New Website Spurred by Fallout with Marketing Agency
After a fallout with an overpriced marketing agency I have decided to construct my own website. So the question you may be asking yourself is: what led to the fallout? What happened that things did not work out? I’ll answer these questions for you.
In the beginning the relationship felt fresh and exciting (as is typical of a new relationship). I was offered a discount from the original monthly price, the catch here is that I was told I had to sign up for a full year with this agency. I was a fool to take the bait of the discounted price and sign up for the year. However, I felt that I needed to take a huge risk to propel my career as a musician.
Unlike major corporations and highly funded private entities, my resources were limited. I knew there was a chance I would not see a return on my investment for quite a while. Despite this I still went for it. As I said, in the beginning things were moving fast and the creations of assets was promising. This is where I should have stopped, because what I now realize is that all I really needed was the creation of these assets.
Logo
Banner
Captivating Artwork and Branding
This was all I really needed. Unfortunately I bought into the idea that this marketing agency knew more than I did about social media. This was the fallacy in my thinking. They don’t! I’ve seen this pattern now on various ads on social media. A marketing person or agency claims to be an expert because they had massive success with one, I repeat, one situation or person. As if breaking through the noise with one person makes them an expert. In this case, that one person was a female drummer who found massive success on YouTube. I saw this and thought, this agency must really know what they’re doing. When it came to creative design, they definitely had the tools I needed. When it came to everything else, it was all things I could have done on my own. Running ads, posting, building a website, I did not need them for those things, and yet I believed I did.
Once I realized that I was paying thousands of dollars a month for someone to post for me and run ads for me, I told the CEO I wanted to stop working with him. He tried to keep me by telling me all the things I would not have anymore (a tactic I fucking hate). After his speech I told him I understand and still want to leave, and so it was done. All assets were passed on to me and that was that.
About a year after the split, I decided to leave a review. After I posted it, the CEO contacted me and requested that I change the review and add one more star to it. He also sent me two biased articles justifying his monthly price point. This invalidated my sincere review of the company and I saw in this moment that the person I had been working with for 1 full year did not care about me at all, his only concern was his reputation and taking my money.
Someone who truly cared about his client would ask why they wrote what they did instead of invalidating it, as I stated above. I will add that I did received an apology about the request to change my review.
So, here are the takeaways:
Do your research
Identify what you can do on your own and what you actually need help with.
Identify with a great level of specificity, what exactly you are hiring people to do for you.
A higher price does not mean higher level of expertise.
Social Media is constantly changing and no one truly knows what works and what doesn’t.
Consult with loved ones before jumping into a high risk situation.
Believe in yourself
Taking risks is important for growth, but without proper research and assessment it can lead to some big mistakes.