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Let’s face it: The ongoing fees for marketing agencies can be high. And depending on where you are in your business journey, it can be a strain on your disposable income.
This is even more true when you are going through a growth spurt, and face some substantial transitional expenses to cope with the growth – like hiring more staff, moving to a bigger premises, etc.
Not to mention that, if you are going through a tough time, or the market for your products or services is contracting for whatever reason, keeping up those monthly payments in agency fees can be tough.
Unless, of course, the people you hired are worth a lot more than you pay them, and they are able to let your business grow even during tough times.
There are, however, a few ways to work around it. And no, not all of them are good, and not all of them are effective – but they are options you can consider.
Four Ways to work around high marketing agency fees.
1. Outsource your marketing to another country:
Outsource to a country with a weaker currency, but a reasonable level of education. You could consider hiring someone from India or the Philippines – where English is a (very common) second language.
In these countries, you can find educated people who will work for as little as a quarter of the going rate in the US. And make no mistake, some of those people are very good.
There are, however, some downsides:
a. Frame of reference – life in these countries is very different from life in developed countries. As a result, many marketing freelancers may have difficulty grasping your ICP, and what their likes and expectations are.
b. Time zone differences – while it is possible to schedule content without compromising the perceived upload country (which can influence the exposure of the posts on some platforms), actual social interaction needs to happen when your target audience is online. If not, it is much less effective.
c. If they require any specific tools to do their jobs, you may have to fund those – because with their weaker currency, the relative costs would be enormous. So if your local agency used tools that cost, say, $500 per month (with costs carried by multiple clients), you will have to add those costs to the fee of the person/agency your hire.
2. Go after cheaper forms of advertising:
Inbound marketing is usually (unless you use automation) a time consuming task. Time costs money.
When you start looking at things like push advertising, or paying smaller social media influencers directly for advertising on their profiles or pages, it may be possible to reduce your marketing costs by quite a bit.
There are a few downsides, however:
a. Exploring cheaper alternatives comes with a learning curve. In some cases it comes with mastering the channel, and in others it is a matter of not knowing anything about the advertising provider’s audience.
While you figure this out, your revenue will take a dip. The longer you take to figure it out, the more it will cost you in lost revenue, while your bills remain the same.
b. In terms of paying influencers directly, it is a hit-and-miss game. You have no idea who the typical person is who views their content, or what their intent is. You have no idea if they fall into the right income bracket or fit your ideal customer profile.
While you can make an educated guess, you won’t know for sure before the ad or content is published.
If you struggle for a while to find the right combination of influencers which combine lower costs with acceptable results, you are likely to once again experience a reduction in revenue for the time being.
3. Take your marketing in-house:
While you probably don’t have the time to do it yourself, it is sometimes possible to delegate it to a staff member – sometimes even a young, inexperienced and inexpensive staff member, who can attend to it a just a few hours per day.
However, unless your designated delegate has some knowledge of online marketing (in which case they probably won’t come cheap anyway), there will be a learning curve – and during that learning curve you will not only be losing revenue, but your employee is also likely to need some time to study the platform/s on which you do your marketing.
The more platforms/channels you use, the longer the learning curve.
In addition to that, you will have to make the marketing routine that person’s top priority – in no uncertain terms. Because if their marketing tasks have to take a back seat to other tasks dumped on their desks, your revenue will suffer.
So, if there is another layer of management between you and that employee, be sure that their superior is up to speed. Or if it is an employee who is simply handed work by others (say, processing of outgoing payments or booking out stock), it can wreak havoc on your revenue if their schedule is disrupted.
4. Find a marketing agency with a different payment model:
If you are trying to grow your business, chances are you don’t have a problem with paying to grow it. You just have a problem raising the money while growing it, or at least during the early stages.
Especially if those early stages involve several months spent on growing your social media following to a useful number, and attracting the right kind of follower.
But…
What if you could pay them AFTER they achieved the desired results? That would be ideal, right?
Theoretically, yes. But in reality, there is one big flaw in that:
Ongoing costs. Even if your “marketing agency” is a one person operation, they still have to pay their own bills. And when someone charges you say, $2,000 per month, they are probably spending several hours per day working on your marketing tasks.
That, along with the constant learning curve as things continue to change on social media (user bahavior, platform algorithms, features and rules)…
It all means that it is difficult for a single person to handle more than two or three clients per month, especially if they are actively working to increase growth.
Couple that with living costs in the US or Canada, and it becomes a difficult proposition.
However…
There is a way to find some middle ground:
Instead of continuing to pay thousands every month, or expecting your marketing agency or freelancer to only get paid after a year…
What if you could pay a small monthly fee – say, $500 per month – coupled to a bonus on increased revenue after a year?
That might not be do-able for all marketing agencies or consultants, but at Lisech we are in a unique position:
All three of us have other sources of income too.
That allows us to negotiate deals with a smaller monthly fee (from $500 per month, depending on your expectations), with annual revshare payments.
This way, your costs are lower during the time it takes to get your inbound marketing into a higher gear, and if the results are mediocre, so is the amount you pay at the end of the year.
However, since the bonus amount is substantial, we have every motivation to make it work.
Everybody wins.
Interested? Let’s talk. Follow the link below to learn more, or just contact us to get started.