How to Avoid Getting Ripped Off By Marketers

It’s not uncommon for people to feel let down, ripped off, frustrated, disappointed or completely exasperated when they work with marketers. And it makes me sad.

Lisa Slater

30 Apr 2025 — 5 min read

It’s not uncommon for people to feel let down, ripped off, frustrated, disappointed or completely exasperated when they work with marketers. And it makes me sad because it shouldn't happen so often, and it could be prevented.

Yes, there are some absolute charlatans out there who will take your money with no intention of getting you results. But these aren’t as common as you might think. And they aren’t the biggest cause of the problem.

Marketing is a big industry filled with lots of specialisms – designers, copywriters, videographers, strategists, social media managers, SEO consultants, and on it goes.

And some of those specialists only understand the area they specialise in.

They can create awesome content for you, but it’s up to you to work out how to get it in front of the right people.

They can build you a brilliant website, but you need a plan to get people to that website.

They can build an audience for you on social media, but you need to have an offer good enough to convert followers into customers.

Unfortunately, many people don’t understand they are only investing in one part of the marketing and sales process. And so, when the thing they have invested in doesn’t generate lots of new leads or sales, they think it has failed.

But has it really failed?

If you get a fancy promo video, but don’t have a strategy for getting it in front of the right people, has your videographer ripped you off?

If a web designer builds you a brilliant website, but that website doesn’t get any visitors, is that web designer rubbish?

If you pay a social media consultant to build a social media following for you and they grow your audience, but none of your followers become paying clients, has the consultant failed?

You got the thing you asked for, just not the results you wanted. So who is at fault?

Yes – marketers should ask the right questions about what you want from them. But you also need to be clear about your expectations.

And to do that, you need to understand how the thing you’re investing in fits with your marketing and sales process.

It’s too easy to jump on the latest trend or do something because it works for other people without considering whether it’s right for your business.

Even if you aren’t paying an expert, you’ll get better results from your marketing if you understand the basics of marketing and sales.

Marketing and sales simplified

When you look at marketing and sales, it’s one big process. You might hear it referred to as a marketing funnel or a sales funnel – I hate the term funnel, so I refer to it as a process. And I like to keep that process simple.

First, something gets the attention of a potential buyer – a social media post, an advert, a direct message, an email, a leaflet through the door. This is the attract stage – you attracted their attention, got on their radar, made them aware of your existence.

So they follow you, connect with you, click through to your website, subscribe to your emails, download your brochure or make an enquiry – and now they are in the nurture stage.

This is where you get them interested in what you’re offering, make them want it and earn their trust enough for them to buy from you. You can do this with your website, brochures, social media content, videos, blogs, emails, webinars etc.

Then comes the conversion part – getting them to take action, agree to your terms and part with their cash.

How long they stay in the nurture stage depends on several factors, including what you sell and how urgently they need it.

For example, if you offer urgent boiler repair and someone has a broken boiler, they will usually make a buying decision pretty quickly. This means you’ll probably focus most of your marketing efforts on the attract stage – investing in SEO or ads to make sure you’re in front of them at the right time.

If you sell coaching or consulting, you might need to spend a little longer showing people the benefits of working with you and gaining their trust through your content.

Understanding your customers will help you figure out the best marketing activities to invest in at each stage and how to join them up so people move through the process smoothly.

And that leads us to one of the most overlooked elements of marketing – understanding who your ideal clients are and their needs, challenges, and motivations.

If you don’t understand who you want to attract or why they would buy whatever it is you sell, it makes the entire marketing process extremely difficult.

This is another reason so many marketing efforts fail. If you invest in a marketing service without being clear about who you want to attract or how you help them, you usually end up attracting the wrong people.

Then you end up with loads of followers or connections who will never buy, lots of website traffic but no enquiries, or a huge email list that never converts into sales.

So work out who you want to attract, and the rest of the process becomes much easier.

If you know who you want to attract and how to create the right processes (or funnels), you’re less likely to invest time or money in the wrong things.

I offer 90-minute consultations to help you figure out the best marketing activities for your business. So if you feel like you've wasted money on the wrong stuff in the past and are worried about getting it wrong again, book one of my sessions.