Yes, You Should Hire a Marketing Agency12 min read
But of course you expect me to say you should hire an agency because I work for one, right? That’s fair. However, I’ve always been pro-agency even when I worked on the corporate side. Marketing agencies are meant to complement an existing team or to partner with a business owner or company that doesn’t have one. An agency comes alongside to expand the breadth and depth of expertise and skill sets to help a company reach their audiences and meet marketing objectives. Marketing agencies provide an incredibly vast array of benefits. For brevity’s sake though, I’ll focus on the three I think are most important.
Rapid & Strategic Problem Solving
Marketing agencies are experts in their fields and many have staff members who specialize in specific areas (SEO, web design, marketing automation, etc.). So when they’re presented with a problem or challenge, they can quickly move to explore a variety of strategic solutions and implement the most appropriate one in a timely manner. With an outside agency, progress toward a project’s goals starts almost immediately.
Additionally, an agency can help lighten the workload for an internal team expected to fill multiple responsibilities in their day-to-day roles. This happens a lot, especially in small businesses. In one of my previous work roles, I was not only responsible for PR activities, but I was also expected to update the website (before easy-to-use CRMs with WYSIWYGs were available), design and produce printed materials, plus handle distribution of sensitive data between external providers. Was I good at website development or design? The work was passable, at best. That’s why I worked with a marketing agency that had 100x the expertise to handle those projects. They could do it faster and better than I or my colleagues ever could.
Likewise, if a problem arises that an internal team needs to handle, oftentimes other responsibilities will drop in priority because there just isn’t enough capacity to focus on ALL of the things in a day. But by having a trusted agency partner, the team can outsource some or all of it and have it handled in a strategic and expedited manner.
Expertise to Offset Knowledge Gaps
Just as business owners and their teams are experts in their industries, a marketing agency should be an expert on marketing best practices and fill in the knowledge gaps where needed.
A great example of this is digital marketing. Often thought of as digital advertising, digital marketing is much more nuanced and specialized than just paid advertising, especially when working with an internet services company like Google.
Knowing the ins and outs of a media behemoth like Google can be mind-boggling. From knowing the importance of its zero-click policy, to understanding how search engine rankings (S.E.R.s) are configured, to knowing which ad type (Search, Display, Shopping, etc.) and bid strategy (manual CPC vs automated, target ROAS, max conversions, etc.) will work best to meet marketing goals. And I haven’t even mentioned the algorithm updates, SEO, and the benefits of backlinks.
A good marketing agency, though, not only understands how to work within Google but also what’s most important to focus on given a company’s marketing strategy and objectives. And, that’s what’s crucial. A company or internal team may not have the time or capacity to gain in-depth knowledge of specific software products or specialized fields. Having a marketing agency as a partner can provide that expertise and together tailor a strategic solution for a company’s specific industry.
Access to Enterprise-Level Solutions
Many marketing agencies buy top-of-the-line software and tools at “wholesale” prices and then will provide their clients with discounted rates as part of a project. This is a huge benefit to working with an agency. Many companies and small businesses simply cannot afford or justify a large expense like a marketing automation platform or earned media software. Partnering with an agency provides access to those top-level systems along with the experience and knowledge of how to use them best to reach audiences. Agencies often use platforms like SharpSpring or Hubspot on a daily basis. They know the full scope of capabilities, strengths, and weaknesses of the platforms. That kind of knowledge can take months or sometimes years to learn. Using an agency not only gives a company access to the platform or software but also all the gained knowledge and expertise along with it.
Convinced Yet?
Of course it’s OK if you’re still unsure if hiring a marketing agency is the right choice for your company or team. DVS is here to help you figure it out. Sometimes just having that conversation with an agency can help you decide what’s best for you and your company, whether you hire DVS or not. Give us a call or drop us an email. Our mission is to improve people’s lives through better communication. And that can start with a simple conversation.