Hiring new team members to execute complicated marketing projects isn't always a slam dunk. In fact, it can often create more problems than it solves. Tapping a digital agency with a clear track record of success is often a smarter, less costly choice.
Before you launch into a long, drawn-out drive to hire marketing staff for your business, consider these seven benefits of outsourcing to a digital agency instead:
Before you revamp your digital marketing strategy, you need to conduct a thorough marketing analysis to determine where you stand relative to your competitors.
This is easier said than done. The contours and outcomes of your marketing analysis depend heavily on factors unique to your company, including your industry niche, previous marketing efforts, internal competencies and budget.
By working closely with an experienced digital agency throughout your marketing analysis, you'll emerge on the other side in a much stronger position. You'll also have help interpreting and acting on the results of your marketing analysis.
By contrast, newly-hired inbound marketing staffers are likely to struggle to align your marketing analysis with the company's needs - especially if you throw them into the fire and assign them to complete a marketing analysis within weeks of coming onboard.
There's nothing wrong with looking to an outsider for a fresh perspective from time to time. On the other hand, marketing is a high-stakes, often zero-sum game that doesn't always treat novices well. If you don't have a seasoned expert or team of experts on your side, you're likely to lose ground to competitors that do.
To get the same results from external hires, you need to be prepared to spend a lot of time searching for experts and shelling out a lot of money to get them in your corner.
Just as your company is only as good as your customer satisfaction rating, digital marketing agencies are only as good as their last project. You might be surprised to find that your digital partners are as excited about your inbound marketing strategy as you are.
There are a couple of alternatives to outsourcing your entire inbound operation to one agency. One involves hiring marketing staff in piecemeal fashion, accumulating people only when you need them but using an agency for certain aspects of your marketing plan. Another involves tapping multiple boutique agencies to handle discrete marketing activities, which can be cumbersome to manage.
Truly comprehensive digital agencies are jacks of all digital marketing trades. Whether you need an SEO or PPC campaign launched posthaste or require a thoughtful website redesign that aligns with the new mobile reality, a full-service digital agency can help. You don't have to worry about shopping around for the right people for the job.
It seems counterintuitive at first, but it's actually more cost-effective on a per-person, per-hour basis to hire a digital agency for help with your marketing strategy. While individual employees might cost less than an entire outsourced team, achieving the same results with internal workers is far more expensive.
That's because agencies have economies of scale: Since they're specialized entities that focus entirely on digital marketing, they're able to complete initiatives more cheaply and efficiently than unspecialized entities.
Using a single digital agency to handle all of your inbound marketing is a great way to ensure consistent branding across all of your public channels. By contrast, a assortment of internal employees or a host of outside contractors may not have the same branding instincts and synergies. If it's even possible at all, you'll have to work much harder to achieve consistent branding with their help.
Your company isn't in the digital marketing business. If it were, you probably wouldn't be reading a blog post about why you should outsource your inbound marketing to a digital agency.
That doesn't mean your company wouldn't stand to benefit from learning a thing or two about online marketing. When you hire a digital agency to handle your marketing needs, you benefit from "on-the-project" training.
Contrast that approach with the "on-the-job" training your newly-hired marketing staffers are likely to need, which is training that you and your team might not be equipped to provide. A digital agency gives you a true two-for-one benefit: competent project leadership and invaluable marketing mentorship.
Outsourcing the bulk of your digital marketing activities to a seasoned agency could well be the right choice for your company. If that's the case, we'd love to explore a closer partnership with your organization. We've helped dozens of companies find their voices in the digital wilderness and are only too happy to do the same for you.
Contact us today to get the conversation started!