Do I Really Need a Marketing Agency?
If you have ambitious growth goals, then it may be time to invest in hiring a marketing agency.
Typically, businesses start out by managing their marketing efforts in-house. In fact, it's common to find business owners wearing many hats. However, this isn't always efficient, so, over time, many will recruit extra help.
You might hire an assistant, bookkeeper, or someone to manage your sales. But, how do you know when it’s time to hire a Digital Marketing Agency? If you do, would you hire a big national agency or maybe a local agency?
Why Hire a Marketing Agency?
As many business owners come to find out, hiring a local agency for marketing has many benefits. For starters, you get access to a wealth of digital marketing knowledge, use of a full marketing team and a significant cost saving without having payroll overhead.
Benefits of Hiring a Digital Agency
Marketing is all about timing and you can’t afford to miss that window of opportunity. The effects of marketing, both good and bad, will have a major impact on your business.
We've developed a list of the 7 signs that your current digital marketing strategy may not be working. If any of these points ring true with your recent ventures, seek a digital agency for help.
1. Marketing Gets Put on the Back-burner
As an entrepreneur, it’s easy to focus all of your attention on your product. You want it to be of the highest quality, and that’s a good thing. However, when you do this, it leaves little to no time for marketing.
No matter how great your product is, if no one knows about it then no one will buy it. If you find that your marketing is just not getting done, consider hiring a digital marketing agency to do the work for you.
2. Sales are Flat
All businesses have difficulties with sales, but the key to a business gaining new customers is marketing.
If your sales are decreasing or your client base isn’t growing, then it’s time for you to consider how a digital marketing agency can help you grow. A professional marketer knows the best ways to attract new prospects, generate new leads and align sales and marketing efforts.
3. You Don’t Like Marketing
To you, the whole concept of marketing may sound like a wasted endeavor and a complete misuse of resources. Unfortunately, that lack of enthusiasm shows and it doesn’t look attractive.
Think about all of the advertisements you see online that you don’t click on. Those lazy, hack-jobs that fail to excite and entice just don’t get a second glance from anyone. Customers can tell when the care and soul of your communications are missing.
Marketing agencies make their passion their job. Why not let them take over the area you have been neglecting?
4. Your Past Marketing Results were Ineffective
Maybe you made a tremendous marketing effort in the past and it returned with less-than-stellar results. An experience like that can turn you off to the whole marketing concept altogether.
But before you do that, consider the strategy you used as it probably wasn’t your best foot forward. A good marketing agency knows proven techniques to get you the results you have been envisioning since the start.
5. Your Sales Team has Weak Leads
Good marketing doesn't work without prior sales, and sales, not-so-coincidentally, don’t occur without great marketing. If your sales team is struggling to find good leads, then your marketing may not be in the best shape.
Digital advertising agencies can work with your sales team to market your products to attract new prospects and generate new leads with SEO, PPC and other digital tactics.
6. Your Success with Marketing is Unpredictable
Last week you saw a huge bump in your sales, but this week you barely made enough to stay afloat. You thought the previous increase in sales was because of your marketing efforts, but then when you increased those efforts, sales dropped.
You may not have the experience in marketing to narrow down the best marketing strategies. Also, it's difficult to distinguish between marketing that encourages customers and marketing that pushes them away. “Winging it” isn’t the formula for success. If you're tired of hit and miss success with marketing, reach out to a digital agency for some help.
7. Your Budget is too Small for an Agency
Budget dictates a lot with what your business can and can’t do. Because of a multitude of other costs, the amount of money businesses usually save for marketing is a small portion of the pie.
In a perfect world, you’d probably like to have your company’s own marketing team, but those costs can be monumental. Digital marketing agencies cost a fraction of what an in-house team would require. You don’t need a big agency for success. A local digital marketing team can help localize your marketing campaign and get the job done at a price that fits your budget.
Over to You
The marketing of your business plays a crucial role in its success - don't be afraid to reach out for help and see what a digital marketing agency can do for you.