Many businesses hesitate when considering whether or not they should outsource their company’s digital marketing. They might believe that a third party doesn’t understand their business needs and goals like they do, or that their team is capable of handling the digital marketing on their own. They may also think that outsourcing their digital marketing might be too expensive, and that they may not see the return on investment that they are looking for. We have a few ideas to help evaluate what to look for when searching for a digital marketing agency and what types of companies to avoid when looking for a long-term partnership.
Types of Digital Agency’s to Avoid
Focused on the Wrong Metrics for Your Business
Many marketing companies tend to develop a campaign around driving new traffic to the site. However, they are missing a key piece to this puzzle if the want to help your business’s ROI and find you more customers, which is the conversion rate optimization. A good digital marketing agency will incorporate onsite efforts into your campaign to better engage users on your website, so that the new traffic they bring is converted into an active user who wants to learn more about your product or service. Some examples of this include onsite calls to action or inclusion of a landing page on your site.
Not Upfront About Hidden Fees or Added Expenses
Fear of straying away from the planned budget is probably one of the highest concerns for outsourcing marketing to a third party. When evaluating vendors for support, make sure that they offer flat monthly rates or can provide a quote in writing for project costs, this will help your business avoid any unplanned expenses when it comes time to execute your marketing campaign.
Doesn’t Invest Time in Learning Your Business’s Strengths and Weaknesses
If a digital marketing agency offers what seems to be a cookie cutter plan for driving traffic to your site, you may want to reconsider a different option for your marketing. A good digital marketing agency will take the time to ask questions about your current marketing needs and challenges, as well as research your industry and collect data as a starting point for your campaign.
Benefits of Outsourcing Marketing to a Third Party
Ability to Evaluate Website Data and Fix Website Related Issues
An onsite staff member for a business may not know what types of data to collect in order to evaluate the effectiveness of a marketing campaign. A third party agency will bring this expertise when it comes to understanding and evaluating website analytics, and will be able to help you setup a more strategic marketing plan that includes data evaluation to refine and validate your campaign.
Can Focus on Untouched Promotional Areas
Sometimes, staff members may not recognize the areas within a business that could use improvement for lead generation and finding prospective clients. They may also lack the bandwidth to add additional marketing ventures to their day-to-day schedule of site administration, content creation, executing events, communicating with current clients, and development of promotional content to take on any new marketing ventures. A third party can help with executing new promotional methods that current staff may not have the time or expertise to develop. Areas such as search engine marketing and pay-per-click advertising are important for new business growth, and often better executed by a digital agency that has prior experience assisting clients with these services.
Can help bring new ideas to the table.
If you are considering bringing on an agency for website design or marketing, this is a great opportunity to gain some insight into your organization and current website that may have gone unnoticed. A third party digital firm might be able to give better feedback on your analytic data and strategize ways to better engage your visitors. A digital agency can also offer promotional methods that will be most effective and help put a robust plan in place. They also can give additional perspective on changes that need to be made, such as a slow performing site or a lack of engaging content.
Can Help Develop a Digital Marketing Strategy and Timeline
Having a strategy and timeline for your digital marketing campaign is critical if you want to continue to achieve growth and success. Hiring the right third party agency can provide you with a partnership that will help your business develop some concrete sales goals, as well as a plan for execution.
Can Offer New Tools and Data
A digital agency may also be able to offer your business some new tools that can make your marketing efforts more effective in the long run. Some agencies offer tools that allow you to track data related to your campaign, analyze competition, and provide feedback on areas that may need further development or improvement.
Can Offer Consistent Ongoing Digital Marketing Support
Businesses always have to deal with staff turnover and training new employees. If this happens in the marketing department, a business will often experience a lull in sales communication. By having a third party available for marketing support, your business will have peace of mind that their marketing and sales department will still get the attention it needs, even if your business is transitioning.
The strongest approach a business can take to their digital marketing is to have a combination of both third party marketing assistance as well as some internal management. This gives a business different perspectives on marketing challenges, and robust discussion and evaluation of possible solutions. The business will also benefit from using a third party agency for marketing because they can bring additional expertise, such as pay per click or search engine marketing, that will complement existing in-house marketing teams. Finally, a third party can help define an exact timeline for a marketing campaign, and give the internal staff the tools and training to evaluate and make additions or adjustments that will make the most of a business’s time and investment into improving their marketing efforts.
Lets Evaluate Your Digital Marketing Strategy
Your digital marketing strategy needs to communicate the value your business brings to your audience. Many businesses put the time and effort into improving online communication, but without the proper analysis and strategy they may not see the desired results from their effort. Alliance Interactive is a full service digital agency designing custom digital marketing campaigns that produce measurable business results. We help create a multi channel digital strategy that connects at different points with visitors throughout the buying process. We provide both an on and offsite marketing strategy so your business can drive new traffic and provide consistent communication with these individuals to build trust with your brand. To discuss your digital marketing strategy, connect with us here.