Cold call telesales internet marketing scams
At AdMain, we understand that small to medium businesses in the UK have a limited amount of budget to spend on internet marketing and advertising. So, here we are going to try to keep you abreast of all the cons that have, or are being offered through outbound call centres both past, present and hopefully future to keep businesses in the UK away from these unscrupulous confidence tricksters.
Firstly, let us make the point that although we could list a plethora of internet marketing firms that are not actually offering that is going to increase your web site traffic or increase sales, there are online advertising companies out there that do offer a good quality service. Advertising is a risky thing in the main. You are never guaranteed a return from your outlay, no matter where you advertise and what may work for one business industry may be a dead duck to another sector.
Here are some preventative steps in making sure that you are going to be using a good quality company. If you are cold called by an online marketing company, and you have the time to listen to what they are offering, always make a note of the full name of the representative you are speaking to. Make sure you always take their full web site address. Check to see if their web site contains their full postal address. Find out what their business status is, sole trader, limited company,
PLC etcetera. Get the owner of the company's name.
With these details, you can do several checks. First you can check company's house to check to see if the details match to what you have been given. Second, you can check with sites like Blagger to see if there are any negative comments about the company. Third, Google their company name to see what comes out in results.
If they have given you example companies that are using their services, take a minute or two to contact them by email asking for a quick comment on the level of service they received. Make sure these companies are genuine companies and not affiliate sites, or sites of friends and families, or sites that have been set up with the sole purpose of adding validity to these companies.
If you decide to use a company for marketing purposes, always ask for the full terms and conditions for the product you are going to using and read them thoroughly. Make sure that the invoice you receive outlines the full product 100% and includes any time line of products or services. If the company is offering a guarantee, make sure this is included on the invoice. If you are agreeing to use something that is going to give a specified amount of web site visitors, make sure that this
is trackable through your own analytics and not the company offering you the service.
Pay by credit card, not by cheque or bank transfer. This makes it that much easier to claim your money back. In effect, if you can prove to your credit or debit card provider that you did not receive your good or service, they will claim your money back for you. Your card provider should take these people to court, if necessary, to recoup any monies you spent that you didn't receive the product for.
Things to be wary of:
Sales calls and techniques | CAT System | keyword-per-page optimisation | hidden links | Lycos banners | pop ups | pop unders | cloaking | re-directs | link farms | paid for directories | known blaggers | browser keywords
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