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If you're going to expand your business through online marketing, you should do so with certain caution. Scammers exist everywhere, even on the lucrative space of online marketing.

Ever tried to hire a marketing company for an exciting campaign, only to pull back at the last minute because something about the whole affairs doesn’t sit right with you? No? Well, if you are planning on hiring companies online any time soon, you will at some point.

The digital world is dark and full of terrors. And one of the darkest sides of it comes from the various online scams. Thieves and trickery await you in places you never expect.

There is an increasing number of fake marketing agencies that dupe business owners and managers who haven’t gotten comfortable with the digital world. False promises are made and never delivered, and you only lose a giant amount of money.

Yet, the impact of digital marketing can’t be denied in today’s age. You can’t simply avoid the entire horizon full of content marketing, PPC, SEO and other such exciting opportunities that should help you put your companies name out in the world.

As such, the only way to battle this problem is to arm yourself with knowledge on how to spot those scammers. We have some essential trips on that regard.

1. Promises of directory listing:

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If you get your company registered on a high-quality list, your company will certainly increase in value and gain some visibility. However, the online world is filled with directories. Not all of these directories get you the promised lead or show any visible change in business.

For most customers, directories such as HomeAdvisor, Houzz and even the likes of Yelp are quite trusted. The directory you should aim for depends on the industry your business belongs to. There are directories for lawyers, real estate businessman, and so on. These directories should help you reach new customers and increase conversion rates.

The downside of all these is your potential of coming in contact with a scam marketer who will goad you to provide your information to low quality directories and even ask for a large sum in return.

It’s not that they don’t do the work of sending your information to certain directories, but they will mainly send them to useless ones that won’t in any way help your company. They will just show you that they have done their job. Quite frankly, getting your name in some third-rate directory can actually be harmful for your brand reputation.

If you select a marketing agency and they talk about these directories, ask them for exact details on these directories. Be aware of in no uncertain terms exactly how being on that directory will be good for your company. Ask them to show you actual examples of people who have benefitted from it.

2. Digital marketers who suggest something is wrong with your website:

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It’s inevitable that your website isn’t perfect. Especially if it’s a new one, it’s bound to have some technical issues as well as ones from a marketing perspective. The UI could be clunky, the overall aesthetics of the page could be not up to par. However, this doesn’t mean you should believe any digital marketer who calls you up and say they can fix specific problems with your website.

There are digital marketing agencies out there that scour the net looking specifically for websites that supposedly have something wrong with their website without having any idea as to whether it is made purposely. Your website developer might have set up your website a certain way based on certain criteria.

If you get a call from a professional, stating these issues with your website, don’t panic and hire them immediately. First, you should have a conversation with your web developer. Mention those issues to gouge whether they have purposely set up a certain way and how changing it could be harmful to your website.

If it’s a technical problem, the website developer is more equipped to fix it anyway. Otherwise, you could also contact a digital marketing agency yourself and have a free demo at first. You could decide whether you want to hire them after you have seen the benefits of changing your website pattern.

3. Client portfolio

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Maybe you really need a digital marketing agency to help you in your marketing endeavors. One of the first things you should be on the lookout for is the work portfolio of the company.

Which companies have they worked with before? How have they helped those companies achieve their marketing goals? What were the results? Was there a visible change in the company’s conversion rate before and after hiring the marketing agency?

Finding a company with a good work portfolio isn’t the end of it all though. You have to first verify whether they have actually worked with the ones they claim to have. There are quite a large number of digital marketing agencies in the market who fake their client list.

There are scammers who make create entire fake campaigns to fool people when in reality, they have had no definite marks in the marketing world.

This is why you need to be calm and cautious every step of the way. Not only do you need to look at their client list, but you also need to inspect each part of those client testimonies.

Go to their party platforms to check their ratings and how their clients have reviewed them. You don’t want to end up hiring amateurs who claim more than they are capable of delivering.

4. Social media marketing scams

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If you want your business to go anywhere in this era, you will need to make full use of your social media pages. If used correctly, Facebook and Instagram bring about a huge amount of traffic that no listing on directory could ever achieve.

If we assume, you’re someone who hasn’t gotten the hang of social media yet, you’re probably looking to hire a marketing agency. There are people who would claim they have a wider audience reach over others. That somehow, they understand how to get more engagement than you could get on your own.

Instead, what they truly do is create thousands of fake profiles to increase your followers count. These are bots invading your website while you continue to pay your marketing agent. A high count of fake profiles doesn’t exactly lead to the purchase of product or service, does it?

Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter also have some preventive measures that gets rid of fake profiles. Too much of it and they could suspect something is wrong with your social media page as well. It also looks suspicious to your actual followers.

Your agent could also be claiming engagement and conversion rates that don’t show the true picture based on their analytical tools. Before you fall for any of it, you should sit down with them and have them explain in thorough detail how they plan on marketing your profile. What are their tools of choice? How do they plan on reaching a new audience?

An argument could be made that you don’t need a marketing agency at all for social media. If you pay Facebook and Instagram directly, they would provide you with a huge number of monitoring and promotion tools. In that case, the only thing standing between you and a successful campaign is your own lack of experience with social media.

If you have confidence that you can overcome that, forego marketing agencies. If you don’t think so, make sure to check and recheck every promise these agencies make.

Conclusion

If you absolutely need digital marketing agencies to promote your company but don’t know how to find the right one, you can start by asking for recommendations. Call up companies that have marketing campaigns similar to the one you visualize for your company and they should be able to direct you to legit digital marketers.

Whatever you do, do not fall for scammers. Thoroughly verify every digital marketing company that comes in contact with you. Third-party reviewing platforms exist so business owners can evade becoming the victim of a scam. Make use of the very online facilities available to you!