What is Scalefluence?
Occasionally, we receive offers and pitches from other SEO or digital marketing companies. While we tend not to partner with many of these companies, it’s essential to highlight the good and the bad of these companies and why we decline their offers. From our most recent cold sales pitch, we were contacted by a company called Scalefluence, scalefluence.com, about link-building opportunities.
If you’re active in the SEO world on Twitter, LinkedIn, or Reddit, you’ll know there are many companies pedaling link spam, as Scalefluence offers. So, who is Scalefluence?
Scalefluence: Cold Outreach to a Sketchy CEO
The interaction began with a cold call from Scalefluence’s salesperson, Mike Kapowich. He claimed they have a huge list of publishers they work with, 20 writers on staff, and a couple of full-time editors. Sounds like any link building / content marketing agency, right? I asked for a couple of examples to see the quality of their work, but Mike could not provide anything and seemed lost with questions deeper than surface-level information. That’s okay though, I understand he’s on the frontline handling the company’s cold outreach. However, red flag number one: good SEO and content marketing companies don’t do a lot of cold calls unless they are desperate for sales.
Mike pushed for a Zoom meeting with the company’s founder, Tony Newton, and promised to send over some examples of work in the meantime. I agreed and waited for the CEO’s email.
Tony Newton, Founder and CEO of Scalefluence
After requesting a Zoom meeting, I again asked for examples of work. Why waste my time if these content marketers don’t even have any example work?
After requesting examples of work once more, the CEO (Tony Newton) threw a fit in what seems like a roid-rage episode. He claimed they can’t disclose any agency partners, although they were never asked to do so. What was asked for were examples of their writing and publishers they work with; nothing specific, just examples of work, which is a fundamental request in a sales pitch. If you’re going to boast about a staff of 20 writers and editors, be ready to show some of their work. Otherwise, saying you have 20 writers and editors on staff seems a little made up.
Instead of providing examples of work, Tony Newton – the apparent CEO of Scalefluence – repeated that they can’t share any examples.
We work with over 100 agencies currently. And we don’t share their clients with other agencies.
They work with 100 agencies, but they do cold outreach? Hmmmm. And again, no one was asking for specific clients or information—just a writing sample and a few publishers they work with. I politely said no thank you to the offer for a Zoom meeting, as I wouldn’t even be interested in wasting time with someone who can’t share basic examples of work. Red flag number two: an agency or a provider of anything that can’t provide any examples of their work is a surefire way to get scammed and lose money.
And what was Tony Newton’s roided-out response after I said no thank you to a meeting with Scalefluence?
A Few More Reasons to Avoid Companies Like Scalefluence
After dealing with this unprofessional CEO, I did some other checks to see just how legitimate Scalefluence is.
Whois Data for Scalefluence
While claiming to be a US-based business out of Beverly Hills, California, their website is hosted in Singapore. Hmmmm, that doesn’t seem sketchy at all.
Traffic for Scalefluence
Another way to check the legitimacy of a company like Scalefluence is to see where they obtain most of their traffic. If they are located in the US and work with “100 agencies” in the US, it’s expected that their traffic would be from the US.
Hmmm. Most of their traffic is not from the United States. That doesn’t seem sketchy at all.
Should You Work with Scalefluence?
The short answer is no for very obvious reasons. Avoiding a ridiculously unprofessional CEO should be reason enough to avoid this company. And if you are considering working with Scalefluence, save yourself some time and just light your marketing budget on fire.
