How To Lose Your Marketing Company in 10 Days

No matter how hard you try to avoid it, every small business owner and marketer will run into this situation. You are using a marketing agency to handle some aspect of your marketing, and performance is just not where it needs to be. Not all marketing companies are created equal, sometimes you have to go through a few bad relationships before you find the right match.

If you find yourself stuck in one of these 5 toxic marketing relationships, get out while you can! Here’s how to lose your marketing company in 10 days!

1. Say NO to the “Yes-man”

Did you hire your marketing agency for its good looks, charm and compliments? Okay, it might have influenced your decision, but ultimately you hired them for their talent and industry expertise, right? Wrong.

When your relationship turns sour with your “yes-man” Account Manager who never pushes back or comes up with ideas, DO something about it immediately. Why are you paying someone to just agree with all of your ideas? You can do just as well without that yes-man marketing agency. When they became an order taker instead of a proactive marketer they lost all credibility as the expert and should be dumped. But what do I look for?

Look for a marketer that inspires confidence by showing you that they know what they’re talking about! Now it is possible for them to be TOO assertive, which brings us to our second common breakup…

2. Ignore Their Requests

It’s important that your marketer listens to your ideas and needs. As experts they’ll often have industry insights that can help you build smarter campaigns and landing pages. But do they let you ask them ALL of your questions? Do they ever present your ideas back to you showing that they’re listening and implementing your ideas as well? Most likely NOT, because they think your ideas are terrible compared to theirs.

If you’ve worked with this agency, you’ve been working with marketers wanting to implement ideas that won’t work for your business. This type of marketing company won’t take your No as an answer. The most tempting and easy way to lose this company? Ignore them! This is a much better option than losing money and halfheartedly telling them “I told you so” after it fails.

How can you avoid this from happening again? Find a expert that is open to your ideas and recommendations, who is also willing to explain all reasoning fully. But keep in mind that they are the experts!

3. Review Your Relationship

Did you get lucky enough to find a marketing company that prides itself on producing quality work quictly? You won the jackpot! Or maybe not… did you notice that typo in the first sentence? There’s a lot of urgency to get marketing content out to get good results as soon as possible. Rush marketing can lead to typos that reflect poorly on your business. Your marketing company should review all work prior to sending, submitting, or posting.

When you catch a mistake before your marketing company does, your confidence in them cracks. It’s time to review your relationship with this company, do they apologize for mistakes often or need to go back and “fix” things? Proofreading is quick and easy, you’re a fool if you give them more than three strikes before you say goodbye.

Take a second look. When choosing a new marketing company examine their website and proposal for errors. If they don’t proofread their materials, who’s to say they will proofread yours?

4. Miss Their Deadlines

Still waiting on that landing page that was supposed to go up 3 WEEKS AGO? Are you just downright tired of missed deadlines? It’s time to do something about it. You want to know that your marketing company is on top of things, so it’s incredibly frustrating when they miss deadlines. This says that you are not a priority and they’re in no particular rush. Always set realistic deadlines with your marketer, because you need to know if their resources are stretched thin.

Still want to make it work? Set your personal deadline a week after your “marketers” deadline. It gives them more time if things come up, and it can result in you sending projects over ahead of schedule.

Are they still late on deadlines? Take your business elsewhere! Let them know that your business is not enough of a priority and you need someone who can meet your deadlines.

5. When All Else Fails, HIDE

Things happen, mistakes are made and you are angry. The easiest possible thing you can do is stop communicating. If something was going to be late, they should have told you well before the deadline. Send them a frustrated or hostile email, don’t call them to talk about it!

They should have made you feel comfortable to say “I’m not seeing the value in your service” because after all you’re paying for their service.

Now That You’re Free!

Now that you know what companies you should lose and how to lose them, it’s time to find the company that’s best for your business. You’re going to deal with a few bad marketing companies along the way no matter what you do, but everyone should be able to identify where the relationship went wrong. The marketing companies mentioned above weren’t the right fit for your business. When you can figure out what you’re looking for in a marketer you will be able to work with them longer.

Looking for the right company can seem difficult and almost impossible but we’re here to help! Find your perfect match with the launch of our tinder marketing app this Friday! Not sure WHAT exactly you should be looking for? It’s time to Meet your Marketing Match Made in Heaven here.

Let us know how you let go of your marketing company–or, better yet, get a new one! Learn about Our Marketing Method. Is that something that sounds promising to you? Contact us for more information and to set up a meeting; we’d love to sit down with you in person, over the phone or by way of video chat.