Do I Need a Marketing Agency?
As a business owner, you need to track every dollar that goes in and out. The smaller your business is, the more likely you cling to every dollar, ensuring it is put to good use. This is normal AND practical. So when someone like myself appears in your inbox, if you didn’t immediately delete the email, you may ask yourself, “Do I actually need a marketing agency for my business?”
So here I am, a digital marketer, about to shoot myself in the foot to hopefully help you make a more informed decision. In today’s blog post, we will review a few pros and cons of hiring an outside marketing agency. Let’s start with the cons.
Cons
Extra expense for using tools to which you mostly have free access.
A lot of digital marketing happens within social media and your website. These are tools that you already have access to without having to pay someone. So many business owners choose to keep marketing in-house because they can post whatever they want, whenever they want, and have complete control over their own brand. This can be a positive and a negative, but we’ll get more into that later.
You are most likely not their only client.
While most agencies have pretty solid processes to ensure no client gets left behind, you are most likely not the only client they have. That means you may be competing for time and attention. Again, if you are with a solid agency that is worth their money, you’ll never feel that. But to some, that is important.
They don’t know your business like you do.
Agencies will do their best to get to know your company, target market, and industry. But day-to-day, their focus is on marketing and not what you do. They won’t always be there at the right time to capture those candid moments you can get from an in-house team. However, a good agency will empower you to submit photos and footage to use within your marketing.
Pros
Giving you the gift of TIME.
Every minute of your time needs to be accounted for when you're running a business. Crafting a well-thought-out and effective digital marketing strategy is time-consuming and, frankly, not as easy as most people think. To run a business AND market effectively is a task most people aren’t able to do successfully. Usually, one of those two things suffers. Unfortunately, it’s often the marketing at first, but then it’s both because you haven’t been able to market your business successfully. An agency can take the marketing off your plate to let you focus on the business. That way, neither suffer.
Access to industry tools and knowledge.
A part of what you pay for when working with an agency is access to all of the industry-leading tools and software that help a marketing plan be executed. SEO tools, social media management tools, website discounts and services, etc., make an agency work. Those tools are extremely useful but not cheap. So, by working with an agency, you’re getting the tools and an expert on how to use them for a fraction of what those two things would cost you on your own. Speaking of cost…
It’s CHEAPER!
Granted, it’s not going to be cheaper than if you did it all yourself, but I can count on one hand the number of businesses that successfully scaled while their owner and operator were running the business AND doing digital marketing daily. That said, hiring someone is more than just a salary, which will also most likely be more than an agency’s retainer. You’re looking at training costs and benefits for the employee too. With an agency, you get a marketer that lives and breathes digital marketing. All you need to do is give tell them about your business, get them the proper access, and let them do the work. When you see an estimate, you may balk at the cost initially. But think about what hiring someone to do the same work would cost! If you get someone new to marketing, you could pay them a little less, but you’ll have to train them heavily and monitor their work at the beginning. If you hire someone with a lot of experience, they will cost you more.
Peace of mind.
A good marketing agency should give you one thing more valuable than the rest: peace of mind. No longer do you have to worry about if you’ve posted enough or how you will rank better to get more traffic on Google. The agency does all of that for you. You also have a degree of separation in the likely event that someone posts something not-so-kind on your website or social media. It’s easy to get heated and snap back, but that can tarnish your brand. Instead, a professional trained in handling those comments can respond back, potentially turning a hater into a customer.
So do you need an agency? That is a question only you can answer. In today’s digital climate, many places charge a premium to work with them because the online landscape has become so vast and complex. We at Titan Media Collective try to remain budget-friendly, but every extra expense has to be carefully considered! Eventually, your business will reach a plateau on your own that only effective marketing can fix. At that point, you will most likely need to decide if you need an agency or if you need to hire an in-house marketer.
We are here to help! We offer a FREE Digital Marketing and Website review for businesses. Simply fill out the form, schedule a 30-minute call for us to review our findings, and we’ll analyze your current marketing and website and tell you what you’re doing well, along with areas of opportunity. Take advantage of this TODAY to get on the right track with your marketing!
