Top 10 Frustrations with Marketing Agencies (And How to Avoid Them)

This disconnect often stems from a flawed, process-driven approach where checking boxes is prioritized over achieving strategic outcomes. We believe there is a better way. By understanding the most common complaints, you can identify a true partner dedicated to your growth.

Here are the top 10 complaints we hear from business owners about marketing agencies, and how we at Mansfield Marketing have built our entire approach to solve them.

1. Lack of Clear, Measurable Results

The Complaint: Business owners are tired of vague reports filled with "vanity metrics" like clicks and impressions. They feel their investment is disappearing into a black hole with no clear connection to what really matters: leads, sales, and revenue.

• How Mansfield is Different:
• Our entire proprietary FADA® Marketing Framework is structured to culminate in the final, most important component: Action.
• We define Action as a measurable event created by a potential new customer, such as a phone call, quote request, RFP, or a sale from your website.
• We establish correct Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for each campaign to ensure your investment is accountable and directly contributes to your business objectives.
• Our approach is designed to affect your bottom line, and we even provide a Sales Enablement ROI Calculator to estimate the financial impact of our services.

2. Disconnecting Marketing from Sales

The Complaint: The marketing team generates reports, but the sales team is left wondering where the qualified leads are. The agency's activities feel completely detached from the realities of the sales process.

• How Mansfield is Different:
• We are a B2B Sales Enablement Expert. Our core mission is to bridge the gap between marketing and sales.
• We align your marketing campaign with sales enablement to empower your sales team to reach the right prospects and increase sales conversions.
• We ask the critical question, "What changes or additions are most beneficial to the sales process?" to ensure our efforts are fully integrated with your team's needs.

3. Cookie-Cutter, One-Size-Fits-All Strategies

The Complaint: The agency applies the same generic playbook to every client, regardless of their unique industry, audience, or sales cycle. The strategy feels impersonal and fails to address specific challenges.

• How Mansfield is Different:
• While our FADA® framework provides structure, the strategy within it is tailored to your specific goals.
• Our process begins with a discovery call and a meeting to determine if our services align with your goals, ensuring a custom-fit solution from the start.
• We specialize in marketing for industrial and B2B clients, creating strategies that reach customers who don't respond to typical consumer tactics.

4. Lack of Communication and Transparency

The Complaint: Business owners feel left in the dark. They don't know what the agency is working on, why they're doing it, or how it connects to the bigger picture.

• How Mansfield is Different:
• The FADA® framework itself provides a transparent, sequential roadmap for our strategy. You always know where we are in the process and what comes next.
• Our founder, Doug Mansfield, is personally accountable to our clients and remains active in daily operations, holding primary responsibility for client success.

5. Poor Quality Content

The Complaint: The content created by the agency is generic, poorly written, or doesn't reflect the company's expertise. It fails to establish the business as an authority and doesn't resonate with the target audience.

• How Mansfield is Different:
• We believe that great SEO requires great content, and the content we create provides the backbone of our strategy.
• We create targeted written and graphic content designed to educate potential clients and inspire action from your best sales prospects.
• We also develop high-quality, tailored sales collateral—including white papers, infographics, and online comparison calculators—to empower your sales process.

6. Not Understanding B2B or Industrial Markets

The Complaint: The agency uses consumer-focused tactics for a specialized B2B audience, resulting in wasted ad spend and low-quality leads. They don't understand the long sales cycles or the need to reach specific decision-makers.

• How Mansfield is Different:
• We are specialists in industrial and business marketing. We have deep experience marketing for contractors, professional services, B2B companies, and industrial clients in sectors like oil & gas and manufacturing.
• Our advertising programs are specifically designed for B2B and industrial clients, going beyond the typical limits of search engine PPC to reach the right prospects.

7. A "Set It and Forget It" Attitude

The Complaint: After the initial onboarding, the agency's efforts seem to go on autopilot. There's no ongoing optimization, strategic adjustment, or proactive communication.

• How Mansfield is Different:
• Our framework recognizes that generating Action requires ongoing optimization for the best results.
• Our founder, Doug Mansfield, plays an active role in daily operations and client strategy, ensuring constant, high-level oversight.
• Our integrated SEO and GEO (Generative Engine Optimization) approach is designed to adapt to the evolving landscape of search, keeping your strategy future-proof.

8. Failure to Differentiate the Brand

The Complaint: The agency's marketing efforts make the business look and sound like every other competitor. They focus on promoting services instead of articulating the unique value proposition that wins deals.

• How Mansfield is Different:
• Differentiation is a core, required component of our FADA® framework.
• We understand that failing to differentiate results in educating potential customers who then buy from a competitor who stands out more.
• We create content messaging and collateral specifically designed to distinguish your offerings so you can compete on unique value instead of price.

9. Being Passed Off to Inexperienced Junior Staff

The Complaint: The business owner is sold by a senior strategist, but their account is quickly handed off to a junior account manager who lacks the experience to provide real strategic guidance.

• How Mansfield is Different:
• Our leadership is actively involved and accountable. Founder Doug Mansfield holds primary responsibility for client accounts and is active in daily operations.
• We have decades of B2B sales experience that informs our strategies, ensuring senior-level expertise guides your account.

10. Focusing on Tactics, Not Strategy

The Complaint: The agency is busy with tasks—posting on social media, sending email blasts—but there's no clear, overarching strategy that ties these activities together. It feels like random acts of marketing.

• How Mansfield is Different:
• We don't just sell services; we provide a strategy. The FADA® Marketing Framework is the organized approach that gives structure and purpose to every service we offer.
• We know that services alone are commodities. When guided by our FADA® strategy, they become instruments working in harmony to achieve your goals.
• Our framework is a sequential, step-by-step process that prevents random marketing without a clear plan, ensuring every action builds toward the goal of increasing sales.