infinite supply of small agencies that will happily plug you into their templates to turn you into another chunk of recurring revenue. I’m hopeful that there’s an inflection point on the horizon where both agencies and brands can look to that hollowed-out middle as the way forward. What would that look like?
Skilled and committed agencies creating custom plans for businesses of any size at realistic price points.
Those realistic price points might be more than you’re paying right now, but wouldn’t you love to get what you pay for, and know that your brand’s success is the primary goal?
Let’s make your next move your smartest one.
From brand to clicks to conversions, we build marketing that actually works.