By Sam Makad
Marketing can be an overwhelming task for many businesses. Whether you're a small business or not, it is, however, indispensable for your success.
It’s all the more important now, as businesses are under a lot of competition. The advent of technology brought about new marketing techniques, which can be both an advantage and a disadvantage.
On the bright side, these new marketing techniques can help your business thrive better in competition. There are new marketing techniques that could be used alternately to ensure a higher possibility of business success. However, this also means more techniques for you to master. It can be challenging for your in-house team to master all of these techniques and execute them by themselves.
But this shouldn’t be a problem. You've got a solution through marketing agencies. These are experts that specialize in nothing else but marketing. Hence, you can rely on their expertise and mastery of technique.
There are so many marketing agencies that you can hire, but it’s always an advantage to hire the best. So, you also have to learn how to filter out your options. In doing so, you're assured of the higher potential of these marketing agencies working well to your advantage.
Before hiring a marketing agency, consider the following aspects:
Table of Contents
The Specific Offers Of The Marketing Agency
The Specific Type Of Marketing Agency They Are
The Motivation Of The Agency
The Types Of Business They've Worked With Before
The People Who’ll Do The Work For You
1. The Specific Offers Of The Marketing Agency
When searching for the right marketing agency in the market, consider the specific offers that the agency has. You have to make sure early on that the marketing agency you'll hire offers the services that you're looking for.
List down your areas of concern and choose which agency matches your business’ needs. Else, you won’t get the maximum assistance you’ll be needing from them.
Here are some tips to follow when going through this step:
Look for loopholes in the performance of your marketing team, so you can decide whether or not the agency can fill this gap.
Double-check the contract that the marketing agency offers you to see if it's well-tailored to suit your needs and demands.
2. The Specific Type Of Marketing Agency They Are
Like any other profession, marketing agencies also have fields of specializations, such as a boutique vs. full service marketing agency. This is usually what they're experts on, so you can trust them enough on whatever it is they're doing. Depending on your needs and your business size, you can choose from either:
Boutique marketing agencies are those that offer you more specialized marketing strategies that help you gain advantage over your competitors. These agencies usually work with a small group of experts. Hence, doing business with them becomes more personalized.
Full-service marketing agencies are much bigger and offer you a complete and comprehensive in-house marketing services, instead of specialized services on specific areas of advertising.
Some of the other types of marketing agencies are:
Direct marketing agencies are those that help you manage all of your mail campaigns. These companies generally provide you with a list of contacts to mail, which matches your target market.
Digital marketing agencies help your business make use of electronic gadgets and digital means such as the Internet, mobile phone, social media, email, etc. to include in your marketing campaigns. Even more specifically, they also help your business apply the proper Search Engine Optimization (SEO) techniques, as a facet of digital onboarding and marketing for superior quality marketing campaigns.
Marketing consultancies are those agencies that offer suggestions on what marketing campaigns your business should go for. Moreover, these companies also help you audit your existing marketing plans. They can even help you in the process of launching new products and catching the attention of a new target market.
3. The Motivation Of The Agency
As you talk with the representatives of the marketing agency or browse through their portfolio, it helps if you can check that they're results-driven, too. Even more importantly, the agency should be able to provide you with documentation of the results they've achieved.
Do ask the agency if they're open to monthly reporting. This is very important, so that every member of your marketing team, now both in-house and from the agency, are each accountable for their responsibilities. It's easier for you to check if results have been achieved, or if they haven't done anything at all to help you out.
The key here is to choose a marketing agency that can take your business to the next level.
4. The Types Of Business They've Worked With Before
A marketing agency can be very good at what they do. But, if they haven't worked with a business similar to yours before, then you might just be wasting your time. You can't fully rely on them if they haven’t worked with a business like yours in the past. If ever they had, it means that they have considerable knowledge of the ins and outs of your industry.
Moreover, choose the marketing agency that has worked with other businesses that are of the same size as yours. Remember that marketing a small business is quite different from marketing a big one. Generally, these are seen through the differences in the strategies due to a different budget range.
If you're a small business, then the marketing agency should be well equipped in working with the smallest budget possible, so that you won't end up draining your financial resources.
5. The People Who’ll Do The Work For You
There are marketing agencies that are very hands-on with what they do, but some will simply forward you over to an intern once they've completed all negotiations with you.
There's nothing wrong with working with an intern, except if you're truly after the expertise of certain professionals in the marketing agency. If you're already struggling with your marketing campaigns, you'll want to give yourself the assurance that every dollar spent on hiring the agency will yield the best results for your business.
In this case, working with an intern might not be the best solution for you. It's best to have this ironed out early on so that you won't have a mismatch in responsibilities.
Final Word
A marketing agency refers to that expert team that specializes in helping businesses create and implement marketing strategies. They are answers sent from heaven for struggling business owners.
If you’re having a hard time with your business, then why not hire a marketing agency rather than struggle to see through all the marketing by yourself.
If you've long wanted to hire a marketing agency for your business but simply don't know where to start, this list above can give you a great head start.
Sam Makad is a business consultant. He helps small & medium enterprises to grow their businesses and overall ROI. You can follow Sam on Twitter, Facebook, and Linkedin.