The Marketing Agency You Hired Could Be Putting Your Business At Risk. Here's What You Need To Look For.

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The demands on an employer's time are intense, and successful entrepreneurs know how to determine which tasks to delegate. Marketing and branding is often outsourced to growing companies because of the size and variety of collateral required to deliver the right message to customers through multiple channels.

Much has been written about how to find the right marketing company. The list of things you need to market your business is long. But what if your marketing company is doing more than just poor performance? What if it hurts?

There are two main methods an agent can use to put your business on dubious legal ground: intellectual property infringement and unfair competition. The former is a more common problem than the latter, but companies should be aware of the potential liability arising from both.

Related Topics: When Is It Right To Outsource Your Marketing Agency?

Intellectual property infringement

Intellectual property issues can arise from misuse or abuse of marketing resources. Ideas, words or images may be stolen or used without permission, attribution or license.

For example, when we recently took on digital marketing services for a new client, we initiated a website audit to help understand the client's peak SEO and content development needs. During our review, we discovered that most of the images used on the site are not licensed for commercial use. Agencies may license images in advance, but the license expressly excludes advertising or promotional use. We were surprised, but not surprised.

I've seen many photo leaks, from outright theft to watermarked copies of unknown assets and using improper licensing. Taking photos without permission or using improperly licensed photos is a copyright violation. Any perceived financial benefit from these practices does not outweigh the potential loss to the company.

In this case the loss is not purely economic, indeed any economic loss is probably the most costly consequence. The potential damage to a growing company's reputation and culture can be even more damaging. If someone takes a shortcut on your behalf, what will that say about you to your employees and potential customers?

If possible, invest in professional photography that is licensed exclusively for your commercial use. This investment will pay off as you will have a collection of high-quality images created for your brand that can be used for everything from LinkedIn profiles to collateral.

But if that is not possible at least buy shares for commercial use without capital. This will keep you out of trouble and help strengthen your company's professional image.

Related Topics: Intellectual Property Rights. Here's what you need to know

theft

Plagiarism is another form of intellectual property infringement, and in this case I am specifically referring to plagiarism. Since content marketing is a part of most branding strategies, your organization is likely competing for superiority against an onslaught of articles and posts from your competition. So much data is added every second in the online world that tired writers can easily be tempted to copy a little here and there and nobody seems to notice.

To sign up, the lawyer asked me to pull content from other people's websites for my own personal use. So I know this practice is more common than some might think. Not only is this wrong and potentially harmful in the ways discussed above, it will also be detrimental to your organic SEO efforts.

Google's algorithms look for unique, well-written and informative content to display on search results pages. Pages that provide new information or creative ideas on familiar topics are generally more likely to rank better than pages that repeat written ideas. Worse, pages with duplicate content can damage the entire site's reputation in Google's eyes.

Related: 5 Things to Consider When Hiring a Marketing Agency

Allegations of unfair competition

Unfair competition is a category that includes false allegations, defamation, misappropriation of name or the like. In general, businesses should not run advertisements that unfairly criticize competitors' offerings or make false claims about the value of their products. Ways in which marketing companies may make such claims to you include:

Bid on keywords that have less competition

Make false or misleading statements about yourself or your competitors.

Violates ethics, such as claiming expertise in certain areas of law that require certification

Complaints for tarnishing a competitor's reputation

How did you avoid danger?

Fortunately, this problem can be avoided if a regular monitoring system is established from the beginning of the relationship with your marketing agency. This system should include:

1. Document requirements accurately. Provide your marketing agency with sources and data to back up the claims you want to make about your product or service.

A good marketing firm should be familiar with how this approach works for certain potentially vulnerable audiences, such as the elderly and children, and how to market regulated products such as financial or legal services. Be sure to ask if the companies you're considering have experience in this area, if necessary.

2. Plan an audit. You can't personally audit all the marketing content your team creates. However, scheduling regular time to audit common assets will help you identify errors and poor practices.

3. use a service that verifies content; Our agency uses Copyscape for plagiarism, and we have strict requirements that all authors check Copyscape before submitting work to editors.

4. As a question. When interviewing a marketing agency, ask them how they handle copyright infringement or plagiarism issues. Do you have an internal review process? Can you show proof of license ownership? How will they verify the authenticity of material published on your behalf? The organization should be able to answer these questions and document the process.

Hiring a marketing agency that doesn't deliver results is very frustrating. Establishing effective communication and review practices can help ensure that more serious harm does not occur.