HOW TO IDENTIFY A FRAUDULENT DIGITAL MARKETING AGENCY
Digital marketing has grown into a multi-billion-dollar business that small businesses and big companies globally use.
Because of this, it is become a very competitive market, with a never-ending number of people and businesses trying to out-perform the others.
Unfortunately, due to the competitive nature of the digital marketing environment, some fraudulent digital marketing agencies that claim to be expert digital marketers often engage in unethical practices.
These unscrupulous agencies make money by taking advantage of companies that mistakenly hire them.
There is a lot of fraud in the digital world. Internet fraud comes in many forms, and each one needs a different way to be stopped.
Fraud in digital marketing is often carried out through fake impressions, promises, clicks, and phoney leads. Part of your digital marketing strategy should be to identify these fraudulent digital marketing agencies.
If you run a business online, you likely have (or maybe even need) the help of a digital marketing agency.
It’s a good idea to hire trustworthy digital marketing services to help your business grow. But you’ve to do that if the company is legit.
So, how can you tell if a marketing agency is a scam that you should avoid like a plaque?
Before getting into how digital marketing agencies perpetuate their scams, let’s define fraud.
What Is Fraud?
Fraud is when someone tries to trick someone else by giving them false or misleading information on purpose. This is done to get an unfair advantage. Most people agree that unfair advantage in the digital marketing space can come in the form of fake promises and under-delivery of services
These agencies hide behind screens, use scams that look real, and swindle clients who don’t know they operate. Thank goodness that this article is meant to expose them.
How Can You Identify A Fraudulent Digital Marketing Agency?
1. They Often Claim They Have Found Issues With Your Website
If you look closely enough, almost every site on the internet has one problem or the other.
Hence some fraudulent digital marketing agencies use this as a trap to defraud unsuspecting clients.
That’s why you need Tradmill Digital Marketing as your essential web development agency in Sheffield to help your website stand out online.
We help you build a site that works well, gets a lot of traffic, and brings in leads.
2. Their Promises Are Always Too Good To Be True
You only need to be watchful when someone makes a promise that seems too good to be true.
Pay attention to how you feel when you first hear the digital agency’s sales pitch.
If they tell you they’ll get you to the top of Google search, get you results quickly, or give you a sure shot at ultimate success, it’s likely they’re trying to get you to give them your money.
That’s why you’ve to hire a that believes in delivering results, not over-promising.
3. They Are Difficult To Communicate With
The third sign is that it’s hard to get in touch with the agency on phone.
A genuine digital marketing agency will be glad to give you all the information you need to get in touch with them, starting with their phone number, which is usually the quickest and most effective way to communicate.
Still, you have to be careful because you don’t know if the number will still work the following week.
Have as many ways to get in touch with the agency as possible. It’ll make it easier to contact them.
4. Method Of Payment
Please be careful if the only way to pay a digital marketing agency is by bank transfer.
In some parts of the world, credit card companies have strict rules about if an agency can accept credit card payments or not.
So, passing a credit card screening is one of the things that prove credibility. In the early days of digital marketing, many places only accepted bank transfers. Now, the situation is different.
5. Paid Quotes
It may be a scam for a digital marketing agency to make you pay for the estimate without telling you ahead of time.
Even the fact that you have to pay the estimate is a bit of a strange practice. Even more so if the agency doesn’t make it clear in black and white how the estimate will be paid.
In the second case, what was once a questionable practice has turned into a scam.
One of our new clients recently told us that she had been taken advantage of in this way. We gave the offending agency a chance to explain itself. Yet, all their explanations didn’t point in a reasonable direction.
6. Search For Reviews And Rating of The Agency
79% of online buyers start their research of the genuineness of a business by looking at what other people say about it.
So, if you look up digital marketing agencies’ reviews and reputations, you can figure out if they’re patronising. If you aren’t convinced, take your money elsewhere.
The reason is that a bad name comes with any agency that cheats.
In addition, you can check up on Google Business and other sites. Also, you can read employee reviews. If the workers have a lot of work, you can hardly expect them to make detailed proposals.
So, you can figure out if the workers have a heavy workload by looking at what they say about their jobs. If they don’t sound enthusiastic and eager to work, you can take your hard-earned money elsewhere.
It is very important to check up on a digital marketing agency’s reviews and ratings before hiring it.
7. Avoid Digital Marketing Agency Websites Without SSL Certificates
SSL is a technology that encrypts communication between browsers and servers. Many legitimate websites use SSL, and their URLs start with “HTTPS://.”
Websites that don’t use SSL have URLs that start with “HTTP://.”
A closed key mark on the left side of the browser’s address bar shows that a site is SSL-encrypted.
There are now some fake sites that have switched to SSL Certificates since their price has gone down.
It’s also important to note that merely having an SSL doesn’t make some agencies authentic.
8. Observation of Suspicious Behaviours
People who commit fraud usually act in strange or unusual ways, which, when looked at carefully, can be a good indicator of fraud.
A customer-centric digital marketing agency should keep to words and promises made to clients. They should deliver their services before or at the set date.
If you discover they repeatedly renege on their promises, bail with your money.
If you’re in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, you can contact the best digital marketing agency in Sheffield to render prompt services to you.
9. They Use Big Words But Can’t Explain What The Numbers Mean.
Fraudulent digital marketing agencies are known for making big claims that they can’t back up. They might use words like “engagement,” “generate leads”, “great traffic,” or “brand awareness” that are popular right now.
Hve you ever come across an agency promising to make your website generate a fixed number of website visitors in a month?
If you’ve, know that
That’s a red flag. And it’s enough reason to take your money elsewhere because no one can rightly predict the number of traffic a website will get at a time.
10. Telling Lies About Their Past Clients’ portfolios
When you want to put money into digital marketing, you should find and hire a digital marketing agency that has been around for a long time.
It is a well-known fact that marketers who use false pretences use them to their advantage.
So, they make up marketing campaigns to try to show their past work and make them feel like they have experience.
Some people will just use analytics from past clients to show a higher success rate and call it their own.
Tradmill Digital Marketing Agency in Sheffield decided to compose this article to help you avoid the danger of handing your digital marketing campaigns to any fraudulent digital marketing agency.
Contact us and hand your campaigns over to a Sheffield digital marketing agency that knows what it takes to help you make more money than you’ll pay.
If your business needs a digital transformation or any digital online advice, you should go ahead and get in touch with Tradmill Digital Marketing. You will fall in love with the results that these specialists can offer you in the long run! Call us on 07818 406870 or email us at paul@tradmill.co.uk
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