Digital Marketing Agencies: Are they really worth it?

If you’re here, we’d have a guess that you’ve received a proposal from a digital marketing agency, seen the cost and wondered, “is hiring an agency worth it” or “why should I hire them”. To put it simply, if you’ve been thinking about hiring an agency or you’re looking into it, you probably do need one. Digital marketing agencies have the expertise, resources, and the measured, proven results that they’re getting the job done for you.

What does a digital marketing agency do?

Digital marketing agencies have a team of experts in their office. So, they have a web design expert, a web development expert, content marketing experts, the list goes on and on. So, when you partner with them, they can kind of give you a spread of services that are delivered perfectly.

A digital marketing agency will usually have a range of different ways they can help scale your business and promote your products or services online. They also have a stronger focus on lead generation and ROI than your typical internal marketing manager.

A digital marketing agency will typically take over each of a business’ marketing avenues and create new ones. They’ll perform and speak on behalf of the company and stay alert to opportunities in the client’s industry and around in the media. They also measure their success professionally and accurately and report back to the client, usually on a monthly basis.

Add some direction and strategy to your campaign

Unless you’re a large company with the budget to employ your own marketing team, you probably need an agency’s help to stay on top of all the different avenues. A digital marketing agency will have a team of experts. Meaning there’s a Search Engine Marketer (SEM), a Social Media Manager (SMM), an SEO (Search Engine Optimist). Not to mention web designers, developers, and branding specialists.

Each member of the team will be an expert in their own field, so there should be fewer gaps in your marketing plan and opportunities should never go overlooked. The nature of a digital marketing team means they’ll pack in as much strategy as is needed so your company’s marketing strategy will come together in a collaborative and structured way.

This means your website’s content will be planned in a calendar, your brand’s strategy will be clear, and your website will be optimised for SEO and User Experience. Meaning you’ll show up on Google and your website will be engineered for sales.

They’re experts… with tools

Like I said, they’re experts. They’ve either been to university or they’ve gained so much experience working in marketing that they know exactly what they’re doing. You won’t be their only client and you may not be their first client in your industry either. If you’re an engineering firm for example… a digital marketing agency will likely still know more about how to market your company than you, and they’ve probably done it successfully a few times before.

On top of that, they have the tools. Software is necessary to streamline marketing campaigns and agencies have software for just about everything. They have programs to coordinate, produce, and schedule content. They have programs to identify leads and Return on Investment (ROI). Plus keyword research, competitor analysis, and automation tools.

When you add up the cost of all the software or tools necessary to run an effective campaign it gets really expensive, really quickly.

Receive measured results

So because digital marketing agencies have all of these tools and specialist software, they can also measure their success. The most useful (and exciting) part of hiring an agency is seeing the results. Your agency will be able to show you which avenues are working the best and how they’re working. You’ll see where traffic to your website has increased and which channel that increase is from – or even a breakdown. For example, 40% of clicks were from SERP, 30% from Instagram, 30% from Facebook. You’ll see where you gained social media followers or extra engagements, and they’ll be able to tell why.

Pay less for better outcomes

A good way to view hiring a digital marketing agency is to consider how much you might spend for one ‘all-rounder, digital marketer’ in a year then consider how much hiring an agency might cost. Next, factor in how much the necessary tools and software may cost in monthly invoices. Now compare the price, how many hands would be on your campaign, and what the potential outcomes are.

Digital marketing agencies can seem really expensive when you hear their monthly retainer —  but when you factor in all the costs, they’re more economical than hiring a single, internal digital marketer.

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