2020 is here, ready or not, and one of our goals this year is to help you all avoid getting scammed out of your hard earned money!
With so many people and businesses coming at you from all angles asking for a piece of the pie you baked yourself, we wanted to give you a heads up on some things to look out for this year in regards to marketing and design.
1. Templates
These can be great if you’re in a pinch, need to do it yourself or have a small budget but be aware what it is you’re getting for your money. If you’re paying top dollar, make sure they’re creating something custom for you. Original content sets you apart and works towards your overall marketing goals and plan.
2. Follower Promises
I am wary of every company that comes out of the wood work promising thousands of followers in a short amount of time. There are a lot of bots out there and a lot of people being paid to follow brands. You would rather have 100 followers that look at your posts than 1000 who scroll past your content.
3. Publications
This isn’t a scam so much as don’t get sucked into advertising with someone who doesn’t reach your target audience. Make sure all of your advertising goals align with your target demographics regardless of circulation or affordability.
4. SEO Gurus
SEO is very real, but promises of becoming the top search result right away are not. This takes work, consistency and knowledge of best practices to do. Make sure they have a proven track record.
5. Cheap Labor
If the price is too good to be true, it probably is. There are a lot of Canva designers out there who can design great things but fail to create original content and tie it into the big picture for you. There is quite a cost gap between someone’s grandson who dabbles in design and a top advertising agency. If a price comes in too high or too low, trust your gut and get some other bids.
6. Influencers
Just like publications, influencers are a very real and effective way of marketing but making sure you reach out to the right one is key. Where are they operating out of? Does their content reflect well on your brand? Who is following them? What is their engagement level (there are a lot of people with tons of followers and low engagement, which does you little good)? Have they worked with other companies in the past? Make sure to ask all of these questions. This rule can apply to bloggers as well.
7. Oversells
I see this the most actually. A client will reach out to a web design company in need of a new site. The company will quote them an astronomical number and throw a bunch of words like coding, search engine optimization, optimized for mobile, UX, etc and scare them into thinking this is the only path forward. I’ve seen simple sites cost over $10,000 and then the client doesn’t even get the passwords when they’re done. This is my biggest pet peeve. We strive to sell you what you need not what we want you to buy.
8. Awards
This one is funny to me. I recently received an email saying Half and Half had been nominated for a Home and Garden award… as I’m sure you’ve gathered, we are not in that industry. But yet they wanted us to attend and write a check. Just because it’s an award show, doesn’t mean it’s legit. And just because a company has won a lot of awards, doesn’t mean they’re even in that industry or that anyone voted for them. Keep perspective.
As always, we at Half and Half are here for you. Contact us here if you have a design project in mind or just need to bounce some ideas off of someone, we’re available! Let’s make this a great 2020, we look forward to working with you all!
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