Should I Hire A Marketing Agency?
It’s tough for small to medium-sized businesses to know how to best approach a marketing strategy. There are so many channels to consider and a myriad of ways to get started. One of the first questions to ask is whether a company should outsource their marketing to an agency, or hire employees in-house. There are things to consider for each, so today we will be breaking down how to decide which route is best for your business. Let’s get started!
1. What are your long-term goals and marketing needs?
Are you ready to invest in your company’s growth? Whether you choose to hire in-house or outsource, it’s going to require the right financial situation. It’s important to reframe the way you think about the cost; marketing is an investment more than it is an expense. If your goals are to scale and grow, strategic marketing is the key.
In the same way it costs money to start a business, getting your company to the next phase is going to come with growing pains. If you’re reading this blog, it probably means you are looking for a way to get to that next level. And we are here to help!
2. What stage is your company in now?
Can you afford to shoulder the responsibility of hiring someone full-time? If you’ve been in business for some time, then you know whatever investment you make needs to be sustainable. Hiring someone in-house is strenuous on resources. It takes time to come up with exactly what you want from marketing, create job listings, read all the applications, sift through qualified candidates, have multiple interview rounds, and then onboard the new hire.
It takes months to get from job listing to new hire– and that’s only half the battle. A new hire needs ample time to learn the company well enough to market it effectively. They will need training, guidance, and direction for how you specifically need them to work. And depending on their experience level, it may take another few months to start seeing results. The cherry on top is the monthly salary going into this initiative, and the cost of setting them up with the technology and marketing tools needed.
Outsourcing, on the other hand, is more of a turnkey solution. The hardest part of outsourcing is choosing the company that best suits your needs. Marketing agencies specialize in starting up quickly and getting straight to work. They already have the talent required to hit the ground running, and it’s usually a fixed monthly cost that comes with the people, skills, tools and resources needed to get the work done effectively.
It’s also helpful to get an outside perspective; it’s tough to find new ways to grow if your strategy is built in an echo chamber. Get some fresh eyes on your branding, tone, and strategy. You’d be surprised by the fresh ideas that come from collaborating with a marketing company.
3. What marketing avenue is right for your company?
Can you get everything you need by hiring in-house, or would you benefit from the diverse skill sets that come with hiring an agency? Some are more suited to in-house employees, while others require more than one person to execute effectively. Digital marketing is an umbrella term with hundreds of subcategories beneath it. Knowing which avenues are best for your business is key to deciding whether hiring in-house or outsourcing is the best choice. The best method will change depending on the type of business you have, and whether it’s product-based or service-based.
Here’s a list of marketing avenues to consider:
SOCIAL MEDIA MANAGEMENT AND CONTENT CREATION
If done right, social media and content creation involve a lot of planning, skill, and creativity. Knowing how to get the best results from platforms like Instagram and Facebook takes time and effort. Aesthetics and visual appeal reign supreme and require a trained eye to know what kind of content your audiences will resonate with.
Skills needed for social media include marketing strategy, photography, videography, editing, video editing, music taste and timing, graphic design, copywriting, and organization. In addition to all that, it’s important to find someone who keeps up with current trends and popular culture.
Social media can certainly feel overwhelming, especially if you have a small team with other priorities.
Hiring a digital marketing agency covers all your bases, and they already have the know-how to make sure your audiences are getting high-quality content and building a connection with your business.
Looking for some guidance? We specialize in social media management and would be happy to answer any questions.
BLOGGING & SEO
In the era of AI, writing well is a valuable skill for a business to have access to. Not only is it important for writing impactful captions and website copy that emulates your tone and brand-feel, but it’s also useful when it comes to blogging, too. A carefully constructed and value-packed blog stands out from the rest of the AI-generated filler that has started to pop up online. Organic writing is another time-consuming task that requires an aptitude for a few things; knowledge of SEO practices, creativity, strategic topic selection, engaging language, and research skills. Having high-value blogs on your website is the #1 motivating factor for people who have never heard of you to come to your site.
NEWSLETTERS & MAILING LISTS
One of the most valuable things a business can have is a dedicated mailing list. Knowing the right ways to entice people to give you their personal email addresses can make the difference in a good or bad month of sales. Additionally, once you get the sign-ups, you have to figure out how to best utilize this asset. How can you reach out to your audience without spamming or annoying them? How do you create content that benefits them enough to make them want to keep opening your emails, and eventually do business with you?
The ROI on email is amazing; email marketing can generate $42 for every $1 spent. There’s a lot of money left on the table for businesses that underestimate the importance of building a mailing list and connecting with customers on a personal level.
PINTREST
Often overlooked, Pinterest is a gold mine for certain businesses. Pinterest isn’t a social media platform– it’s actually a search engine. Each month, 482 million people use Pinterest to look for ideas on home design, outfits, recipes, tips, trends, and more. That's 482 million potential customers actively seeking to purchase something. And since you can add links directly to posts, it’s a great way to boost website traffic. However, leveraging this channel is different from the others; there’s a set of best practices to use to start seeing growth on Pinterest. Unlike Instagram or TikTok, you can’t reuse content on Pinterest and expect it to perform well. Again, it takes dedicated time and creativity.
BRAND DESIGN
Branding is the outward appearance of a business, and it can be a major factor that customers or clients consider when deciding between you and a competitor. Businesses need to develop a brand that accurately represents the company. The branding should reflect the quality of what a business offers and should be instantly recognizable to target audiences to help foster a connection. Once a logo, colour palette, and aesthetic are decided on, consistency is what will give the business momentum online and in its industry.
If you need help developing a branding strategy, contact us.
WEBSITE DESIGN
These days, having an online presence is arguably more important than having a brick-and-mortar. It increases the possible audience beyond what would be possible with a physical location alone. This also means that a company’s website has to have the same level of attention to detail as the physical location would. A website is often a customer’s first impression of a business, and the quality of the design and images will influence them to stay interested or to click away to a better site.
The right website design will evoke trust from potential customers. It’s important to always make it feel like “someone’s home”, with up-to-date pages, recent blog posts, and relevant seasonal updates. A well-designed website will help usher visitors into taking action, whether that’s setting up a meeting, buying something, or signing up for a newsletter.
So, should you hire a marketing agency?
The truth is, the right marketing avenue for your company is all of them. The most effective marketing strategy will be a multi-pronged approach, with each aspect feeding into and boosting the other. For example, having a website means you can have blogs, which means you now have content to share with your newsletter subscribers that you collected from your social media accounts!
A digital marketing agency can work with you to strategically put together all the pieces of the puzzle to get you to where you want to be. Although hiring a team in-house is beneficial in that you’d have someone solely dedicated to your business, it would be costly, time-consuming and difficult to achieve the same result.
On the other hand, hiring a digital marketing agency will more often than not come with all the people needed to cover each facet of your marketing strategy– and the right company will be just as attentive as someone working in-house.
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Anthology Marketing specializes in social media management and all things digital marketing. Sign up for our newsletter to receive the latest information on social media, marketing, and photography.
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