The digital marketing industry has grown exponentially in the past decade and thus encompassed many industries in the market. From small businesses to major corporations, it has become a crucial aspect if you want your business to succeed. That said, because of it, the market has been highly competitive in terms of digital marketing.
Unfortunately, predatory digital marketing companies have emerged because of this competitiveness, promising their clients outstanding digital marketing services for a low price to rip them out of their money. With the use of fraudulent practices, not only will your business come to a loss, but it can also have big damage to your business’s reputation.
It can even blacklist your business on Google. To become aware of the types of scams that these fake expert digital marketers use for their prey, here are some examples of the digital marketing scams that every business owner should know about.
Promises of Major Directory Listings
For most industries today, directory listings are a huge source of value and visibility for your business. With these listings, your business will earn a lot of exposure, and it will add value that can entice potential customers to invest or use the services your business offers.
Several directory listings are directly related to your business’ niche, and there are also well-established directories that relate to several industries like the BBB, Yelp, HomeAdvisor, Angie’s List, etc.
On the other hand, you have online directories that have no relevance to your business’ niche, are low quality, and have no potential value that could help your business at all. This is the basis of one of the most common digital marketing scams that scammers use to rip you off your money.
They promise you to put your business in top-quality directory listings but instead use these useless directory listings for an expensive price rate. In the end, you’ll pay a lot of listings that offer no value to your business. You can even damage your brand if your clients find out that your business is listed in these useless directory listings.
Website Repair
While not all websites are created perfectly and may even have some technical problems, business owners should be aware of digital marketers calling your business and telling you that your website needs repair. They will list down all the fixes your website needs and offer you repair services for a high price. These are done by churn-and-burn digital agencies that trick you into thinking that your website needs repair, even though it’s how it should be.
If you do get a call from these so-called professional digital marketers who suddenly start listing your website’s issues, don’t jump on board right away. Ignore them the moment you see red flags.
Instead, you can contact your web developer and ask if your website is working as intended. They will then inspect and fix your website if any technical issues arise. Or you can find a legit professional digital marketer and ask for a consultation.
SEO Hack
Unless a digital marketer has a breakthrough on how the Google algorithm works, no one can guarantee you a fast way to the top for Google’s search engine. No marketing agency has managed to break through just yet, and even if someone did, Google would just adjust their algorithm anyway.
That said, legitimate digital marketers like Gorilla 360 will never offer you any guarantee in terms of SEO rankings but instead will give you the tools to climb the rankings. So if a digital marketer told you that they know of a hack or a trick to break through Google’s algorithm and offer to help you get to the top of Google’s search engine, don’t believe them.
Unreliable digital marketers use this technique to oblivious business owners to try and get their business. They will paint scenarios of high conversion rates, tripled organic traffic, endless leads, higher ROI, etc. Basically, they will hustle you out of your money by guaranteeing you that you will be at the top of Google’s search engine in a short time.
Buying Social Media Followers
If you’re big on social media, you know that business is good when it has many followers with the right audience. With the right audience and tons of followers, conversion rates will be high, and your profit will also be high. That said, if digital marketers offer to help your business gain a lot of followers, do a double-take.
This scam works by buying or making fake profiles to follow your business. Not only will this be a loss to your business, but it can also hurt its reputation for making it seem spammy or sketchy.
Final Words
Unfortunately, these types of scams still exist nowadays because many business owners still fall victim to these so-called professional digital marketers. That said, by reading this article, you will now be aware of some of the most common digital marketing scams you can likely find anywhere. If you need some help with digital marketing, you can find a lot of legitimate digital marketers in the market.