Like you, I am approached daily by more than one digital marketing business offering to shoot my business into the stratosphere and make me the next Jeff Bezos. What is more they can do it cheaper than anyone, using expertise and technology no one else has and – they know they can do it simply from a quick review of one of my websites. Some are confident without even seeing my site!

These are truly amazing people!!

Like you, I just don’t believe them. I don’t believe any promise made in the absence of evidence. I suspect you don’t either. The facts are – they don’t know my objectives, my current client base, my ideal client base, my strategy now or anything much about my business or its owner. The facts are – they never give evidence of superior expertise or technology, let alone a capacity to deliver for less.

I used to advise them to adopt a better approach. Now I just ignore them!

Over my 25 plus years in marketing, and in particular the last 15 of those years, I have engaged a number of digital marketing firms – as many as 15 – and until now, just one has met my expectations, let alone delivered on the staggering promises they have made. Regardless of the promises made, just one of this band has had the expertise and none have delivered at a lower cost.

Cost has never been the first criteria for me, but only one firm before now has delivered value.

Given that only one firm has ever delivered value, and the number of approaches I get each day, I was not rushing to respond to an approach from DQ Australia. But after talking with their Operations Director in Western Australia, I decided to give them a go to upgrade one of my sites and put in place a digital marketing programme. I have since given them two more sites to address.

I was initially swayed because the Operations Director asking questions instead of making promises.

DQ Australia was awarded my first site because the Operations Director took the time to understand my business and made no recommendations until he was in a position to do so. Even then, rather than promising the world, he suggested a step by step approach designed to get runs on the board cheaply, and in so doing secure my confidence.

In short, he behaved like a consultant not a salesman.

I awarded DQ Australia the other two sites because on the first, they delivered on time, to budget and to specification – an experience I had only had once before. They gave me a timeline and tracked their delivery against that timeline. They gave me a cost estimate and billed accordingly. The found out what I wanted and gave it to me.

As importantly, they did not talk to me in jargon or use black box language.

At no stage did DQ Australia exploit my lack of IT expertise or use quasi-science to make themselves sound clever. At all stages they treated our relationship as a partnership that they wanted to be long term – and I have no doubt it will be. They have established a relationship with me that I have no doubt, we will build on.

I was so impressed that I agreed to become Chairman.

It is a bit like the guy who bought Schick – except that I did not buy the business. Indeed, I have no equity in the business, but I believe in these guys and I want to be there to see it. I also look forward to being able to inject some of my consumer behaviour expertise to give them an edge I don’t believe any similar firm has. Digital marketing can be so much more effective when underpinned by psychology.