When is the last time you had a great dental experience with your internet marketing provider?
This may seem like an odd question at first and leave you thinking, “huh?” Yet what is even stranger is that your web marketing provider could be just as qualified to do your dental work as they are to provide you with effective internet marketing.
Internet marketing can be a scary decision for business owners because there are no minimum formal education requirements to provide marketing solutions for businesses. This lack of education and standardized industry protocol is why the internet marketing industry initially got such a bad name.
Of course, having a digital marketing firm perform dental surgery is a bit of a stretch, but it stands to prove a point. Unfortunately, this has played out in internet marketing for many years, and I’ve seen firsthand how it developed.
Fifteen years ago, I began working in internet marketing. At a previous company, the people who sat near my cubicle would rattle off the most dubious claims imaginable in order to close a deal. These sham tactics made me want to conduct business above board.
For example, there was a guy who threw around empty promises like, “You are going to see so much business from this that you will have to open another office next to your current office just to keep up with all of the business I bring you.” Another person said, “Your average ticket is going to triple with the type of customers I show you online.” These kinds of ploys may sound appealing at first, but I quickly realized there was a better way to do business.
One day, I asked the guy who was making these larger-than-life assertions about the value of a customer’s average ticket. He had no clue. Three weeks later, he quit this job and started his own internet marketing company. Then, three months after that, this very gentleman gave me a call to ask if I would like a job with him. He said that they were selling tons of accounts and needed to better understand how to fulfill them. This seemed so backward to me.
How are you going sell something without even knowing how you are going to provide it?
I wanted to investigate this further so I went to check it out for myself. The floor manager was actually walking around handing out $100 bills for each deal they closed! That was seriously how they were paid. I was incredulous.
Unfortunately, some of these fly-by-night marketing operations left a bad taste in business owners’ mouths, but there are plenty of companies out there that are doing it right. I treated it as a learning experience that helped formulate the direction in which I wanted to take my own business.
A good marketing company will have an ability to engage with your company and its clientele, and have transparent reporting and a willingness to do things differently to achieve results. Accredited marketers won’t make unreasonable, illogical or boastful promises. They will make realistic and accurate assertions, then work hard to fulfill those goals. In marketing, as in elsewhere in life, if it sounds too good to be true, then it probably is.
Would you want a dentist doing your internet marketing or a marketer performing a root canal? Of course you wouldn’t. With retailers acknowledging that 82% of customers research online before making a purchase decision, making sure you look good online is more important than ever.
Just as you’d entrust your dental work to a reputable dentist, so too should you trust your reputation online to qualified web marketers. Think of your visibility online as you would your smile: It’s the first thing people see, and the last thing they forget when forming that first impression.
