FAQ: Why Would We Hire You Instead Of A Full-Service Advertising/Branding Agency?

I don't know your reasons, but I do know that...

...Agencies measure success and their employees get pay increases and promotions when they win awards, not when their clients make money. You can read Nissan's horror story with a famous agency. Most of an agency's work is based on pre-created templates, called proprietary approaches, with little regard for your company's uniqueness.

Imagine an agency copywriter with a daily to do list from his boss...

1. Write a newspaper ad for a toothpaste company


2. Write a corporate brochure for a law firm


3. Write a website landing page for a grocery store


4. etc.

It's not about creating but about mass-producing stuff.

But let's look at the differences between agencies' buzz building approach and good direct response marketing...

Most agencies work on an hourly rate: They multiply the number of hours by the cost of their employees. Mark that number up by 4-600% and then add their 15-20% profit margins. And now they're ready to dispense a certain amount of time on you. There is nothing about the results you want to achieve. They spend time... on... whatever... and you pay for it regardless of value.

They say advertising cannot be tracked and quantified. You just keep doing more of it but never know how it works. Would you waste your money that way?

My past clients have hired me because...

1. As a former buyer, I know the psychology of the "savvy" buyer we want to market to


2. My fee represents the value they perceive in my help and support. They get what they pay for


3. My focus is on improving results not merely on aesthetics, fuzzy feelings, "buzz", "brand awareness" or dispensing hours


4. As we work together, you learn more and more of how to do this yourself the next time. Yes, I believe in knowledge sharing and making clients independent of me

And one more consideration. When you hire an agency, most of the work gets farmed out to freelancers anyway, and you pay the agency a brokerage fee. You don't know about this because you pay a fully inclusive price for the agency's services. But the agency hires some competitively priced - a.k.a. mediocre - freelancers to get the work done. Just take a closer look at Craigslist. There are lots of "Wanted" ads for various freelancers for $10-15 per hour.

Here are some going hourly rates in 2002 as per BtoB Magazine: ASP/Cold Fusion, coding $150; Flash $138, design $125; project management $150; strategy $195; database administration $165, copywriting $123; basic HTML $120.

The agency would go broke by hiring such true professionals. You just have to decide whether or not your brand and revenue projection are worth than $15 an hour.

Would this approach work for your company?

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