As we head into the final stretch of 2018, you’re likely thinking about how to tackle marketing responsibilities during the busy holiday season and how best to utilize your marketing budget as 2019 approaches. The idea of partnering with a marketing agency may be on the radar, but you’re not exactly sold. How exactly can an agency benefit your business? Is it worth the investment? What exactly does a marketing agency do anyways?
You’re not alone in asking these questions. Many prospective clients pose the same concerns to us. So, we’re here to break it down for you. While every marketing agency is a little different, generally they can help you develop a marketing strategy, manage specific campaigns, and offer a variety of marketing services. However, what they really offer your business goes beyond just strategy and services. Marketing agencies…
1. Fill gaps in your marketing department.
More and more, savvy businesses owners are looking to improve their marketing strategies and increase their online marketing efforts. In fact, more than 80% of businesses plan to increase digital spend in the next year. While you may want to up your online marketing efforts, that’s not always realistic. If your company is on the smaller side, you may not have the resources to have a dedicated digital marketing team, which means the responsibilities fall on someone who is not fully suited to tackle complex digital marketing tasks on top of other daily duties. Or, you may have an awesome marketing department in place, but skill sets lean more toward event planning, print, and traditional marketing outlets, rather than digital marketing. In order to fill those gaps, you could hire additional employees to tackle things like social media, SEO, and digital advertising — but then you have to go through the hiring process to find the right people, offer a well-rounded benefits package to attract and retain the new team members, and go through training and onboarding, all of which budget and time constraints may not allow.
Or, you could hire a marketing agency to fill the gap. By doing so, you’ll have immediate access to a team of experts who bring the exact skills and experience your team may lack, without committing to the responsibility and expense of hiring an employee full time. The agency will work as an extension of your existing team to help you support and expand your current marketing efforts and skills in their areas of expertise.
2. Free up your time.
If your business is anything like the majority of companies we work with, there never seems to be enough hours in the day. Trying to juggle major projects and marketing campaigns on top of meetings, emails, management responsibilities, and more, is nearly impossible. That means a lot of important tasks get pushed to the bottom of the to-do list or are eliminated altogether. We hear things like “I don’t have time to post on Facebook” and “I’d love to post a blog about this, but…” all the time. That’s where having a trusted marketing agency partner can be perfect for your business! A marketing agency can handle things like posting to social, writing new blog content, improving site speed, managing advertising campaigns, moderating online comments, and a variety of other tasks that need to be done — all of which takes time, energy, and expertise.
With those responsibilities off your plate, you’re free to spend your time and energy as you see fit. Simple as that. The best part? As your goals, responsibilities, and deadlines shift, your marketing agency’s can too!
3. Provide a fresh perspective on your marketing strategies.
We like to ask our clients, “Are your marketing strategies good, or just good enough?” Too often companies get stuck in the same routines and strategies out of habit. Just because that’s always how you’ve done something doesn’t mean there aren’t new or unique opportunities available. You may be seeing success with your current strategies, but there are always ways to improve and push the envelope. A good online marketing agency will help you do just that! An agency provides a fresh set of eyes on your current strategies, as well as additional expertise and skills, which allows you to take that leap and achieve better results. The ability to brainstorm ideas, combine resources, and utilize additional skill sets is invaluable for all involved and helps to take everyone to the next level. One of our favorite things to hear from our clients is, “We’ve never thought of that before. Great idea!”
4. Teach you best practices and new tools.
The online marketing world is fast-paced. Before you know it there’s a brand new platform, an algorithm shift, or a major security update. Blink and you miss some important changes and updates. With all the daily responsibilities that you have to deal with, keeping up with the latest tools and best practices can be overwhelming, confusing, and low on the list of priorities.
Forward-focused online marketing agencies make staying on top of the latest online trends, apps, and tools a part of their daily routine, so you don’t have to! They’re able to take their knowledge and pass it on to your team without overloading you or using marketing jargon you may not understand. Video calls, screen sharing, and webinars make training and sharing information easier than ever, no matter where the agency and your team may be located.
Here at E-Power, we’re constantly sharing tips, tricks, and articles with each other and with our clients. We all have Google certifications, and participate in ongoing education and training opportunities. We take pride in keeping up with what’s going on in the marketing world and upping the game for our clients and our agency as much as possible.
5. Help you showcase ROI on your marketing activities.
As budgets become tighter and expectations become higher, it’s more important than ever to be able to prove the value of what you’re doing. However, that isn’t always easy. In fact, more than half of marketers cite measuring ROI as their greatest challenge, particularly with social. If marketing isn’t the top or only thing on your plate, the challenge of proving ROI becomes even harder in the midst of other responsibilities. A good marketing agency has the experience and skills to help you track, manage, and showcase metrics that actually matter to your boss. They’ll help you utilize the data more efficiently, tie results back to your company’s goals and objectives, help you make your case for increasing budgets, and more.
What’s next?
Now you know a little more about what a digital marketing agency has to offer. If you think working with an agency might be the right option for your business, it’s time to find the right marketing agency for you. Whenever you’re ready, we’d love to talk more and see if E-Power might be a good fit.
