Marketing agency alternative
You pay us to deliver, not to try.
Most trade businesses that come to us have had an agency before. Rarely because the work was bad, usually because after six months there were monthly reports and no extra enquiries. That difference is not about the people, it is the business model: an agency sells time, and time runs whether it works or not. Here is how we arrange it differently, and when an agency really is the better choice.
Where it goes wrong
01
You buy hours, not an outcome
A retainer runs regardless of what it produces. That is not unfair, it is simply what you bought. But it means the pressure to keep building sits with you, not them.
02
Site and campaign are separate
One party builds the site, another runs the ads, and follow-up lives in your WhatsApp. When it does not work, everyone points at the next link in the chain and nothing changes.
03
Reports measure traffic, not jobs
Visitors, impressions, clicks. All real numbers, just not the one you live on: how many enquiries came in and what they earned.
Side by side
What you buy
Marketing agency
Hours and a strategy
ForthScaling
A working system: site, follow-up, assistant, reviews
Time to launch
Marketing agency
Eight to twelve weeks is common
ForthScaling
Fourteen days, or your first month is free
Upfront cost
Marketing agency
Often a four-figure build fee
ForthScaling
No setup costs
Who ties the parts together
Marketing agency
You, across several suppliers
ForthScaling
We do, it is one system from one place
What you steer on
Marketing agency
Visitors and impressions
ForthScaling
Enquiries, appointments and what they earned
If you want to stop
Marketing agency
Contract term, and the site may stay behind
ForthScaling
Monthly, 30 day money back
Who else they serve in your area
Marketing agency
Whoever signs up, your neighbour included
ForthScaling
One business per trade per region
What it actually costs
Put the first twelve months side by side. With an agency you often start with a build fee and pay monthly after that, and the meter runs from day one while the site only appears after two or three months. With us there is no setup fee and the site is live within fourteen days, so you pay from the moment something runs. Over a year the difference is usually not hundreds but thousands, and that is before counting the months when nothing was live.
Run it with your own numbersWhen an agency is the better choice
- You employ your own marketer who can direct and judge the work. Then specialist hours beat a ready-made system.
- You have a brand or positioning question that goes beyond winning enquiries. That is not what we do.
- You operate nationally or internationally with dozens of product lines. Our system is built for a trade business with a service area, not a corporation.
- You want full control over every campaign and every piece of copy. We work from a proven fixed setup, which is by definition less free.
Questions
Questions about switching
Start by seeing what you pay per won job.
In a twenty minute demo we run the numbers on your current pipeline and show what an owned system changes. No pitch, just your figures.
Book a free demo