Terms & Conditions

1. Services and Scope of Work

This agreement outlines the services to be provided by Herkess Marketing. The specific services will be detailed in a separate project proposal or statement of work, but may include:

• Competitive Advantage Consultancy 

• Marketing Strategy

• Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)

• Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Advertising

• Public Relations (PR)

• Branding

• Copywriting

• Social Media Management

• Email Campaigns

• Award entry/bid/legal directory submission writing

• Content marketing 

Any work requested that is not explicitly covered in the proposal/statement of work will be considered out of scope and may incur additional charges. 

2. Fees and Payments

• Pricing: Unless otherwise agreed upon in writing, all services will be charged at a daily rate of £400. All fees are exclusive of VAT, which will be charged at the prevailing rate where applicable.

• Payment Terms: All invoices must be settled within 14 days of the invoice date.

• Late Payments: A late fee of 5% will be added for every additional month that an invoice remains unpaid.

• Additional costs: The daily rate does not include additional expenses such as ad spend, travel costs, or any technical or design outsourcing. 

• Third party contracts: Contracts with third-party suppliers (e.g. Google Ads, printing houses, graphic designers) shall be entered into directly by the Client. Herkess Marketing is not liable for payments to third parties.

3. Working Hours and Communication

• Business Hours: Herkess Marketing operates from Monday to Friday, 9:30 AM to 5:30 PM (UK time). Communication and updates will occur during these hours.

• Response Time: While we aim to be prompt, please allow up to 48 business hours for a response to non-urgent queries.

4. Client Responsibilities

The client is responsible for providing all necessary information, brand assets (e.g. logos, fonts, images), and access to accounts (e.g. social media logins, website log in details) in a timely manner. Delays caused by the client in providing this information may affect the ability to deliver work in a timely manner. 

5. Review and Approval Process

To ensure a smooth workflow, the client agrees to the following procedure for all deliverables:

• Review Period: The client has three (3) working days to review and provide feedback or final approval on all submitted work.

• Deemed Approval: If no feedback is received within this three-day period, the work will be considered approved, and Herkess Marketing will proceed with the next stage. Any changes requested after this point may incur additional charges.

• Quality Issues: Any concerns regarding the quality of the work must be raised in writing within this initial three-day review period, including specific details and examples of the issues.

6. Intellectual Property

Upon receiving final payment, the client will be granted the full intellectual property rights for the work created by Herkess Marketing specifically for their agreement.

However, Herkess Marketing retains the right to use any work, including creative and written content, in its portfolio and for promotional purposes, unless otherwise agreed in writing.

7. Termination

The terms for termination depend on the type of agreement:

• Project Work: If an agreement for a fixed-price project is terminated, the client is liable for all work completed up to the termination date.

• Retainer Work: Either party may terminate an ongoing retainer agreement with six weeks' written notice. The client will be invoiced for any work completed during this notice period.

8. Liability

Herkess Marketing's total liability to the client is limited to the total fees paid under this agreement. While we will use our best efforts, we cannot guarantee specific results, such as a certain number of sales, a specific search engine ranking, press coverage, or the winning of an award.

Time Limit for Claims: To ensure any issues are resolved promptly, any claim or legal action arising from the services provided must be commenced within six (6) months of the date the work was delivered or the agreement was terminated. After this period, both parties agree that no further claims can be made.

9. Force Majeure

Neither party shall be liable for any failure or delay in performance under this agreement if such failure or delay is caused by a Force Majeure Event, including but not limited to acts of God, war, terrorism, natural disasters, epidemics, government orders, or a significant outage in the internet or communications infrastructure beyond reasonable control.

10. Data Protection & GDPR

Compliance: Both parties agree to fulfill their obligations under the UK Data Protection Act 2018 and UK GDPR.

Data Ownership: For any personal data processed (such as email lists or lead generation data), the Client remains the Data Controller and Herkess Marketing acts as the Data Processor.

Client Responsibility: The Client confirms they have the necessary rights and consents to share any personal data with Herkess Marketing. The Client will indemnify Herkess Marketing against any claims arising from a breach of data privacy laws resulting from data provided by the Client.

Our Commitment: Herkess Marketing will:

• Only process data based on the Client’s written instructions.

• Keep all personal data strictly confidential.

• Use appropriate security measures to protect data from loss or unauthorized access.

• Delete or return all data to the Client upon termination of the agreement, unless legally required to retain it.

11. Entire Agreement

This document, along with any attached project brief or statement of work, constitutes the entire agreement between the parties and supersedes all prior discussions, proposals, and agreements, whether oral or written.

12. Severability

If any provision of this agreement is found to be unenforceable or invalid, that provision will be limited or eliminated to the minimum extent necessary so that this agreement shall otherwise remain in full force and effect.

13. Governing Law

This agreement is governed by the laws of England and Wales. Any disputes arising from this agreement will be subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the English and Welsh courts.

14. Rights of Third Parties

A person who is not a party to this Agreement shall have no right under the Contracts (Rights of Third Parties) Act 1999 to enforce any of its terms.