Creatively Speaking

304 Media does not have a sales team. We are fortunate that 90% of our business comes from word of mouth client referrals. Over the years we have developed an incredibly robust portfolio that allows us to successfully service clients in a wide range of industries. The few times potential customers have decided to go elsewhere, the reasoning behind it is almost always the same: price.

One thing I have noticed is that when these customers go elsewhere they are not going to a competitor.

How is this possible, you ask? Obviously if they are going elsewhere, someone is doing the work but it is typically a freelancer or their friend’s neighbor’s brother, not another agency that provides the same high quality work as 304 Media. In most cases they are not happy with the finished results and many times end up returning to us.

We recently got a call from a potential customer that was just 1 week away from an important tradeshow. While this customer had perused our website a month earlier and was very impressed by our work, he decided to go with a lower priced freelancer instead. A few weeks into the project he realized that they did not have the skills necessary to complete his project and frantically called us hoping for a miracle. We were able to deliver that miracle and made the deadline in the nick of time by having the brochures delivered directly to his hotel near the tradeshow.

Once the project was completed, the client expressed how happy he was with everything we did and confessed that he wished he had gone with us to begin with. He thought he could save money by going with a lower priced option but between all the back and forth with the unexperienced freelancer and the fact that they did not produce a usable brochure, there were no real savings. While this is something we have known for a while but it was quite an eye opener to hear it first hand from a client.

THE BOTTOM LINE: At first glance it may seem that an official agency will charge more for their creative services but make sure you are comparing apples to apples. In most cases, going with a freelancer will end up costing you more in the long run. Be sure to  factor in the amount of your personal time it will take to keep them on track and the damage an unprofessional piece can do to your company’s reputation.