Digital marketing has certainly revolutionized the world of advertising. With its powerful targeting and tracking abilities, advertisers enjoy a great deal of control over media costs and caps, messaging, and audience profiling. The ROI is clearly visible using analytical metrics and SEM tools that are growing smarter every day.

What’s not clear is who you can trust to manage these highly technical campaigns that include search, display, remarking, programmatic, contextual, geofencing, video and streaming broadcast. Unfortunately the digital gold rush in advertising has ignited a whole vein of predatory digital marketing agencies who have become much better at selling the promise than delivering it. They serve up digital marketing services as if it were something of a white elephant, something that can be priced to whatever someone is willing to pay.

We see it daily. Companies approach us after being sucked into another digital agency’s sales pitch promising top search page position. It doesn’t take long for them to see the reality doesn’t match the promise. Unfortunately, they’ve already signed their digital life away and there is very little we can do for them until their lengthy contract is up.

So to help others from becoming victims to the digital dark side, we’ve written down a few red flags to look for when you are thinking about contracting with a digital marketing agency:

The agency-client contract requires a lengthy engagement period of two or three years for which you are legally bound to the agency regardless of their marketing performance or business practices. These contracts are ironclad and many clients find them to be unbreakable after spending a lot on legal fees. A legit digital agency won’t need to lock in clients with a long term contract. Some agencies are even happy to work month-to-month and let their performance validate the ongoing engagement.

The media spend is not charged directed to the client. Instead, the agency receives the media bill, marks it up and charges the client however they please…no backup, no original media invoice. Traditional media like print and broadcast have typically afforded agencies a commission on media spends. With digital media like Google Ad, there is none so agencies (respectable ones anyway) have changed their billing models to a fair and equitable fee-based model for digital management and creative services.

There is no valid backup to support digital media charges. This is similar to the red flag above but far more sinister. We have seen cases where digital media that was never purchased was fraudulently charged to the client. It may be hard for most of us to imagine that some one would start up a digital agency to defraud people. But they are out there, they are smart, and they are sociopaths.

The agency requires prepayment each month for digital advertising. Advance payment happens in many fields and industries. There are many legitimate reasons to do this. But for a digital agency to use this practice shows a lack of faith either in the client’s ability to pay or in the agency’s ability to show value for its services and media management. While there is an unfortunately high number of businesses with bad payment histories, companies with good bookkeeping practices have no business prepaying for digital services.

Monthly digital reports are nonsense or nonexistent. Digital campaigns require weekly or even daily optimizations. If an agency is putting in solid work on search engine marketing (SEM) campaigns, their efforts can be quantified in a variety of metrics. At the very least, clients should be seeing monthly reports on click-through rates of traffic to the website, cost per click and how it compares to the specific industry, and conversions which are actions on the website that validate the quality of inbound traffic and the desired behavior goals. Sometimes, agencies will provide monthly reports with raw data and no real way for the client to understand or measure performance. Besides the basic KPIs, a useful digital report will also provide keyword performance, trending and trajectories, page ranking averages and more.

The top performing keyword is the company’s name. This trick has been used for many years by digital agencies to inflate campaign performance by targeting searches for the company name. While some argue is is a legitimate tactic, branded keywords are typically applied in search engine optimization or SEO to organically (and without costs) capture online searches for the company. Also, SEO generally works in conjunction with a company’s GoogleMyBusiness page as well. After all, if someone already knows who they are searching for online, we don’t need to waste budget on a paid search ad just to serve up their contact information.

The moral of this fable is don’t sign any digital agency contract before an attorney advises you on it. You just don’t know who you can trust.

In the digital age, social media platforms have become indispensable tools for businesses worldwide, serving as key channels for client engagement, marketing, and brand building. However, the recent outage of Meta’s platforms, including Facebook and Instagram, served as a stark reminder of the risks associated with relying solely on these platforms for communication.

On March 5, 2024, thousands of users found themselves unable to access Meta’s platforms. Reports flooded in, indicating issues with logging into Facebook, accessing Instagram, and using Facebook Messenger. 

Downdetector, an outage tracker, recorded around 500,000 reports of Facebook issues and 50,000 Instagram-related outages. Meanwhile, Facebook Messenger also experienced around 10,000 reports of disruptions. Some users were unexpectedly logged out of their Facebook accounts, while others received error messages on Instagram, indicating technical difficulties in loading their feeds.

Threads, Meta’s competitor to Elon Musk’s X platform, wasn’t spared from the outage either. Users were greeted with a message stating, “Something went wrong, please try again later,” instead of their usual feed.

In response to the widespread outage, Meta spokesperson Andy Stone acknowledged the issue, stating, “We’re aware people are having trouble accessing our services. We are working on this now.”

Amidst the chaos of the outage, businesses with diversified communication strategies stood out, leveraging platforms like TikTok, email, and Twitter to maintain their connection with clients.

So, what can we learn from this?

Email: A Reliable Lifeline in a Time of Crisis

In contrast to the fleeting nature of social media posts, email offers a more permanent and direct line of communication with clients…and a great backup! 

Amidst the chaos of the outage, businesses with robust email lists were able to communicate important updates, promotions, and news directly to their subscribers’ inboxes. The outage underscored the importance of building and nurturing an email list as a valuable asset for businesses, providing a reliable channel for communication even when social media platforms falter.

Email remains a cornerstone of digital communication strategies for businesses, offering numerous benefits for engaging with clients effectively such as:

• Direct and Personalized Communication: Email allows businesses to directly reach clients in their inbox, providing a personalized name, and tailored content based on their preferences and past interactions.
• Targeted Messaging and Segmentation: Businesses can segment their email lists based on various criteria such as demographics, purchase history, or engagement which enables targeted messaging, ensuring that clients receive content that is relevant and valuable to them, thus increasing engagement.
• Cost-Effective and High ROI: Compared to print advertising or direct mail, email marketing is incredibly cost-effective. With minimal overhead costs, businesses can reach a large audience at a fraction of the cost, resulting in a high return on investment (ROI) for their marketing efforts. 

TikTok: Bridging the Gap with Creative Content

While Facebook and Instagram were inaccessible, TikTok emerged as a beacon of opportunity for businesses seeking to stay connected with their audience. Known for its short-form video content, TikTok provides a fresh and engaging platform for businesses to showcase their products, share behind-the-scenes glimpses, and connect with customers on a more personal level. By swiftly adapting their content strategies to fit the TikTok format, businesses were able to maintain visibility and engagement despite the social media blackout. 

All this being said, even TikTok’s platform as of March 14, 2024, is now a cause for concern with the announcement of the platform being banned within the US due to cybersecurity concerns. “The U.S. House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed a bill on Wednesday that would give TikTok’s Chinese owner ByteDance about six months to divest the U.S. assets of the short-video app, or face a nationwide ban. “~ Reuters, March 15, 2024. 

Twitter: Real-Time Updates and Community Engagement

As news of the outage spread, Twitter emerged as a hub of real-time updates and community engagement. Businesses use the platform to reassure customers, address concerns, and stay informed about the latest developments. By actively participating in conversations and monitoring relevant hashtags, businesses were able to maintain their presence and demonstrate their commitment to transparency and customer satisfaction.

LinkedIn: The Professional Lifeline amidst Social Media Blackout

During the blackout, LinkedIn emerged as an invaluable resource for professionals navigating the disruption caused by the unavailability of other social media platforms. 

As Facebook and Instagram faltered, professionals turned to LinkedIn to continue networking, sharing industry insights, and fostering meaningful discussions within their professional communities. In a landscape where digital connectivity is paramount, LinkedIn provided a stable and professional environment for businesses to navigate through the blackout and stay connected with their professional network.

Embracing Diversity in Communication Strategies

The social media outage, as well as the potential platform banning, has served as a wake-up call for businesses, highlighting the inherent risks of relying solely on 1 or 2 social media platforms for communication. While social media platforms play a crucial role in client engagement, relying solely on them leaves businesses vulnerable to disruptions.

Moving forward, diversifying communication strategies like Email Marketing or other multiple social media platforms is essential for mitigating risks and ensuring resilience in the face of unforeseen challenges.  As we move forward, let us remember the valuable lesson learned from this outage:  in diversity lies strength.

Sources

https://www.cnn.com/2024/03/05/tech/facebook-instagram-outages/index.html

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/will-tiktok-be-banned-us-what-is-next-bill-2024-03-14/