With high hopes of “getting a quick buck,” shady internet marketers have made life difficult for you and me.
It’s twofold. On one hand, if you want to get internet marketing services (SEO, consulting, PPC, whatever), you have to sort through huge amounts of garbage. Companies that have no clue how to actually do business, but propose to make you rich. Freelancers who label themselves something fancy “UX design expert,” charge a massive premium price and fail to get you any closer to success in business.
On the other hand, if you’re looking to sell internet marketing services and actually deliver value, it’s an uphill battle the entire way. People are used to getting screwed over in business. So before they hire you, they need to be absolutely certain you’ll at least do what you say you’ll do.
And that’s it! In the internet marketing industry, someone who simply does what they say they will do is rare and considered a “top quality” provider. It’s insanity.
How to Avoid the Fluff
Let’s say you run a business and want to outsource SEO. Or you want to hire a company to handle the marketing of your products. Makes sense, and can be a great move. If you find a good company to take over marketing, you can shift your efforts to another area, and the marketing side of things will do better than ever.
So how do you find that REAL company? How do you sift through the massive amounts of fluff and find the one who will actually deliver?
Step one, examine the presentation.
In Goldman Sachs, “titles” are handed out like candy. Almost everyone holds a “management” or “top-level” position. No, not everyone is sitting at the top of the company, but they distribute these titles to impress customers.
Customers want to think they’re working with someone who knows what they’re talking about. By giving everyone the title of “management,” the customer always thinks they’re dealing with someone important.
This is the exact same strategy unsavory internet marketers use. They give themselves a fancy title: “visual designer,” “UX designer,” “social media consultant.”
Why is this a red flag? For starters, if you’re going to run a successful business, you have to be able to do the things which will help you reach success in the first place. Therefore, someone who really is just a “UX designer” likely doesn’t even have the skills to market themselves.
The fact is, it takes a LOT of knowledge to be successful in business. And even if someone does specialize in the design, they should also specialize in the big picture – business. Do you really want a designer who doesn’t have a clue about business? How will they design you a website that makes you more money?
We’ve broken up “business” into hundreds of sub-sets. Does this mean you shouldn’t look for specialists? Not necessarily. However, be wary of people who are “experts” at one particular thing and ONLY that thing. Maybe it’s an SEO who doesn’t know anything about social media. Or a designer who doesn’t have a clue about conversion optimization.
To really avoid the fluff, though, it’s important YOU know what you’re doing as well. If you know nothing about business yourself and expect to hire someone who does, that’s a tough bet. You’d have to get incredibly lucky to find someone who can really take your business over if you’re completely naive.
On the other hand, if you know how business works, you can sift through the noise and find other people who are on the same level. It’s not easy to know everything about online business, but it’s not all that difficult either. And it’ll pay off BIG TIME when you’re able to sort through all the fluff and find a company that could actually help you succeed in business.
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