Successful business are a product of stellar marketing tactics and excellent customer service. However, at some point all businesses stagnate.
Some small businesses successfully utilize free online resources to manage their marketing campaigns in-house. However, there are several great reasons for small business leaders to hire a marketing firm.
There is no such thing as a one-size-fit all solution. Still, Tipping Pointing Marketing Agency says that small companies that hire a marketing firm outperform those that hire one in-house marketer.
If you have recently lost a marketer and/or are unsure of how to allocate your marketing budget, deciding what to do next can be difficult.
Take your time deciding what to do next. Before you spend any money, consider the following.
ASSESS YOUR LEADS AND SALES REVENUE
Even if your company has been experiencing fast growth for a few years, you can expect business to plateau at some time or another. Your pool of local prospects will shrink as you build relationships and expand your network throughout your target market.
If you are a small team, it might be hard for essential members to be pulled away from their money-generating projects to assist in marketing or new business development. However, your firm must make marketing a priority.
When you hire a marketing firm, your ideas can be deployed quickly. Good agencies are connected to deep networks of creatives, who can turn your visions into a realities in a matter of days or weeks. Likewise, agencies are able to provide actionable insights on a regular basis.
WHO IS ACCOUNTABLE FOR MARKETING?
Marketing is a big job. Consequently, many agencies have chosen to specialize in building apps or developing content, or providing other marketing-oriented services. Large companies hire different people to strategize, write, design their graphics, and more.
You travel. You close sales. You train staff. You oversee operations. You do not have the time or the bandwidth to keep up with the fickle social media landscape.
When working with a marketing consulting team, you should receive a dedicated account manager. He or she should make producing your vision and generating leads a priority. Additionally, he or she should be able to give you timely updates regarding your efforts.
Marketing firms like Bainbridge Marketing & Consulting provide teams of experts, for the price of one in-house manager allowing your team to focus on providing your customers with exemplary service
CONSIDER THE COST
According to the “Dummies” series, companies should start to consider hiring an external creative company when their advertising, web, direct mail and other marketing efforts cost $50,000 or more.
You could funnel $50,000 or more into one overextended employee with mixed results. However, you could also maximize your investment by purchasing only services that you need. Get free consultations. Choose to work with teams that understand how to generate more leads for your brand or industry.
DO YOU KNOW HOW TO TRACK SUCCESS?
Once a marketing campaign is off to the races, one of the worst things that new marketing managers can do is to make sudden changes to all of the campaign’s elements all at once.
Though it can be tempting to want to scrap underperforming ideas and build from the ground up, resist the urge to do so. Over time, the best campaigns are a part of a carefully orchestrated refining process.
As a business owner, you are likely to be most interested in traffic, leads and revenue. However, expert marketers take your concerns a step further and care about metrics like: the position of your call-to-action buttons, the amount of engagement that your photos receive on Facebook, user behavior and more. Their ability to distill meaningful information will allow your team to make well-informed decisions.
KEEPING A FRESH PERSPECTIVE
If it has been a while since your company used new marketing techniques to capture business, you might want to hire an external agency. Outdated or repetitive content inevitably annoys customers.
A good marketing firm will be able to build upon the foundation laid by you and your team. It will test changes to make sure that your company’s digital and offline image is on the right track. It will be able to bring innovative ideas to your reliable team.
KEEPING PACE WITH TECHNOLOGY
You don’t need to be a computer programmer to know that today’s marketing is about much more than brochures and television ads these days. Even the biggest traditional media houses are devoting more time to their digital media efforts.
To that end, marketing consultants can be an excellent resource for companies or small marketing teams that have limited technical know-how. Technology and the boom of social media changed the marketing landscape forever. Consultants who keep you up-to-date and relevant can be a worthy investment.