I just had a casual contact excitedly tell me she has hired a marketing company to help her build her fledgling business. No problem for me, I’m not competition minded. I believe in abundance – there’s enough work for everyone. What I don’t believe in is companies that overstate their expertise and take advantage of people who don’t know any better or what to look for when qualifying a potential partner.

While I sincerely hope it works out for her I can’t help but think she’s fallen victim to a slick sales pitch or hard to believe, too good to be true pricing scheme. Why might I think such a pompous thought? I went to the marketing company’s web site.

The first thing I noticed was the ads at the top of the web site for GoDaddy. Now I’m all for reducing operating costs, but seriously, getting free hosting (the site proudly proclaims this in the most valuable real estate on the site) saves a whole $20 a month. Wow. I know things are tight but…. really?

But the real issue here is that any marketing company worth it’s salt would understand that this sends a negative brand message to anyone visiting the site. Not only does it scream “SMALL AND AMATEUR”  it detracts from focusing the attention on the firm and it’s work. Another negative is that it allows a visitor a number of options to simply leave the site at the click of the mouse. And it’s ugly.

I could go on about their clip art logo, their template based free web site, the poor grammar and more but I won’t. This isn’t about trashing another marketing firm.

I’m hoping that I can help you choose better, get better results and know what to look for when hiring outside help. And the web site is a treasure trove of clues as to the sophistication of your potential partner.