When it comes to “marketing agencies”, you will find the marketplace flooded with “experts”. Allow me to explain…
Seth Godin was quoted out of context.
When he created the old “Squidoo” platform, he said “everybody is an expert”. He meant that everybody is good at something.
Fast forward a decade or so, and people seem to think that they are marketing experts after taking a $97 course from some fake “social media guru”.
Especially when that “guru” tells them they can earn $1000 per month per client, for only a few minutes’ worth of work every day.
But as someone said long ago…
A little knowledge is a dangerous thing.
So they take their “guru course”, and open a social media marketing agency. After all, they know “how to do the job”, right?
Maybe not.
Especially not when you consider the advice given by some of these “experts” – like using “trending sounds” (at zero volume level – yes, really) in your Instagram and Tiktok videos…
Will using those sounds expose your videos to more people?
Possibly.
But what will happen when many people watch it, and don’t like or comment, because they find it irrelevant or uninteresting?
Instgram and Tiktok will BURY your video.
If something is trending on social media, it doesn’t mean it is trending among your target audience.
Then, some of them tell you to create videos of 7 to 11 seconds long, because “that works best”.
A funny 7-second video might be entertaining to someone looking for a dopamine rush, but will it bring across enough value to lead people to click on your profile link?
Fact: Follower counts, likes and comments mean nothing if they don’t translate to leads or sales for your business. You can have a 100,000 followers, and not see much in terms of results. Or you can have 1,000, and see sales trickling in already.
Let’s not even go into how they “helped people to grow by ‘xxxxx’ number of followers in a month…
Because in the entertainment world you can grow huge followings by entertaining people. But when to comes to your neighborhood business, where you are working hard to establish a physical business…
It’s not that simple.
Lastly, there is my personal favorite: “Copy the top people in your niche.”
Maybe, maybe not.
Do the top people in your niche serve similar markets? For instance, if you are a carpenter in a small Texas town, and the top “carpenter” on Instagram is a company in New York…
Some of it may work for you, and some of it will not. You are dealing with a totally different audience (with different expectations), even if you do similar things.
Also, remember that the longer you have been active, and the bigger your following, the more you can get away with. Your core fans will always like your new posts, telling the platform that “your stuff is good” – even if it isn’t.
But if you don’t have your one thousand raving fans yet…
It might not work so well.
So how do you know if someone is really an expert?
Simple: By asking questions. If the answers you get are abstract or vague…
RUN.
Someone who really knows what they are doing will explain to you – as simply as possible – the practical side of what they will be doing for you.
Always remember the golden rule, as stated by Einstein (smart fellow, last time we checked):
“If you can’t explain it to a six-year-old, you don’t understand it yourself.”
In short: If the explanation doesn’t make sense, it probably won’t produce results. When they start speaking to you as if “you are the idiot, and you just need to leave it to them”…
Be afraid. Be very afraid.
Because even in the unlikely event that they actually know what they are doing, and they choose to be out of touch with YOU, they will probably be out of touch with your audience too.
So – why do we not present ourselves as experts?
We’re not. Experts are people who do marketing for Coca-Cola, Ford, and major banks. People who do marketing for A-list celebrities and high profile politicians.
Their fees also reflect their capabilities.
We are just a few guys who – between us – have a very broad skill set. Individually, each of us have actually started businesses and promoted them to land clients. Dennis, the founder, has been in several business, over a period of more than 50 years. Jacks and Peter have less business experience, but both have done extensive online marketing not only for their own businesses, but also for side projects.
In short: We learned by doing. We made mistakes, stumbled, and learned how to fix them – over and over and over again.
As such, we are not experts…
We are just seasoned professionals.