Dear Client, Prospective Clients, and Colleagues,
Lead generation is my bread and butter core offering. I’ve been doing it for SMBs and large enterprise Global Fortune 500 clients over the last decade at agencies and corporate settings. The most commonly asked question I’ve come across from prospective clients during discovery calls is:
Do You Guarantee Results?
I know there are hundreds and even thousands of agencies out there that guarantee results and will even go so far as to say they will work for free after a certain amount of time if you don’t get any. Really, work for free? The reality of the matter is that most companies who end up working with agencies that guarantee results end up distraught and disappointed in the outcome. Why? Because these “fly-by-night” agencies or consultants over promised and couldn’t deliver. It’s disappointing to see prospective clients end up in the wrong hands and taken advantaged of by agencies that couldn’t fulfill their guarantee.
Being one that stands by integrity as a core value of my business, I believe in under promising and over delivering. I am not here to meet a sales quota, I am not here to take your money and run, I am here to serve you, my client, with my expertise and do my absolute best to generate performance. Of course, this all comes at the cost of my time, my resources, and my experience – all of which are things I VALUE, which is why I do not operate off of a pay-per-lead model.
To put it very bluntly, I don’t guarantee results, but I guarantee insights. I don’t mean to sound negative or pessimistic in any way, but if and when we work together, there’s a chance that results may not be there – for whatever reason. There are so many external factors that could play into the success of your campaign that cannot be controlled by any lead generation expert (ie: search demand, state of the economy, current events, industry seasonality, ad platform updates, cost per click inflation, etc).
As a boutique agency owner, I do my best to educate myself and my team on all of these external factors to prepare for our first 90-day journey together at the launch of your campaign. Prior to even accepting any client, I do my due diligence and research on demand in the marketplace to make sure there is a good fit so we’re all set up for success. My knowledge and expertise in Google, Bing, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram give me a strong foundation for campaign set up and all tech related skillsets to perform the task, however, understanding this is not enough to have a successful campaign.
There are 3 key elements to be set up for success:
- Technical Knowledge (20%)– Understanding the Ad Platforms best practices, knowing what settings to use for the best results, how to optimize, best campaign structure, landing page expertise.
- Understanding Your Customer (40%) – Understanding your customer persona(s), demographic profiles (location, gender, HHI, industry), their need states, how they search, what triggers them
- Understanding Your Business (40%) –What are your pain points? What is your core offering and how do you want to position it?
I come in from the very beginning with a minimum of the technical knowledge buttoned up, so you have 20% of the equation set up for success. Unless I have worked in your industry before, then I will need to learn about your target persona and understand your business. This is not something that happens overnight. Just like it may have taken you months or years to “figure it out” in your business and industry, it will require a learning curve on my end to understand how to best position you in the market. The last 2 key elements are acquired during the first 90 day campaign with us working together with your consistent feedback.
If, for any reason, your campaign performance is not generating results by the end of our first 90-day campaign, you will have insights into why. In fact, it shouldn’t surprise you at the 90 day mark as we will be working closely together to ensure all possible levers are pulled in order to get that best performance possible. Should the results not be up to your standards, I would understand and we can pivot in another direction.
Call it a risk to be doing business with marketers but it’s likely that you took many risks to get to where you are now. With high risks come high rewards although rewards are not guaranteed.
This is a bit of a unique blog for me to write as I’m not used to being so forward and blunt about “the downside” of what could happen. It wouldn’t be a fail as long as we learn from it and pivot in another direction with a new strategy. I am just being as honest and realistic as possible – as you deserve that from any marketing partner you decide to work with.
Warm Regards,
Michelle
