When it comes to growing your business, there are several different types of marketers out there that are offering to help you. All of them promise to make you more money, with a seemingly small investment. Often, the investments come with hidden costs that you are not aware of at the time of purchase. Today, I want to discuss the two main schools of thought in digital marketing, and how each one differs.
The first model of digital marketing is the “coaching” model. This practice works like this: you pay up front (an average of about $4,000-6,000.) You are given access to a private Facebook group, video lessons, and a weekly coaching “call” or Q & A session with the coach. You are given a suite of products and services to sign up for, and then learn to use via the video lessons. Yes, the coach is available to answer questions, however, this can sometimes come in the form of being told to just “go back to the video lessons.”
A savvy business owner would immediately see the pitfall in the pricing. Not that it is too expensive, but that it doesn’t have any LTV, and therefore, no incentive for the coach to provide service to the client. Unless you factor in the upselling.
Most coaches recognize that they are only making the initial payment, with no further money coming from the client. So, how do they earn more per client? They provide “exclusive” content or “personalized coaching”. This comes at an upcharge, usually less than or equal to the original fee they charged.
Recently, I was able to “audit” a call where a coach was introducing a new set of “lessons” to his clients. I was listening in, and the new program being offered was slightly more comprehensive than the original. The price was an additional $1,000 (his original fee was $3,000). During this presentation, the coach indicated that there would be a lot of “hard work” for his clients to do to be successful. At one point, he even admitted that he had just recently had his Facebook ads account suspended for not following guidelines. And he couldn’t BELIEVE that people weren’t signing up for the course. At that point, he essentially told everyone on the call that if they were not signing up, they were clearly not committed to being a top producer in their field, and proceeded to call them failures.
You might think that this is an anomaly, but it isn’t. In fact, this type of situation is all-too real in the digital marketing industry.
Let’s look at another model. This is the “service” model. This type of marketing is done for you by the company you hire. The company runs the ads, develops campaigns, sets up the systems and reports results regularly.
The marketing is done by actual marketing professionals that know their craft, and can demonstrate ROI without having to upsell you on another system.
Typically, costs for this model run less on the up front side (anywhere from $500-1,500, depending on the services provided). You’ll pay a monthly service fee, and then be free to handle your business.
The service model removes the opportunity cost of time spent learning and implementing the systems and tactics. It also removes the risk. As long as you can find a month-to-month provider, you can cancel your contract if results are not commensurate with your goals. With the coaching model, you have spent your money...and won’t be seeing a refund.
If you value your time and aren’t in the business of wasting your money, the service model is obviously the better choice. That’s why POSH is a service-based business. We do what we do best, so you can do what you do best.