Often, people wonder why they couldn’t develop their website or execute their digital media marketing, either by themselves, with a less costly freelancer, or even why not do it with a large, traditional agency. Here is why.
Freelancers
There are many kinds of freelancers; some of them are located internationally, others nationally, and some are local. Here are some of the most important considerations why we believe that hiring a freelancers may be a gamble when it comes to designing your new website:
Quality. More often than not, freelancers are going to focus on one of three items: design, development, or marketing—but not all of them. In order to have a successful project, you’ll need all three of those aspects to work together.
Warranty. Especially when working with international freelancers, you’ll find that what you thought were “standards” or “best practices” sometimes are not the same in other countries. For example, deadlines or scope of work are things that make sense in the context of US laws and regulations. In essence, if you sign a contract with a US-based provider, you can go to a court and ask the provider to abide by the clauses of the contract that you signed together. However, when dealing with an international provider, you’ll have very little recourse if they decide to not follow through.
Work Ethic. Freelancers often subscribe a little too closely to the “free” part and they may want your money for free. Sometimes freelancers have other jobs, responsibilities, or even passions and areas of focus. They may not be fully committed to making your project a success. Often, their freelancing work comes secondary to other things, and they may not have a high-level work ethic. Designing, building, and promoting a website is not an easy task, and as such, it is necessary to have strong planning skills and, most importantly, execution skills. And unfortunately, sometimes freelancers lack either of those skills or even both.
They may bite more than they can chew. Many times, we have received questions from freelancers that want help with a project because they don’t have the technical know-how to complete it. They just said yes to anything that their client asked in the proposal, thinking that they would be able to figure it out as they went. However, very often, the skills needed to complete a project on the web involve years of experience, long hours of study, and they may even require a combination of creativity and programming skills. Sometimes the problem gets even worse when the freelancer has already used the money that their client paid upfront, then they realize that they have no way of seeing the project to completion, and they have no money to either hire a professional or return it to the client. The client ends up with no website and loses their money.
They don’t have enough resources or alternative solutions. Sometimes in a project, tons of unexpected expenses can happen. As much as every agency tries for that not to be the case. There are times when things don’t go as planned. A freelancer has a much more difficult time coming up with alternatives that lead to solutions because sometimes those solutions involve additional money, additional people, or both.
Leadership. Some freelancers are excellent leaders, and as such, they can guide the project to success.They bring people together, they put together a plan that makes sense for the client and for themselves, and they execute on that plan. However, sometimes freelancers are not gifted with leadership skills. They don’t know how to lead a team of people, they don’t know exactly what they are doing, and therefore they feel nervous. Their nervous energy is sensed by the client and the stakeholders as timidity or even a lack of confidence or competence. Therefore, they have tons of difficulty bringing the project to completion.
That’s why freelancers can become a higher risk.
Agencies
Traditional agencies, although less risky than freelancers, also present problems for contemporary digital marketing execution.
Agencies have tons of people on staff, each with a salary. They often have an office, fixed expenses, and a need to turn a profit for the shareholders. All of these things play a role in how flexible they can be to make your project successful rather than make it exactly what is signed on the dotted line.
Unscrupulous agencies often see the need to charge their clients for things that they know their clients don’t need, just to increase their billing. Some agencies even have trouble saying no to the client, even when they know the client shouldn’t be hiring them.
Also, some agencies lower their arms after proving themselves to the client. At first, they start with great energy and intensity. But as time progresses, they move into more “attractive” projects and dedicate less and less time, energy, and resources to other projects. They don’t pay attention to their customers and probably don’t mind if some of them leave.
We often hear from new clients how they felt unheard from their previous agency. They often report that their former agency treated them well at the beginning, but later didn’t give them the same level of attention anymore.
Why is Merkados unique?
Merkados is uniquely positioned because we are a small, boutique agency. Internally, we have design, development, and marketing know-how. And most remarkably, we do it all in English and in Spanish. With our AIM System, we provide a 360-degree approach to digital media marketing: from the creation of professional business photography, videography, content marketing, SEO, paid advertising management, email marketing, creative services, social media administration, reputation management, analytics, branding, web development, and more.
We are a small team, and therefore you don’t get brought into heavy contracts for the sake of paying tons of salaries. Also, we are located in RDU, North Carolina, and therefore we provide a real warranty for our services. We are small enough to be flexible in what we see that is needed for a particular client, and we adapt to capitalize on what works to bring the best results.
We don’t waste time in long meetings about the monthly clicks to a PDF file on your website. We don’t waste our client’s time and energy by attempting to train their staff on how to maintain and promote their website online. We consider that our job. We, instead, take responsibility for your digital media marketing in a holistic way. We do it for you: strategy and branding, design and development, maintenance and promotion, measurement and everything in between.
That’s why Merkados is different. If you are interested in learning more about what Merkados can do for you, contact us today!