Proper Due Diligence
Sometimes genuine clients are fooled by marketing agencies delivering inferior quality services at a very high price. These clients fail to conduct proper due diligence when choosing agencies before buying. Sometimes clients fall prey to subpar agencies also, buying services at very low costs with products or services of inferior quality.
These clients don’t take the time to apply their resources to check the actual work quality, past results, ratings, and ROI of each agency before ordering. These clients sometimes get fooled by marketing agencies’ flashy offices, team sizes, and locations. However, when it’s time to receive their products or services, the value they receive is often worse than what a solo freelancer would provide.
There’s no harm in marketing agencies making fancy impressions and sales presentations, but charging triple or quadruple the price for delivering subpar services is unacceptable. It’s also been found that these marketing agencies call themselves a brand, but in reality, they provide no actual value to the buyers. It’s important to have perceived value in marketing and branding, but ultimately, what you have to sell is the product or service that reaches the customer’s or client’s hands. So, without providing real value, repeatedly sharing stories with perceived value will eventually yield no tangible results. And it’s the Stakeholders/customer’s responsibility to conduct proper due diligence to select the right vendor or agency before making an order. If the client or customer is busy, they must appoint a representative to conduct the proper due diligence.
Mention are some of the ways to find a great marketing agency, big or small – without getting tricked by false grandeur and appearance.
It’s always important for clients and customers to first obtain free quotations from both large and small agencies before finalizing an order with anyone. Then, check the marketing agency’s past work quality, actual/AI production quality, work quantity, registration status, authorization, Google reviews (not just in-house website testimonials), work process, pricing according to the scope of work involved, team members’ expertise and experience in the field, and the agency’s own marketing reach. Furthermore, interacting with past clients can provide invaluable insights into the agency’s reliability and effectiveness.
Let me share a real story with you to explain the importance of due diligence.
One of our clients, with whom we worked on a shoot-edit corporate documentary some time ago, reached out to us. The client was satisfied with our video agency’s work, and we have maintained a good professional relationship since then. In a recent meeting with him, we discovered that they went to a marketing agency in another city to create a PPT/brochure pitch deck presentation. Our client chose them because they provided PPT presentations, and our agency is not in that specific niche. Our client also had trust them because he has personally visited their office and found it to be larger, with a bigger team. The marketing agency also convinced him that they would provide a striking video of the same PPT for Rs. 30,000 (excluding GST). Our client forgot to inquire because he was unaware of our animation services. Moreover, he chose to do everything through the same place—PPT and video marketing. When he showed the PPT to us, it was priced twice as high as its quality warranted.
Then we asked our client to show the video they had made.…I was aghast to see the 1-minute 30-second video, which was of very inferior quality. It was a 2D explainer video with subpar animation, so simple that any freelancer could have done it at a maximum price of Rs. 5000, as the voice-over and script in the video were AI-generated. I told him, Sir, that if we had made it, it would have cost Rs. 10,000. However, since we don’t have a pipeline of such inferior quality, we refrained from doing it and offered better results, in fact, for a price even less than Rs.30,000. Now, our client is in an uncomfortable situation after discovering the true value of the products he bought by paying a hefty advance fee.
We suggest that all clients and stakeholders conduct proper due diligence before choosing any video or digital marketing agency. This essential step not only ensures that you align with an agency that meets your specific needs but also safeguards your investment. In today’s competitive landscape, partnering with a video or digital marketing agency that understands your vision and objectives is key to achieving impactful results. By taking the time to research and evaluate potential partners carefully, you can make an informed decision that propels your marketing efforts forward effectively.
As the famous saying – all that glitters is not Gold.