Hello everyone in the community! 👋 Since many of our members here work in digital marketing, I want to share a personal experience that I believe will help you build a higher-quality, more successful marketing model—one that brings in consistent revenue rather than a one-time, quick profit. ❌ A Real-World Example: How NOT to Do Marketing Recently, I received a call from a guy representing a marketing agency. He introduced himself and asked for the owner. When I told him that I was the owner, he pitched a platform with a huge following for a ridiculous price: 1,000 MKD per year (about $18), or 4,500 MKD (about $80) for "a bit more" marketing. Converted to dollars, it is truly a laughable amount. 🤷♂️ Given my years of experience, I used to accept these kinds of offers in the past because the amounts were insignificant, and I didn't demand a written proposal detailing exactly what they offered. However, it was always thrown-away money. My business requires a very specific, targeted audience, not a general audience or people running just any random business. In the end, the total amount of money wasted over the years became significant, and we got absolutely nothing in return. 📉 When I asked him to send an official proposal to my email, he refused (likely because he works as a freelancer or just as an independent external representative) and asked if he could send it via Viber instead. I agreed, and do you know what he sent me? A screenshot of their website—literally the exact same thing he told me over the phone! 🤦♂️ To him, that was a business proposal! Right then and there, I knew who I was dealing with. This isn’t marketing; this is just fundraising for a summer vacation or just trying to grab some quick cash! 🤫🤭😅 Golden Rule: A serious professional or marketing agency never acts this way when seeking a partnership with a company. When a client requests a proposal, you must write a proper, official offer defining your responsibilities, their responsibilities, deliverables, and terms so there are no misunderstandings later like "well, I didn't say that." That’s why, from experience, I crossed them out. Furthermore, a legitimate website must transparently display the company's Country, City, Address, Tax ID, and legal details.