Is Your Digital Agency Really a Dementor Waiting for a Kiss?

I read a news article this week, and still cannot believe/stomach what was said. It talked about the hardships local small businesses have gone through and some how they are able to overcome them. My heart genuinely goes out to them. I LOVE small businesses. I have always loved them, even before we became one in late 2010.

What stunned me to my core was how a digital company shared how they were struggling and what they did to overcome their "struggle" was raise rates on local businesses.

What. The. SEO. is. That?!

Let me tell you what this translates to as someone who has worked in the digital space as a business owner for 12 years...

Any digital company/agency, regardless of in house (us) or offshore (vast majority) labor, that can look a local business in the eye who has dealt with shutdowns, restrictions on how and when they can serve customers (inside and those performing work outside), has difficulty getting materials, manufacturing material, getting price increases for materials, having local restrictions prevent workers from working or make it more difficult, have employees who have lost access to childcare or in school learning, leaders working in the field to support their medical staff, and so much more, then has the astronomically sized balls says to these local business that their digital agency needs to raise rates "because COVID" is giving local businesses the Ultimate Dementors Kiss.

If your digital marketing agency / company is pitching this "hardship" to you, then here is why he is going to a full on Dementor's Kiss...

Maybe with a little tongue to it...

Digital agencies and companies have significantly less overhead than SMB's.

Most outsource, offshore - basically pay someone 10-25% what you pay a US worker. If they use 3rd party tools, they are passing that cost off on you at retail. They do not need an office. They know how to work virtually before it was cool. They aren't ordering supplies or equipment. They don't wake up and say I hope Google / Meta / Facebook / Instagram / TikTok / Mailchimp / YouTube / Hulu / Pandora / Spectrum Reach / Podium, etc. can deliver those impressions/clicks/calls/purchases/store visits/form submissions. No COVID restriction can stop our work in the digital marketing, free or paid, including SEO, space. These "SEO companies" are busy shortcutting SEO with WordPress (the most hacked website CMS of all time year after year by Sucuri and GoDaddy) like using tags as design elements anyways... They aren't changing / optimizing them every month either btw. And you can't pay them to increase your rank on GMB either... but, don't let me get off track...

What About Employee Pay as a Hardship for Hiring and Retention for Digital Marketing / SEO Companies.

You're right. The person at Buc-ee's or McDonald's might get paid more than the girl answering the phone for $15/hour. However, ask anyone in the SEO or digital marketing space who has been in it for more than 3-6 weeks, and they will tell you no one doing SEO or marketing skilled labor is being paid that in the US.

Digital Marketing Companies are Notorious for Outsourcing Offshore and Here is Why.

The average STARTING base for a Digital Marketer in the US is 60-70k, SEO with 0-1 year's experience is about 55-65k. The AVERAGE SALARY in India $4-5k, $6-7k in the Philippines, and even Canada is $35-45k for digital marketing and 45-55k for SEO.

So cry me a river digital marketing and SEO companies. To them, its okay to cut costs, increase profitability even if the quality, turn around time, performance is not as good. These companies usually hold you ransom anyways by claiming ownership over your Analytics, Website, Social Media pages and more... If they want to impress someone, they need to pay them an American wage salary to someone working for them outside of the USA...

COVID can hurt us, but we have more flex than most local businesses.

I am extremely proud to say that at Kill Your Competition? and Chat2Pro that we have not raised client rates, continued to honor LEO, Military/Veteran discounts, grandfathered discounts, continued free education, volunteering, partnered with others to help SMB's like Contractor Coach Pro.

We have paid our workers more, covered some of their hours over the holidays so they could still enjoy theirs, and cancelled our holiday vacation (which is the one time a year we see our son in the Marines) and when a few client's couldn't pay (sometimes for a few months) we always made sure their payroll was met before ours. If there wasn't enough for us, we trusted God to help us make our personal bills, and we got by.

Our ONLY job in marketing is to help businesses grow, become more profitable and create new jobs as a result.

Not to take advantage during someone's difficult time because we have a specialized skill.

Have a Dementor for a Digital Marketing / SEO / Social Media Company?

If you have a Dementor for a Digital Marketing company and want off that train, message me or message us on our website. We got the chocolate and the Patronus charms lined up. We will review your contract and options with you with honesty and integrity, even if you plan to bring it all in house. A rising tide lifts all boats.

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