You’re probably here because you’ve been made aware of what a Unicorn Marketing Agency is, or maybe you’ve encountered one and want to know how to protect yourself and your company from their deceitful practices.
To avoid the dangers of a Unicorn Marketing Agency, you must begin by understanding what one is. But first, I must warn you: What you are about to read will open your eyes to a world that exists all around you, but you just haven’t noticed it before; a world you can’t come back from. The terrifying world of unicorn marketing.
If you find yourself face to face with what you believe is a Unicorn Marketing Agency there are 3 ways you can identify it.
- They make promises that sound too good to be true.
If you’re on the hunt for a marketing partner and find yourself interviewing a marketing agency making promises that sound too good to be true … congrats! You’ve caught yourself a unicorn, and it’s probably best you put the skittles down and run away as fast as you can. Here are some common promises they might use to trick you:
- X amount of clients in X amount of time
- Overnight results
- High ROI accompanied the lowest quote you’ve received
The reality of marketing is that it’s not a magical button you push to fix all of your revenue problems. It’s an ongoing, essential part of any organization and must be treated as such if you ever expect to get lasting, consistent results.
2. They offer no strategy, only tactics.
You’re suspicious the agency you’re considering might be a Unicorn Marketing Agency but you’re not certain. They haven’t made any unreasonable promises but you still have your doubts. Another way you can tell if they are a unicorn Marketing Agency is if they confuse tactics with overall strategy.
This is a sneaky way these agencies might scheme their way into your business and slowly suck your marketing budget dry with no results. If they claim social media will single-handedly increase your leads or SEO will solve your revenue woes, then you might as well go outside and hand out money to strangers–at least they’ll never forget you.
Your marketing must be executed through a solid marketing strategy driven by your organizational goals. Tactics should only exist under a well-thought-out marketing strategy.
“Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.” ~ Sun Tzu
- You get no, or bad, results.
Typical marketing efforts take 6-9 months to achieve results (if you’re curious why, head over here). If you find yourself in a long-term relationship with your marketing agency and haven’t seen results, you may have been subject to the unicorn tactics listed above. But don’t feel bad; unicorns are crafty. It’s why there are so many out there!
Unfortunately, you won’t identify a Unicorn Marketing Agency this way unless you already chose to work with one. While it may seem catastrophic to learn you’re working with a Unicorn Agency, trust us, it’s never too late to get away.
Unicorn Marketing Agencies are one of the biggest threats to your organization’s success. At Liger, we’ve distanced ourselves from unicorn-like messages to make it easier for us to distinguish ourselves. In fact, we don’t even call ourselves an agency. Instead, we call ourselves a marketing firm.
Liger doesn’t promise rainbows and fluffy kittens. We build marketing machines that are consistent, as reliable as craving Chick-Fil-A on a Sunday. If you’re serious about building a marketing approach that delivers predictable results–hire Liger.
If you want a firm that promises overnight success, keep searching for a unicorn–we’ll send you some Unicorn bait.