Why work with a digital agency? Is it worth the investment? I was asked these questions recently, and the answer – though it took 40 minutes to answer – can be broken down into five key areas.
Let me explain.
Last month Andi and I were invited to chat about digital marketing, running a business, and avoiding digital burnout on Kirsty Kianifard Wellness Entrepreneur Podcast.
It was fun to candidly discuss the benefits and pitfalls of the work we do, a bit about my experience marketing my own successful business, and how Andi and I deal with mental fatigue in our industry.
As an entrepreneur, coach and all-around badass, Kirsty know too well the challenges of successfully creating an online presence in a noisy digital world.
Though Kirsty herself offers her own social media marketing insight to yoga teachers, therapists, and coaches in the wellness world, she hadn't necessarily ever considered hiring a digital marketing agency herself. Like many intelligent, hardworking, and adaptable business owners, she figured she could just do it all herself.
She's not alone. After years of them trying to nail their digital marketing strategies, we meet many of our clients with mixed success.
Sure, on the face of it, you could have done a great job learning SEO and even have achieved high converting ads. Your marketing is bringing in the moola, and you're happy. You may even have the luxury of an inhouse marketing team to keep up with digital marketing trends
But could that extra pair of eyes and hands make a difference? Absolutely!
The simple fact is, digital marketing agencies are experts in what we do. All the hours of training, working and continued learning in our fields mean digital marketing agencies have a toolbelt of knowledge to support all types of businesses with their digital marketing needs.
As a business owner myself, I know you really can't be in two places at once. Inevitably there will be a million other things I don't know how to do and lack either the time or motivation to learn it from scratch! I want to use my time and energy doing what I love, not waste time trying to master completely new things.
Sure, you might know a thing or two about using Facebook or writing blogs. You may even work in marketing yourself and see a bit about search engine optimization and web development.
Andi says, "It could take you 300 hours to do something that would take us 30. So for that website that you have built yourself, we would have created that ten times over in the time and have it working more efficiently."
Working with a digital marketing agency is all about levelling up. Not only do we have the hours to put into your digital marketing strategies, but we also have extra hacks and intel to power up your digital presence.
In our podcast interview, Kirsty mirrored what we heard from many clients when she said that websites aren't always worth investing in versus how well they perform. Here's the secret: if something is not performing, it likely needs tweaking.
It's easy to think there is no point in showing up somewhere digitally if it isn't doing much in traffic or conversion. When in fact, it's likely not doing much because it's not set upright.
Before you delete your Twitter profile, close your Google Ad account or abandon your website favouring social media marketing, digital agencies can do an audit to find missing pieces of your marketing puzzle.
Often some nifty tweaks and a solid strategy can be enough to make your existing assets perform smarter. As much as social media content and communities might feel like the quick wins when it's thriving, long term content building on your website, and a dedicated focus on SEO, could future proof your business.
As Andi puts it, "Your website is always your content, and any work you do there, you directly reap the rewards."
How much is your marketing budget? How much of that is being spent wisely?
We're not being cocky when we rave about increasing ROI by 150x. We know how to spend advertising budgets wisely.
It's often alarming how much money is spent on misplaced ads or unused resources. With so many avenues to take your digital marketing down, even an experienced marketing manager can get lost down a rabbit warren of marketing jargon, boosting unengaging social posts and reinvesting more budget in the wrong direction.
As I told Kirsty in our interview, "You may think working with a digital agency is just more money to spend, but it's taking your time and money to go further. Often what we do with clients is to begin by sitting down and asking what their objectives are, and agreeing together where is their budget and efforts best placed."
It can be easy to forget that your potential customers are not only everywhere, but there are always multiple touchpoints.
As Kirsty notes of her own business: "It's very rare that someone will just come through Instagram and, that's it. It will slowly transpire over multiple conversations and channels. They found me on Facebook, they signed up for a newsletter, they downloaded a read resources, they listened to my Podcast."
So even if the most marketing-savvy business has killer social media or SEO strategies, digital marketing agencies know where and how all your online platforms work together and can create some nifty ways of taking your customers through a conversion journey – wherever they find you.
Unlike a generic online course, download, or an 'ultimate guide' blog post, the advice and strategy digital marketing agencies can offer you is 100% tailored to your business.
They will create something specific based on your unique:
· Objectives
· Budget
· Audience
· Assets
· Short- & long-term direction
So, every marketing effort is a step toward achieving your business dreams.
Not only that, but it's part of our job to keep our ears to the ground for innovation, new trends, competitors, and – of course – how well your digital platforms are performing,
Not only can we plan, create and execute excellent content, but we also test and analyse its effectiveness – always ready to tweak and make things work harder for you.
"We find the best thing is to try things for a couple of months, see if they are working. See what works best and understand why". Andi says, "It could take you 300 hours to do something that would take us 30. So for that website that you have built yourself, we would have created that ten times over in the time and have it working more efficiently."
Listen to the Podcast for more advice on working with a marketing agency, and more behind the scenes chat from us both.
