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Why You Aren't Seeing Results From Your Marketing Agency

If you're like many of our clients, you've worked with marketing agencies before—and you did not have a good time.

There are countless reasons why businesses leave one marketing agency for another, but one comes up more often than not: They didn't see any results.

Here's the thing. No matter what industry you're in, you want to work with a marketing agency that drives results, but do you know what kind to look for?

There are countless factors to unpack when it comes to working with a marketing agency that doesn't appear to be generating growth.

Do they know how to measure marketing ROI? Does your retainer agreement outline specific goals and objectives? Did your agency explain the difference between short-term quick wins and laying the groundwork for long-term success?

Here at Hudson Fusion, we know all too well how important it is to prove that we're a results-driven agency. Every single marketing strategy is designed, developed, and implemented with our client's goals in mind.

Are you looking back at your last marketing agency and wondering what went wrong? Here are a few likely culprits when it comes to disappointing results (or lack thereof):

1. Your Agency Made Promises They Couldn't Keep

If your marketing agency was more concerned with winning business than growing yours, then you may have run into this classic, tragic scenario.

Look—we're always telling our clients, "Oh yeah, we can definitely do that. Absolutely. No problem." Why? Because we can.

Unfortunately, when you're deep in the sales process with a marketing agency that's itching to get you to sign, they might make promises they can't keep. (Not to brag, but we literally never, ever do that...seriously.)

If you aren't working with a marketing agency that combines the right mix of expertise and expectation, then unfortunately, they're going to set you up to fail.

That's why we painstakingly built our team of creatives, strategists, and ambitious go-getters from the ground up. We find right-fit experts that cover everything from content and design to automation and UX/UI—so we can make promises AND see them through.

The right marketing agency will want you to win—but if they're promising you the moon, they're probably lying to you.

2. Your Agency Focused More on Things Instead of Results

Maybe you started your marketing agency relationship with a few specific, tangible objectives in mind. If you heard a lot of "We can do that for you," instead of "What goal do you hope to achieve with that?" then your agency probably wasn't in it for the right reasons.

When we talk to prospects and clients about what exactly they want, we make sure that they take a step back and think about it from a global perspective:

Client: I really want a PPC Google Ads campaign.

Hudson Fusion: Okay, that's great. What exactly do you hope to achieve there?

Client: Okay, so...I know that paid ads are a great way to bring in more web traffic. That's what we want.

Hudson Fusion: Great. Web traffic is a great place to start for a lot of different initiatives. And what goal do you have in mind? We can help you bring in qualified traffic, but is that your highest priority?

Client: Well, ultimately, we want to bring in new customers.

Hudson Fusion: Perfect. We can help with that. Google Ads may be a part of that strategy, but let's take a look at your industry, your market, and your business. There may be other opportunities for you to generate customers that will end up being more effective. That's where we come in.

Your marketing agency shouldn't be guaranteeing anything right off the bat. If you entered a retainer agreement where they promised you X amount of new customers, $XXX,XXX generated in sales, and XX amount of Page 1 SERP-ranking keywords, then you have a serious problem.

That's why we use The OSI Method, which stands for Objectives, Strategies, and Initiatives. We want to ensure that all of our efforts are laser focused on achieving your goals every step of the way.

  • Objectives are your long-term marketing goals.
  • Strategies are the areas of focus we develop to achieve each objective.
  • Initiatives are specific deliverables that are implemented to support each strategy.

Basically, we operate under the strict belief that marketing is—and should be—a dynamic, ongoing process. We're constantly analyzing, refining, and experimenting to keep you moving forward. Good marketers focus on benchmarks, but great marketers focus on value and scalability.

If we focused strictly on getting you web traffic, sure—we could do that, but what's the point if it doesn't connect back to the real objective?

3. Your Agency Didn't Set Realistic Expectations

At the end of the day, marketing agencies can only ever guarantee the best with what they're given.

Let's be real here. Time is money—and when it comes to keeping a marketing agency on retainer, the work we're able to do for you relies on the size of your retainer agreement.

Marketing retainers guarantee that you're working with a team of qualified experts you can rely on to fill in the knowledge, performance, and operational gaps you're experiencing in your marketing efforts. When you decide to outsource instead of relying on an in-house marketing team, you're betting on getting more bang for your buck.

That being said, nobody likes talking budget—but it's a really, really important conversation to have right from the start.

If you're securing the equivalent of 25 agency hours per month and their sales rep is promising a performance that would require a 70+ hour project, they're setting your business and your relationship up to fail.

4. Your Agency Confuses "Dynamic" with "On Demand"

You hired your marketing agency to help you make the right marketing decisions to position you for success. Neither of you can afford distractions.

Let's say your agency is working on a high-value lead generation campaign backed by industry insight and expertise, intricately and painstakingly designed and developed to help you achieve a specific objective. Suddenly, you remember that your sales team is heading to a tradeshow next week and you're working with an outdated brochure.

Do you want your agency to divert their time and effort away from their campaign to help you update your branded collateral?

From an agency perspective, the hardest word to utter in response to this kind of request is only two letters: No.

Trust us—we're doing it for you, we promise. We know exactly what the highest value activities are to help you continue growing, and if we're busy juggling small-scale demands and last-minute requests, the only thing we're doing is hurting you.

If your marketing agency didn't produce the results you expected, consider how many of these softballs you lobbed at them. Were they more concerned with yes-ing you to death than actually helping you succeed?

You may be happy to have a new brochure at the tradeshow, but when you're looking at your year in review and finding that your lead generation efforts never paid off, the only person you have to blame isn't actually a person—it's your agency.

At Hudson Fusion, we believe that the highest quality results come from the highest quality relationships.

We believe that the strongest client relationships are built on trust, honesty, and reliability. For our clients, we're not just an agency—we're an advocate. Whether they're years-long retainers or limited-scale projects, we provide personal, steadfast support for every single client.

We take an expert approach to creative exploration, using our award-winning design, content, and marketing prowess to develop one-of-a kind marketing solutions. Business growth is our ultimate goal, and we're happy to take the road less taken to achieve it for every client.

When it comes to results, we know exactly what you’re looking for: web traffic, qualified leads, customer conversions…the bottom line is you're looking for business growth.

Trust us, we’ve been there—and we know exactly how to get it. Don't settle for less when you can work with an agency dedicated to your success.

Want to learn more about working with Hudson Fusion? Let's set up some time to chat so we can learn a little bit more about each other. 

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How can we help you? Feel free to get in touch, and a member of our team will be with you shortly.

“We have a trusting bond and partnership with Hudson Fusion and we could not have picked a better agency”

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