Selling Points Of An Agency

[James Lees]

If you were looking to reach out to a digital agency, what data would you find more impressive about them that would make you want to enquire about their services:

Over 75 5 star reviews.
A 97.5% retention rate.

Any further feedback is much appreciated.

 

[NickGrogan]

Neither of those.

Most reviews on most sites are fake, you can buy them on fiverr and many other places.
Retention rate can't be verified and so is meaningless.

 

[James Lees]

Neither of those.

Most reviews on most sites are fake, you can buy them on fiverr and many other places.
Retention rate can't be verified and so is meaningless.

What about if they are verified reviews from reviews.io?

 

[ethical PR]

Please don't use terms like 'reaching out'

I wouldn't choose a digital agency based on either of those stats, they aren't relevant to me as a customer.

I am interested in track record, how you work, case studies, knowledge and experience of team who would be working for me, what makes you better/different from your hundreds of competitors.

 

[NickGrogan]

Reviews.io charges businesses between £45 and £299 per month - I think its fairly clear where their loyalties lie.

You might want to read their reviews on Trustpilot.

https://uk.trustpilot.com/review/www.reviews.io

fyi, I just reviewed a business that I've never used, using a yahoo address.

and guess what

REVIEW VERIFIED!
Thank you for verifying your review.

so they dont do any verification at all.

So no they have no value at all.

 

[James Lees]

Please don't use terms like 'reaching out'

I wouldn't choose a digital agency based on either of those stats, they aren't relevant to me as a customer.

I am interested in track record, how you work, case studies, knowledge and experience of team who would be working for me, what makes you better/different from your hundreds of competitors.

We do have those as well. This is just another section of our brochure. Appreciate the feedback though. It seems I am on the right track.

 

[James Lees]

Reviews.io charges businesses between £45 and £299 per month - I think its fairly clear where their loyalties lie.

You might want to read their reviews on Trustpilot.

https://uk.trustpilot.com/review/www.reviews.io

fyi, I just reviewed a business that I've never used, using a yahoo address.

and guess what

REVIEW VERIFIED!
Thank you for verifying your review.

so they dont do any verification at all.

So no they have no value at all.

When we send invites out we aren't able to use none domain-based email addresses. Very strange.......

 

[NickGrogan]

no need to send invites. Just go to the website, search for the company and review.

Domain based emails dont mean much, how many .co.uk domains have been registered?

 

[James Lees]

no need to send invites. Just go to the website, search for the company and review.

Domain based emails dont mean much, how many .co.uk domains have been registered?

We had this exact issue with TP. That is why we moved platforms. I think we are getting a little bit off topic here though.

 

[Chris Ashdown]

What benefits are you offering me that others dont

 

[James Lees]

What benefits are you offering me that others dont

Our main USP's are:

No minimum term contract of any kind (not even 30 days)
Specialist service with a proven track record. Our case studies show this.
One of a small number of agencies to hold all five specialisations in the Google Partner programme
Managing £2m of AdWords spend on behalf of our clients. All SME's.
One of five agencies chosen to spearhead Googles Vanguard Programme. The only SME driven agency to do so.

Those are the main ones we work from. They are included in our brochure as well.

 

[ethical PR]

And if you are selling yourself as a digital agency - then I want you to provide digital marketing services, not just advertising.

 

[lesliedocherty]

Reviews.io charges businesses between £45 and £299 per month - I think its fairly clear where their loyalties lie.

You might want to read their reviews on Trustpilot.

https://uk.trustpilot.com/review/www.reviews.io

fyi, I just reviewed a business that I've never used, using a yahoo address.

and guess what

REVIEW VERIFIED!
Thank you for verifying your review.

so they dont do any verification at all.

So no they have no value at all.

We use reviews.co.uk as part of our website, if we get a bad review, we have 2 options, 1 contact customer explain the situation and ask them to amend it or just like ebay contact reviews, explain the situation (with proof) if you feel customer has lied and have it removed.
Ebay are pretty strict at removing negative feedback, i have found reviews just as strict

 

[NickGrogan]

We use reviews.co.uk

Which is the same company as reviews.io - same comments apply.

 

[lesliedocherty]

Which is the same company as reviews.io - same comments apply.

I know that, i was just commenting that myself a customer of reviews cannot have reviews removed at will, i also need to give them my order number sequence, and when the person leaves a company or product review, it picks information from their order and populates review section with it.
Not saying it can't be faked, just not as easy as you think, i know trust pilot monitor ip addresses and remove all reviews linked to ips that submit multiple reviews.

 

[lesliedocherty]

If you were looking to reach out to a digital agency, what data would you find more impressive about them that would make you want to enquire about their services:

Over 75 5 star reviews.
A 97.5% retention rate.

Any further feedback is much appreciated.

I would be swayed by seeing a 'body' of work, seeing a creative piece of work backed up by a case study or 2, then i'd want names of 2 current customers who i could have a chat to regarding the service they are currently getting.

An affiliate company gave me 2 references, one of the references had just completed his notice period and went on about how terrible the were (passed on them).

 

[fisicx]

I don’t care about your reviews or that you have a google gold star.

I want to see evidence that a ppc spend produces a positive ROI. I’d also want you to create and manage the landing pages and all other digital marketing.

As everyone is suggesting, reviews are easily faked so rarely trusted.

 

[Chris Ashdown]

Our main USP's are:

No minimum term contract of any kind (not even 30 days)
Specialist service with a proven track record. Our case studies show this.
One of a small number of agencies to hold all five specialisations in the Google Partner programme
Managing £2m of AdWords spend on behalf of our clients. All SME's.
One of five agencies chosen to spearhead Googles Vanguard Programme. The only SME driven agency to do so.

Those are the main ones we work from. They are included in our brochure as well.

That tells me nothing about what you will do for me, you can be a professor in Google that only means you understand the workings, it does not mean you are any good at it. Many cowboys get money for doing little and continue to do so, If you stated you managed 2 million on AdWords and the companies all had increases of x% in roi per year then that means something

To me a benefit would be having a single named specialised person looking after my account for x number of hours a week and reporting every month

A Promise of X% increase in ROI

A check by the company's directors on my account at regular intervals to oversee there staff are on top of the account

Not vague promises

 

[Mark T Jones]

If you open with ‘reaching out’ the first thing you will need to do is dig yourself out of the professional hole you have dug

On a more serious note, the first thing I will judge - by a mile - is your ability/willingness to tailor your pitch to my business, my needs and my marketing strategy - not just bang on about your own perception of benefits

Next, I would want real and verifiable references - preferably ones that I can contact.

 

[dan19900]

Offer a 100% refund if you can't make my PPC campaign profitable within a month or 2 and I'd give you a big budget and allow you to do anything necessary such as edit my website etc.

I don't see any agencies offering a refund guarantee though.

 

[ethical PR]

Offer a 100% refund if you can't make my PPC campaign profitable within a month or 2 and I'd give you a big budget and allow you to do anything necessary such as edit my website etc.

I don't see any agencies offering a refund guarantee though.

The problem is that many marketing/PR campaigns are affected by issues outside of the agencies control, such as the usability of your website, your competitiveness, quality of your service etc.

 

[dan19900]

The problem is that many marketing/PR campaigns are affected by issues outside of the agencies control, such as the usability of your website, your competitiveness, quality of your service etc.

Well no I suggested I'd allow the agency to edit my landing pages. If you don't believe you can run a profitable campaign due to another factor then don't accept the client. Quite easy to check if they have competitive prices etc.

I wouldn't accept clients unless I thought I could make them a profit.

 

[ethical PR]

Well no I suggested I'd allow the agency to edit my landing pages. If you don't believe you can run a profitable campaign due to another factor then don't accept the client. Quite easy to check if they have competitive prices etc.

I wouldn't accept clients unless I thought I could make them a profit.

Editing or otherwise of a clients website is pretty irrelevant to the point being discussed, this guy is selling PPC, not SEO.

So presuming you put your money where your mouth is, can you link to the 100% refund guarantee you offer?

 

[dan19900]

Editing or otherwise of a clients website is pretty irrelevant to the point being discussed, this guy is selling PPC.

So presuming you put your money where your mouth is, can you link to the 100% refund guarantee you offer?

Editing landing pages is very relevant to PPC, you were the one who even just brought it up with 'issues outside of the agencies control, such as the usability of your website'.

I don't sell any PPC services so no I can't.

 

[ethical PR]

Editing landing pages is very relevant to PPC, you were the one who even just brought it up with 'issues outside of the agencies control, such as the usability of your website'.

I don't sell any PPC services so no I can't.

I wouldn't give an agency access to my website for a PPC campaign they can provide campaign landing page content, without having access.

The usability of the wider website is outside an agencies control.

And it doesn't matter what aspect of marketing you work in. According to your logic, if you don't deliver then you should be prepared to refund the client 100%.

 

[dan19900]

I wouldn't give an agency access to my website for a PPC campaign they can provide campaign landing page content, without having access.

The usability of the wider website is outside an agencies control.

And it doesn't matter what aspect of marketing and PR you work in. According to you, if you don't deliver then you should be prepared to refund the client 100%.

Then don't accept the client if you believe the rest of their website is so shit that your clicks won't convert.

I don't sell any marketing but I was suggesting the refund guarantee solely for PPC clients looking to profit straight away (most of them), it's much harder to measure ROI for other types of marketing.

 

[lesliedocherty]

Your both right, so top bickering, you don't need access but the landing page content needs edited to suit the PPC message

 

[James Lees]

That tells me nothing about what you will do for me, you can be a professor in Google that only means you understand the workings, it does not mean you are any good at it. Many cowboys get money for doing little and continue to do so, If you stated you managed 2 million on AdWords and the companies all had increases of x% in roi per year then that means something

To me a benefit would be having a single named specialised person looking after my account for x number of hours a week and reporting every month

A Promise of X% increase in ROI

A check by the company's directors on my account at regular intervals to oversee there staff are on top of the account

Not vague promises

If anyone can make a promise of X% in R.O.I. they are hoping rather than guaranteeing. Anyone can project and hope. But they can not promise you a set increase. So many factors could affect those results.

But surely wasn't the question what benefits, not what R.O.I we could achieve? I am pretty sure they are all benefits of our service.

 

[James Lees]

I think people completely missed the whole premise of this post.

I was torn between two subjects to include in our brochure. Not a debate on reviews platforms and the likes.

One or two handy pieces of feedback received, and for that I am grateful.

Have a good day everybody.

 

[Annoying Donkey]

But surely wasn't the question what benefits, not what R.O.I we could achieve? I am pretty sure they are all benefits of our service.

I would've thought ROI was the key benefit...

 

[jamesandjanie]

It's hard to assess an agency I think, because their personnel change all the time, the good work that they did before may have gone too.