DIGITALGURU

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the director of an online fitness business. We sell bodyweight and calisthenics fitness education.

What challenge were you trying to address with No Standing?

I’m not tech-savvy, so I wanted SEO and digital marketing assistance. I wanted them to run social media ads for me.

What was the scope of their involvement?

No Standing was tasked to assist me with social media, and they suggested doing SEO to improve search results. They were taking care of my Facebook account, and they were also going to take care of Google.

What is the team composition?

I had three different account managers in three months.

How did you come to work with No Standing?

They initially reached out to me and told me they could assist me with their work. They were nice people; I didn’t consider any competitors.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent between $10,000–$15,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from July–September 2021.

How did your relationship with the vendor evolve?

They went radio silent for the first five days of the contract; I didn’t get a reply to any email o phone call. They ended up refunding me for the first 12 days because there wasn’t any communication on their part. After that, there were times where they’d say they’d get things to me, but they didn’t. For example, it took them 20 days to provide some SEO content to review. That’s why I canceled their service.

Describe the impact this engagement has had on your business.

They provided some data about the cost per click on the ads we ran. However, they didn’t complete any work.

How was project management handled?

They did poorly. Our only channels of communication were phone and email.

Is there anything that the vendor did well or that you would consider a strength?

To be honest, there wasn’t anything.

In what specific areas can they improve?

Timeliness and communication are the primary things they need to improve upon. Their biggest flaw was their lack of timely replies. It’s important to do things on time when you pay a monthly retainer for a service; otherwise, you’re essentially paying for nothing.

What advice do you have for clients with similar needs to yours?

Don’t pay an invoice upfront; pay in retrospect to incentivize them to do their job. If they receive money before the service, it’s easy for them to provide poor service or not provide it at all.

Secondly, give them a clear outline of your expectations. It can be challenging if you’re not well-versed in digital marketing, but it’ll be difficult to get a result if you don’t know what you’re paying for. I was met with lots of technical jargon, but I couldn’t really measure anything.