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Businesses are increasingly frustrated with inbound marketing agencies, and they have a good reason. Our goal here at LMNts Marketing is to change this, and shift the perception of companies about marketing professionals and agencies. We’ve heard the horror stories, but - instead of simply telling you what we have seen and appearing biased, we will be taking some snippets from online forums to show you how we are dealing with each and every single one of client frustration in 2025 as a part of our mission as a full service inbound marketing agency.
Most Common Marketing Agency Complaints in 2025
We have browsed the internet and visited forums such as complaint sites and Reddit to find out what’s the word about inbound marketing agencies in the UK this year. The most commonly mentioned frustrations clients had are listed below, and we will supply a quote and reply with our commitment to delivering better service, results, and relationships.
Inbound Marketing Agencies Overpromise and Underdeliver
From the beginning LMNts Marketing’s philosophy was to underdeliver and overpromise, However, as many marketing agencies are employing “hardcore” salespeople who are getting commission for each deal, things can get out of hand.
Here’s a quote from a disgruntled client of a marketing agency:
“Like every industry you get those that over promise and under deliver. I am sure this will be a good starting point when talking to potential clients as many would have had a bad experience with a Digital Marketing company”
While there are honest marketing agencies out there, some of them will do anything for a sale. And when sales and marketing are not aligned, mistakes happen. Clients will enter a contract with high expectations but they will not see results. Oftentimes, the sales rep only wants to close the sale, and they don’t consult with the team, to see whether it is possible to help the client.
At LMNts Marketing, we continue to adhere to our policy: underpromise and overdeliver. We will not lie to a client just to get their business. We have a reputation to protect, and we think long term, instead of getting loads of quick sales. Not to mention that if the client has unrealistic expectations we would rather not work with them, as it will end in tears.
Inexperienced Account Managers at Marketing Agencies
Of course, there are some agencies that will apply salespeople who have no marketing industry experience. This is not a good practice. If the sales rep has no idea what can be done and - in fact - how things are done - they might misrepresent the service and accidentally mislead the client.
At LMNts Marketing we always get people with loads of experience talk to potential clients and we do our research to ensure that you speak to someone who’s a good fit for your business and industry. If you don’t believe us please check out our booking page to see for yourself.
Would you be happy to be sold an air conditioning system by somebody who has never seen one? Or a plastic surgery by someone who has never studied the subject? I am sure that you would not. Unfortunately, it is acceptable to employ new salespeople without proper training on company practices and without collaborating with the rest of the company. This again can lead to great frustration with inbound marketing agencies.
Blasting Ad Budgets without Strategy
Marketing and advertising agencies often offer PPC campaigns as standalone services. However, we, at LMNts Martketing don’t think that this is the right way to go about projects. First of all, paid advertising is not suitable for everyone. If you don’t have a strong enough brand, call-to-action, or your landing page sucks, your budget will be wasted.
Some companies - based on what we read and heard from clients - are actually not interested whether or not the client makes money or not. They are happy to deliver clicks but no conversions, shifting the responsibility to the client.
Many marketing agencies put very little effort into campaign planning. They might take care of the top of the funnel, but don’t really care if that traffic is ever going to convert into increased profits. They do what is asked from them not what makes clients successful.
At LMNts Marketing, we never sell clients something they don’t need or don’t benefit from. Running paid ads without clarifying your offers, testing your content forms and landing pages is a financial suicide. We would hate waking up at night thinking we wasted our clients’ budget.
Marketing Agencies Stuck in the Past
There are so many marketing agencies run by white middle aged male experts with glasses. I know that this might sound a bit stereotypical but it’s the truth. They learnt marketing in the past century and haven’t upgraded their knowledge since. They know the principles and apply them to the digital world without ever having built a website or looked at an ad campaign. They don’t move with the times, and creativity is a swear word in their dictionary.
Without innovation and creativity a marketing agency is worthless. Would you really pay someone for outdated knowledge? Like a mechanic who can fix cars from the 90s but not your 2024 model?
At LMNts we always strive to come up with new and innovative ideas to help our clients. We were among the first companies to give ScoreApp a try, we have used Canva before it was cool, and have been ActiveCampaign partners for years.
AI Marketing Agencies - Lack of Thought
Many people started AI marketing agencies relying on automation without any prior experience or knowledge of marketing. The bad news is that AI can only do so much. In fact, it can analyse data and give you generic recommendations. It will probably select keywords that your client doesn’t want to be found for. It does not have critical thinking. That’s what marketing professionals should bring to the table.
In fact, we’ve had staff who relied on AI tools too much, and the results were disastrous until we stepped in. Our client’s ads were running for some unrelated keywords because the employee simply accepted the AI recommendations from Google. It’s like us trying to advertise a funnel agency and targeting the keyword: “funnel cake” as it is related according to AI.
There’s nothing to fear from AI technology: it is good for research and summarising things. But it certainly needs to be taken with a pinch of salt. After all, we don’t pay people to press buttons: we pay them to think with the client’s head.
Our commitment for 2025 is to be an inbound marketing agency that focuses on client goals instead of AI recommendations.
Tying Up Clients for Long Contracts
We have heard about local marketing agencies that tie clients up for 2-3 years on a website deal. Paying only a hundred or two pounds a month might sound good for you if you want a website, but you might be disappointed.
Some inbound marketing agencies will target startups in particular and tie them to a contract. Many new companies will be happy to jump on the deal as it is more affordable for them than paying for a site upfront. The catch however is that they will end up having bad service, no way of getting out of the contract without legal costs, and somewhere in the clause it will state that they will not own the site or domain until the term is complete.
At LMNts Marketing, we don’t offer monthly websites as such. But we don’t tie up clients for long term contracts, either. To make our services more affordable, however, we have teamed up with iWoca Pay, so our clients can spread the cost of high ticket services over several months (subject to status), and still have control over their domain, marketing, and website. We never hold clients hostage when they want to part ways, either, unlike many inbound marketing agencies we have taken over accounts from.
Our initial contract period is usually 6-12 months, depending on the service, and you have full control over your account if you decide to leave for whatever reason; affordability, change of focus, or handling your accounts internally. It happens and we are happy that we were a part of the journey. In fact, we often collaborate with other agencies clients use alongside us, or help them transition to managing their marketing in house.
Clients as Numbers: Agencies that DON’T Ask Enough Questions about Client Goals
One of the main complaints against inbound marketing agencies is that they don’t really care. They think that they know everything and they don’t ask enough questions. Not aligning a strategy with the short term and long term goals of the client is a mistake that leads to bad relationships and unclear expectations.
A couple of years ago, LMNts Marketing introduced their signature Marketing SWOT service. Since then many inbound agencies and freelancers tried to replicate (copy) it. With little or no success. Our Marketing SWOT service is designed to help our clients see clearly about where they are and how they can get to where they want to be. It is a full marketing plan, delivered independent of the outcome of the collaboration. We always tell our clients that they can implement the recommendations in house or use a freelancer. However, 99 percent of the time they choose us.
We never assume that we know everything about the client’s industry and problems. We always tell them that we might know a lot about digital marketing and inbound marketing, but they know more about their business and clients than we do. So collaboration is a key to success.
The Smokescreen Reports
Some of our clients complain about previous inbound marketing agencies delivering reports nobody in the company understood. They were full of jargon, wishy-washy language, and things that did not matter.
We have made a commitment to go through every result with clients and allow them to ask questions, so they understand the work we are doing. We love working with businesses with a clear vision. And those who care. Why would we be hiding the results? They will see the outcome. Moreover, if something is not working, we will tell the client that we’ve got to change strategy. And they appreciate that honesty.
Our social media account reports and SEO reports are automatically delivered to clients, and they are easy to understand. We also upload all the reports to shared folders, so our clients can see the progress we have made. We are not hiding behind misleading reports or jargon. And that’s a commitment the entire team at LMNts Marketing takes seriously.
Lack of Transparency
The sad fact is that there are loads of agencies that claim to be doing the work themselves in house, but they outsource overseas, as it is cheaper. I once had a conversation with a colleague about hiring a copywriter. They turned around and said: Why don’t you do what XY agency does? What is that - I asked. They use students from the Philippines.
That’s only copywriting we are talking about above. There are agencies that use companies from online sites, and often the brief is lost in translation. Most of them will claim that the work is done in house, but in fact, they are only middle men or outsourcers at best.
Keeping clients updated is one of our most important priorities at LMNts Marketing. We share information with people working on the account so we can avoid “Chinese whispers”. At the same time, we never work with anyone we did not train in house.
Transparency should be the backbone of service based businesses, Without it, clients will lose all their faith in the industry, just like some of them have lost their faith in inbound marketing agencies. We are here to clear up the reputation of the industry to show you that there are genuine businesses out there who are committed to helping their clients grow.
Check out this review from one of our clients who has been with us 4+ years:
What Does 2025 Hold for Inbound Marketing Agencies?
In our opinion, marketing agencies will have to make a choice whether to implement and utilise artificial intelligence and automation into their systems the right way, or try to take shortcuts using them. At LMNts Marketing Limited, we decided to carry on offering personalised advice, make decisions based on our experience and common logic, but utilise AI for research and structure. We believe that our ideal clients would prefer to sit down and talk strategy with a qualified person than ask ChatGTP for answers. And - based on our experience - clients value this type of interaction more.
Want to know more about how our strategy meetings work? Book one below.