The Marketing Agency Talk

Just spoke to this prospective client who wanted to inaugurated his launch via an online promotion. He intended to launch it in mid January with much fanfares. He has great ideas but fell short of execution. For an online promotion to kick off, he must first have his domain name, hosting service and a website with shopping cart in place. He has none of the above and today is already 10. He has barely one month to put everything in place - from off-line to online marketing efforts.

He did not believe in getting an integrated agency to do everything for him. “Just like investment, it’s safer to spread the eggs into different baskets”. That’s fine with us. He was not the first one who did not appreciate the cohesion and harmony an integrated agency can bring to the table That is for us to prove to him, eventually. To his question, “what would you recommend me to do for online?”. My advice for a novice marketer who’s not hands-on with the online world is to get a internet marketing consultant that offers all type of online marketing services. It will be a screaming nightmare for him to try to DIY. Online marketing is more than creating a pretty website with lots of blinks blinks. Nice design with smooth navigation interface is a given but many important and often tedious work like search engine optimization, link building, traffic generation and sales conversion are behind scene jobs unknown to many traditional marketers. I also told him look for one with clients that have same type of business as he is. That would ensure the consultant have the necessary knowledge and experience to speed up the job within a tight deadline.

He gave me a skeptical look, the type that said “spend money again?!”. Many marketers want to save cost and I do understand that sound financial management is important for any business growth. However, marketers also need to know when to save and when to invest. The money “spent” on hiring an internet marketing consultant should not be seen as a “cost” but an “investment”. I told this prospective client to look at the internet marketing consultant as the goose that lays him lots of golden eggs. Marketers and ad agencies alike, we cannot be penny wise and pound foolish.

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