Why Hire Digital Marketing Agency?

To hire digital marketing agency is necessary. You’ve now begun your journey into the digital platform. Probably, by now, you know the latest trends for this year. You also know which channels to tap into your digital marketing campaign. However, you can only hope as much as you can that the plans you have in mind will work if you have the right people on board to help you realize it.

Now, there are two options that are in front of you right now. One is to hire a solo digital marketing professional or strategist to do your digital marketing job. The second option is to hire a digital marketing agency to do it for you.

But, Which is which?

Let this article help you decide which is best especially for your business-to-business (B2B) company.

What is a digital marketing agency?

When one talks about an agency, one idea that comes to mind is a place where a group of people works.

Yes, that’s correct.

Another idea would be a company that offers outsourcing of specialized services and products.

Again, that’s correct.

But when it comes to talking about a digital marketing agency, what do you think is this one exactly?

A digital marketing agency is an agency with a pool of experts that takes care of all your digital marketing needs making use of the current technology in order to reach their client’s goals for their brands.

They hire people with a specific skill set that often includes experts on search engine optimization (SEO), content marketing, pay per click, and email marketing, social media marketing, among others.

You may ask why the need to define what a digital marketing agency is?

Well, you know that there exist creative agencies, technical agencies and as well as advertising agencies.

You need to clearly be aware of the difference, in order to know which right agency to tap in terms of your digital marketing needs.

In the next few paragraphs, take a closer look into a digital marketing agency and how they work.

UK accounting firm Moore Stephens conducted a study on the digital marketing spending of 800 advertising and media companies in North America, Asia Pacific and Europe.

It found that spending on digital marketing globally are approaching $100 billion.

The study authored by Damian Ryan was released in 2018.

The study highlighted how digital marketing has shaken up the advertising and media industry forcing mergers to some in order to stay relevant.

Ryan also pointed out “while brands are spending more, they are still working with agencies”. 

This only goes to show how the world is changing now. Industries and businesses begin to realize the importance of digital marketing.

To simply say that you can thrive into this period without having to go digital is a suicide attempt.

That’s why digital marketing agencies exist!

They are there to help those newbies in the digital marketing trend to adjust and to learn the ropes.

They offer full service or specialize in one area in digital marketing.

Full service digital marketing agencies have experts on board with a different skillset on web designing, creative content management, social media, SEO, email marketing, video marketing, and etc.

Those that offer specialized areas on digital marketing can only offer so much in the area where they are focused on.

While they do the things they do, they can only offer you limited options compared to that of a full service agency.

Now that you’ve known what a digital marketing agency is and what services they offer, take a look at how they differ from a traditional marketing agency.

Traditional VS Digital Marketing Agencies

Both agencies have similar objectives. They want to draw in more clients and promote the brand.

However, the big difference of these agencies is the traditional one offers limited and costly techniques to promote your brand while the other offers a variety of channels to tap and a wide variety of approaches you can implement using the latest technology.

Sounds pretty cool, right?

But that doesn’t end there. Here are some of the other significant things you should know why you should go for digital marketing agencies in the 21^st century.

1. Cost

This is a top concern especially for companies that have only begun operations like local businesses and start-ups.

You know you need to get value for every centavo you release from your budget.

For traditional marketing agencies, they mostly use traditional channels to advertise and to get brand awareness. They tap TV and radio for broadcast ads and newspapers and magazines for print ads. Advertising for a local newspaper in Cebu, Philippines costs at least P3,600 for a 1/8 portion of their page.

With digital marketing agencies, you could use that amount to boost posts in various channels online.

Which one gives you value for your money?

2. Results

This is one thing you always expect from your investments – results. You know that you need to keep tabs of the investment you are putting is earning you returns.

With traditional marketing agencies, gauging for the results of the ads you’ve placed can’t really be measured.

Sure, they have surveys to prove that they’re rating but what about your brand? How are assured that people get the right awareness of your brand?

It would take a longer time for your sales team to report to you the figures you’ve earned after using traditional marketing channels in promoting your brand.

Digital marketing agencies on the other hand have the upper hand here.

They provide you data on your investment and even on real-time.

Yes, they could do that with the help of the tools that technology companies have put in place on websites and even social media networks.

If you’re familiar with Google Analytics, you can see how your website is performing yesterday, the previous month and event at this hour.

How amazing is that?

3. Tracking your progress

From time to time, you know you want to know how are you performing.

With traditional marketing agencies, commissioned surveys are conducted in order to gauge product awareness. You need to hire another team of surveyors and researchers to do the study and to directly get the overview from the individuals in person. This means added cost, right? Not to mention that it’s also time-consuming.

Digital marketing agencies can send you to progress reports every now and then that you need them.

Apart from Google Analytics that aids them, there are also other tools that help them deliver an accurate report on your digital marketing efforts.

Digital Marketing Statistics

How can you possibly ignore that up-to-date progress report?

In the 2018 marketing statistics gathered by Hubspot, you’d get to know more and more about the digital marketing world and how massive it’s reach has become.

Social media statistics

• Facebook now has 1.47 billion daily active users and 2.23 billion monthly active users, as of June 2018.
• Hubspot says at least 76 percent of people use their Facebook newsfeed to find something interesting.
• Content consumption for the past two years has increased by 57 percent.
• According to Pew Research Center, 79 percent of people that spend their time online use Facebook.
• After Facebook’s acquisition of Instagram app, its users has now reached 1 billion as of June 2018, according to TechCrunch.
• The same source says eMarketer estimated the app generating $5.48 billion in U.S. ad revenue in 2018.
• Users on Snapchat and Instagram are mostly below the age of 25.

Email marketing statistics

• According to Econsultancy, three-quarters of companies agree that email offers “excellent” to good return of investment (ROI).
• Statitsa says active email accounts are expected to hit 5.6 billion by 2019.
• As of 2018, Statitsa says Gmail has 1 billion active users worldwide.
• Most professionals still prefer to use email when communicating for business purposes, says Hubspot.
• The same digital marketing company says 78 percent of consumers unsubscribed from emails because they send too many emails.
• By the end of last year, at least 80 percent of email users are already using their mobile device to access their email accounts.

Other Significant Statistics

• According to Marketo, strategic landing pages are already being used by B2B businesses to acquire leads.
• At least 72 percent of organizations that calculate their ROI say their marketing strategy is effective.
• In the next two years, Salesforce says there are an additional 21 percent of marketing leaders who plan to use a marketing automation platform.
• Compared to two years ago, according to Hubspot, 87 percent of people say there are more ads now.
• Business Insider reported that Google drives 95 percent of all paid search ad clicks especially on mobile.

After looking at the statistics, ideas are perhaps brewing inside your mind. You probably are thinking of how to use these statistics to your advantage.

Why Hire a Digital Marketing Agency?

But wait up! There’s still more reasons to finally get you to hire a digital marketing agency instead of getting a traditional marketing agency or even a solo professional.

Here’s why:

1. Consumers are already online

You know that in order to create brand awareness and to get your message to the right people, you need to go where your audience are.

With more people gaining access to the Internet, where could you possibly reach them? They’re online and they’re everywhere!

Getting the right digital marketing agency to help you connect with them will be your key to getting that sales line up.

You can’t expect a solo professional to work on all your digital marketing channels, right? He or she can only do so much multi-tasking.

2. They have the tools and the experts on board

You can’t deny the fact that they know what tools to tap when it comes to your digital marketing efforts.

Some of them have been working in the same campaign and industry that they know what works and what don’t work.

Compared to solo professionals who might still be learning the ropes on SEO, he can only give you as much as his expertise on content but not on other areas such as web design or email marketing.

While working with a digital marketing agency lifts your worries as you are assured that they have the experts working for a specific skill set that you need.

3. The have case studies and work portfolio to show you.

Yes. They can show you their previous campaigns and previous collaboration.

Yes. They keep tabs of their track record and their projects.

They promise results and you know that they do accomplish it because they have previously done it.

Compared to a solo professional, you can only look at some of the contracted projects they’ve worked on. They can only offer the limited work they’ve done.

Surely, they can be useful in working on some of your channels but they really can’t handle your digital marketing needs in full coverage.

4. Growth

You know that your direction is to grow and expand.

Once this comes, you know you need a digital marketing agency to rely on and adapt to changes.

As previously mentioned, they have case studies and a portfolio of the work they have previously done. You are assured that they would do the best they can to continuously support your company’s growth.

A solo professional working for you can adapt to changes but only in his capacity to do so.

Will you take chances?

5. You can focus on your business core.

You don’t need to micro-manage in order to see to it that things are working smoothly.

Your partner digital marketing agency will do the managing of your digital marketing aspect.

Working with a team of experts is an assurance that you can put more time and focus on running your business.

You don’t need to worry about clicks or getting new leads and conversions, your digital marketing agency will do that for you.

You can just sit at the comforts of your office chair and wait for progress reports to land on your table.

Yes. They promise results. They will give you results.

What’s next…

Now that you’ve pretty had a very comprehensive read about the things you need to know in a digital marketing agency, you’ll likely now look at the “whose who” in the industry.

In order to help you out, ask around in your industry and ask for referrals.

If not, Google can be your best friend in looking for one that fits.

Now, will you go digital with a team or dive with a solo pro? It’s your pick.