It’s easy to get taken in by someone who uses a lot of marketing jargon and sells you their services over cocktails. Some have even been know to downgrade your current efforts, criticize your website in order to sell you their services, but not everyone is a marketer and knows what it takes to produce results for their clients.
In this day and age, there are too many people who call themselves marketers—people who think that the only thing needed to popularize a brand is telling some friends about it over drinks and those who will create a website for you by rote, without taking into consideration your special needs.
So if you’re in the market for an agency, keep in mind that you have a right to expect results. You don’t merely need a marketer to tell you what you’re doing wrong or give you suggestions about how to do things right. You need a marketer to help you increase your bottom line.
Here are a few tips to help you tell who’s genuine and who’s just faking it:
A Genuine Marketer Listens
People have started associating glibness with most marketers. They expect marketers to go into a spiel about how they’re going to help you and your business. But a genuine marketer knows that you can’t come up with a real marketing strategy until you’ve done some research into the clients’ target market, buyer personas, goals, and past performance.
And the most basic way of finding out what the client is looking for is by listening to them. This should ideally be followed up by more research within the client’s company and the field in which the client is working. A genuine marketer is someone who listens, does research and then presents a marketing solution that will suit the client.
A Genuine Marketer Shows Results
Everyone wants to know how well a marketer has done in the past before agreeing to take them on. So it’s a good idea to ask the marketer what they’ve worked on and what results they’ve managed to achieve.
Which companies have they worked for? Have they performed digital as well as print ads? Are there websites they have designed? Social media campaigns they have come up with?
Checking out a marketers past work can reassure you that they’re genuine and that their expertise coincides with what you’re looking for. For example, there’s not much sense hiring someone who’s good at making TV advertisements when you need someone to do digital marketing.
A Genuine Marketer Avoids Jargon
The use of jargon is a sure sign that someone is trying to impress you without having any real knowledge. Sure, there is marketing jargon which consists of terms like “inbound marketing,” “outbound marketing,” “search engine optimization,” “keyword rich phrases,” etc. But these are not necessarily terms that everyone outside the industry is going to be familiar with.
As a business owner, you want someone who will break things down for you rather than confusing you. A genuine marketer will keep things simple and spend the time to educate you on their process. Afterall, they have no need to impress you; their record speaks for itself.
A Genuine Marketer Avoids Quick Fixes
Some people think that marketing is a quick fix, that it will help to increase their sales right away. And sometimes, this does happen. A certain marketing campaign might help to popularize your product or service. A blog post or social media comment might go viral. But these are just temporary effects.
A genuine marketer knows that the final aim of any marketing campaign is to create a brand that you can be proud of, a brand that says what you want it to say. Your long-term company image is important to a genuine marketer.
So they won’t suggest doing or saying anything that is contrary to your long-term aims. They won’t advise you to go for quick fixes. Instead, they’ll come up with campaigns that will help you in the long run.
Contact us for more great tips on finding the right marketer to create and develop your brand.
Let Us Know What You Thought about this Post.
Put your Comment Below.