Marketing, SEO & App Optimization for Marketplace Company
- Advertising Search Engine Optimization
- $10,000 to $49,999
- Feb. - Mar. 2021
- Quality
- 0.5
- Schedule
- 0.5
- Cost
- 0.5
- Willing to Refer
- 0.5
“The only thing they did well was to convince me to sign the contract.”
- Other industries
- Australia
- 11-50 Employees
- Phone Interview
- Verified
BrandBurp Digital was tasked with the development of a digital marketing campaign for a marketplace company. They were also responsible for handling SEO implementation and app optimization services.
Despite having positive reviews and a money-back guarantee, BrandBurp Digital did not meet expectations. The team delivered low-quality content and didn’t achieve any of the agreed-upon metrics, which negatively impacted the client’s business. The lack of communication was a point of contention.
A Clutch analyst personally interviewed this client over the phone. Below is an edited transcript.
BACKGROUND
Introduce your business and what you do there.
I’m one of the co-founders of Jobtick Pty Ltd, an Australian on-demand marketplace for home services. We are a brand-new company, and we were prepared to launch two months ago. Unfortunately, our marketing campaign didn’t go as planned.
OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE
What challenge were you trying to address with BrandBurp Digital?
We were ready to launch our platform, and we were looking for a company that could help us with a digital marketing campaign, SEO, and app optimization.
SOLUTION
What was the scope of their involvement?
We had a 12-month contract with BrandBurp Digital for digital marketing, SEO, and app optimization. The contract was very clear: we agreed to pay a 20% advanced payment, and the rest of the payment was based on monthly performance. In their contract, they assured us we’d reach milestones and goals based on a milestone plan.
After we paid the 20% advanced payment, it took them two weeks to start the project. On February 13, 2021, we had our first meeting; they started posting on Facebook and Instagram two days later.
What is the team composition?
A team of four people worked on our project.
How did you come to work with BrandBurp Digital?
We saw BrandBurp had five-star reviews on Clutch, and we thought that we could work with them. We also felt comfortable signing the contract knowing that everything was based on performance, and they had a 100% money-back guarantee.
We had two days of talking and negotiation, and then we signed a contract with them.
How much have you invested in them?
The total amount for the contract was about $44,460. We paid a 20% advanced payment of $8,892 via bank transfer.
What is the status of this engagement?
We signed the contract in February 2021, and a month later we stopped working with them because of a breach in contract.
RESULTS & FEEDBACK
Describe the impact this engagement has had on your business.
From day one, I was sure that they were not qualified nor professional. We had to review everything for approval before posting, and I had to spend hours editing and changing the content. They are an India-based company and in our negotiation, they assured us that they could work to Australian standards. Their English, content, and writing were way off standard. We kept correcting them, and I complained that their content and writing were very poor.
We weren’t able to publish or use the content provided. I insisted that if we were going to go ahead, we should have a content writer that fully knew English. They accepted that and said they would get a native Australian content writer. After a month of activities, we didn’t achieve any of the metrics that they guaranteed us. Then, they sent us an invoice for $2,200, which wasn’t part of the contract. The contract stated that they would invoice me when they reached the first monthly milestone.
Before we started working with BrandBurp, we had 3,000 followers on Instagram and LinkedIn. They started using bots to increase our reach, and our followers went up by thousands overnight. I reminded them that the contract was based on organic — not artificial — growth. I told them to stop doing those things as it wasn’t going to help. They said they only did it to get people believing that there are followers, but it wouldn’t be counted in the milestone plan.
At the end of the month, they insisted on getting paid again, which I refused. Within three days, they stopped all work. For four days, they didn’t post anything. I asked them why they stopped and let them know that discontinuing would be a breach of contract. We had a phone conversation, during which they told us they’d continue if we paid 50% of the invoice. I emailed them mentioning a non-performance claim, and they didn’t reply. From there, they ignored all of my requests or emails and completely shut down.
I could have had the opportunity to work with Australian digital marketing agencies. However, I saw the five-star reviews, and they promised us a lot more than an Australian agency, so we got carried away and went with them. We paid almost $9,000 and didn’t get anything in return for it. They have a 100% money-back guarantee in the contract if you are not satisfied with their work. Once we started complaining that we were not satisfied, they stopped working, and it was a complete shutdown.
Working with BrandBurp has almost taken us all the way down the hill. We were prepared to launch the app and start with a couple of hundred jobs a day. Similar apps in Australia have 20,000–30,000 transactions a day doing jobs on that platform. We hired a support team to be able to match the demand, but we had to stop operations.
Two months later, we haven’t gotten one job done on the platform. There are no advertising or social media campaigns — we were totally shocked. We had to pay the people that we employed and tell them that we weren’t launching yet. Financially, it has been a huge disaster for us. I would have a better opinion of them if they had communicated with me after getting the money. However, they didn’t reply to my emails.
How was project management handled?
The project management was handled very poorly. The only person who spoke to us was the sales team leader; I sent three emails to her, and she never replied.
The person in charge of SEO emailed me to apologize for what happened to us and told me that they had resigned because of the treatment we received from BrandBurp Digital. He told us that no one there knew what they were doing. He has been in charge of SEO for our project, but he wasn’t able to do what he wanted to do.
Every time we brought it to their attention that the content wasn’t up to our standards, they said sorry and that they would make the changes. In the beginning, they were cooperative, but the content and phrases they used were confusing and didn’t have meaning.
When they posted on Facebook or Instagram, they didn’t take into account the difference in time zones and posted at 2 a.m. AEST. — by the time people woke up, they wouldn’t see the post. We told them the timing had to be right and that they would change it. After a month, it was all talk and no action, since nothing changed.
Is there anything that the vendor did well or that you would consider a strength?
The only thing they did well was to convince me to sign the contract. I’ve been running a company for over 35 years and have worked all around the world, in the US, Africa, Middle East, and Asia. I am very familiar with international work and its advantages and disadvantages. They did a good job of getting me hooked into this deal, unfortunately.
In what specific areas can they improve?
They shouldn’t be in this business at all. They promise you their world but deliver absolutely nothing. In the contract, they guaranteed a lot of things, and I even said to my team that this was too good to be true. Everyone told me not to be negative because they had such good reviews. However, the only thing they were good at was selling their package.
What advice do you have for clients with similar needs to yours?
I’d recommend staying away from BrandBurp. If you believe it is too good to be true, it probably is. It doesn’t matter what reviews they have; never believe what is not achievable.
RATINGS
-
Quality
0.5Service & Deliverables
"I knew from day one that they couldn’t give what they promised, but they did it for the sake of getting money in advance."
-
Schedule
0.5On time / deadlines
-
Cost
0.5Value / within estimates
"Everything was wasted."
-
Willing to Refer
0.5NPS
"I would never recommend them.