Marketing can be defined as converting potential customers into happy and satisfied customers. It is the medium through which businesses share the value and distinct properties of their product and services and what sets them apart from their competitors. Although an in-house marketing team can do this task, specialist services by a marketing agency can lead to tangible gains and enhanced brand reputation in minimum time.
You must be thinking about what a marketing agency is and how it can help you outsmart your competition. This article will help you understand the roles, benefits, and possible pitfalls of using a marketing agency to elevate your brand presence.
Roles of a Marketing Agency
Marketing agencies have a dedicated team of experts who specialize in specific industries, allowing you the ability to make highly focused and customer-centric marketing plans. Consider them an extension of your marketing unit but with specialist research and strategy, insights to boost your business or brand. The role of a marketing agency can be summarized as follows:
- Conducting market research to understand target audiences, industry landscape and competitors.
- Develop a roadmap with comprehensive marketing strategies to achieve business goals such as introducing a new product, increasing revenue for existing products,or increasing brand image in a crowded market.
- Perform marketing analytics and reporting to help businesses make data-driven marketing decisions.
- The right marketing agency will create a compelling customer-centric sales pitch, maintain positive media coverage, and build brand reputation through secure media placements,
- Social Media Marketing (SMM) to maintain social media presence through engaging content to reach the target audience.
- Search Engine Optimization (SEO) to get a higher ranking in search engine results pages (SERPs) for driving organic traffic.
Pros of Engaging a Marketing Agency
Hiring a competent marketing agency or outsourcing your marketing functions can have many benefits:
- Deep understanding of the latest marketing trends and techniques to improve brand visibility,
- Marketing agencies can be given specific tasks such as digital marketing or full-stack services as per budget,
- Hiring a Marketing Agency can be cost-effective in comparison to an in-house marketing team,
- A specialist marketing agency comes with a fresh perspective and creative solutions that an in-house marketing team might miss,
- Digital marketing agencies can access licensed software and tools to create visually impressive sales pitches and promotional materials.
How Dollar Shave Club (DSC) went viral in 2012 and was acquired for $1 billion by Unilever is the perfect example of having a marketing agency to handle your business needs. DSC adopted a DTC (direct-to-customer) selling approach to move beyond traditional retail stores. Their viral video content featuring founder Michael Dubin showcased an impressive sense of humor and an end-to-end customer buying experience unheard of in 2012. Even in 2019, the video had more than 26 million views, had an impressive 70% customer retention rate, and led to more than a hundred thousand customers in the first two weeks of marketing.
Cons of Engaging a Marketing Agency
Although there are many benefits to grow your business with a marketing agency, there are also some cons and disadvantages that a business should take into consideration:
- Outsourcing marketing functions can lead to losing control over marketing design and techniques. Imagine you had an oil spill, and your agency failed to protect you from sustainability groups,
- Lack of communication can lead to a weak agency-client relationship that can hinder brand progress,
- The right PR and social media marketing agency can be costly and take months of investment before tangible results are seen,
When and How to hire the services of a Marketing Agency?
Now that we have covered the role, benefits, and possible pitfalls of marketing agencies, it is essential to identify the right time to hire a marketing agency.
- When you need a fresh perspective or brand revitalization,
- During periods of rapid growth that require quick scaling up of marketing functions,
- For specific projects or new market entries.
When you have decided to grow your business with a marketing agency, ensure your goals are well defined, and you have shortlisted the most suitable ones before hiring the most suitable specialists. Look for the positive impact of their proposal on your business before negotiating an appropriate fee with a retainer.
Conclusion
Hiring a marketing agency to scale your business is challenging and requires many considerations, like budget, business needs, and prospects. Look for specialist agencies who offer services that suit your needs, and always negotiate the right price and milestones before the project starts. Hopefully, you will see explosive growth, as Nike and DSC have experienced.
