Congratulations! The fact that you’re even reading this and entertaining the idea of onboarding a digital marketing agency or professional means you’re in a position to really grow your business and take it to the next level with online tools. But, looking at your shortlisted marketing options, you’ve got SEO, email, PPC, social media, blogging among other options. It’s hard to know where to get started on your own.
Yes, you absolutely could learn everything you need to know to create a marketing plan and execute effective marketing campaigns. But let’s be honest: You don’t have time for that. Modern marketing is complex and requires a wide variety of skills and breadth of knowledge that can take years to acquire. Your business can’t limp along until you’ve learned everything you need to know about digital marketing, email marketing campaigns, social media marketing and more.
As you scale, you must focus your time and energy on activities only you can do. Marketing is crucial to your business’s long-term success. However, it’s a full-time gig in its own right, and you already have a big job: running your company.
Digital marketing is an all-encompassing term representing different online methods of marketing and growing your business. So, it can be somewhat complicated to launch a robust or large-scale campaign if your company lacks the resources, time, and expertise for such an undertaking. For that reason, it makes sense to work with a digital marketing agency or specialist who knows the ins and outs so you don’t have to.
Why outsource your digital marketing? Here are a few reasons why:
1. Focus On Your Business
If you were to keep digital marketing in house, it will require a decent effort when it comes to hiring talent, setting up infrastructure, and you’ll need to be paying pretty close attention, since you’ll be working with an in-house team. Just like setting up and running any department, this can be quite time-consuming, and an external team can come in handy to lift this burden off your shoulder. You don’t want to spend months training your team or getting yourself trained enough to oversee one. That time can otherwise be used for growing your business from the inside. With a specialist, you simply need to share your goals and timeframe. There is no training, onboarding or managing another team. All the elements of your online marketing are handled by an external team. This frees you up to run your business better.
2. Cut Overall Costs
When deliberating over hiring out digital marketing services, many businesses usually compare the cost of an in-house operation to the price of the agency. You’ll be surprised to learn that an agency or hiring one specialist is much less costly over time. Agencies work as independent contractors, so you eliminate the need for payroll taxes. You also cut the recurring costs of having full-time employees such as benefits, health care costs, and salaries. Some of the tools you need to run the campaigns can also come at a hefty one-time payment or subscriptions. Most reputable agencies and consultants already have the essential digital marketing tools, so you won’t need to spend that money.
3. Tap Into Talent Faster
It can be time-consuming for your team to gain a foundational understanding of a wide range of online marketing techniques, such as SEO strategies and social media marketing. Instead of spending time and resources hiring top talent, tap into experts in the field immediately. Get access to a team of experienced and qualified experts by working with a digital marketing agency. An added benefit is that these experts have worked on similar projects in the past, so you’re also gaining historical knowledge you might not otherwise find in a full time hire.
4. Stay Relevant
Hiring a digital marketing agency or consultant means you’re tasking someone else to take on competitive market research. Plus, they follow the latest developments in digital marketing to ensure quantifiable results. An agency or consultant will also identify and research your target audience to learn and understand their digital behavior, preferences, and interests. This is to ensure the adopted marketing strategies yield the maximum results possible and to keep your business abreast of relevant developments.
6. Be Nimble
One thing that a digital marketing agency or consultancy offers is scalability. When operating in-house, you’ll need to increase the size of your team whenever your business needs grow, or you want to launch something new. This means that your business will need additional resources to support and fuel the growth. With an external digital marketing resource, that’s not the case. There will be no constraints on your current team and no need to expand your team.
A good company usually accommodates your needs as your business grows by offering several plans and packages that best suit your business size. Ideally, having a scalable and flexible agency is important, especially when you’re targeting a new market.
7. Get Measurable Results
No business wants to make investments that bring no results. With so many marketing methods in the digital marketing landscape, it can be difficult to know the real ROI. However, a consultant can help determine your optimal Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). These indicators help to figure out how your marketing campaigns are performing in relation to your objectives. Also, they will identify the important metrics to follow across different channels to determine the effectiveness of each campaign. You’ll also get monthly or quarterly reports on your campaigns and a website audit to help you make sound marketing decisions. Typically, a digital marketing resource offers clear insights into how your keywords are performing and how potential customers are engaging with your content and brand.
8. They Have the Tools
With a digital marketing agency or consultant, you don’t need to learn a new language, or invest in new tools –– of which there are A LOT. And, most of these tools are premium services, and the costs increase with the addition of certain features or an upgrade. To do this on your own, you would need analytics, keyword research, competitor analysis, paid search management, and automation tools. The cumulative cost of using these online marketing tools can be quite hefty for small and mid-size businesses. Digital marketing services already have these tools in place to help you make the most of your campaigns. You don’t need to worry about the recurring costs that you’re likely to incur with their use.
Choosing the Right Digital Marketing Agency/Consultant
It’s important to remember that digital marketing is a slow and continuous process, so choose the right firm that can be with you for the long game. Avoid companies that promise instant or quick results. Determine the main limitations and specialties of a firm before making your decision. Ask what other industries they serve to see if there is any overlap in expertise, and inquire about some of the tools and techniques they use. If necessary, you can ask for reports of their past and current projects to examine their performance. Also, determine the online performances of the agency’s web properties. Their ranking on search engines helps to reinforce your relationship with them.
If you’re still on the fence about hiring someone to do your marketing, consider this: No one will buy your product or service if they don’t know it exists. Digital marketing experts know how to get a company noticed and can consistently implement new strategies. It may take a few months to start seeing the results of these strategies, but in the end, it’s an investment that will pay off and allow you to start scaling.
If you want to learn more about digital marketing and how it can help your business, please contact us today!