Are you thinking of partnering with a specialist marketing agency? Here are some advantages of an external partnership.
The age-old question is: do you scale up your in-house marketing and communications team or do you partner with a specialist agency to accomplish your goals? There are advantages on both sides.
It’s typically down to the individual company, marketing team and marketing professional who is responsible for the task. Marketing is becoming increasingly difficult, with many channels, new technology and competitions, possibly restrictions and a consumer who is becoming more demanding marketers are being pushed out.
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Instead of telling you that you require a marketing agency or more individuals in your team in-house this would be more relevant if you analyzed this according to your personal situation. There are numerous questions to ask yourself prior to making a decision to sign up with an agency. First, ask you…
Are you currently producing enough leads for your marketing?
Are some elements of your marketing plan not getting completed?
Do you have the capacity to employ new in-house staff?
If any of these questions raise concerns, read on and find out the benefits of working with a specialist marketing agency.
What are the benefits of working with a specialist marketing agency?
If your business’s marketing capabilities and reach isn’t fully realized Here are a few of advantages associated with using a specialist marketing agency.
1. Return on investment
The cost to hire an in-house specialist regardless of their particular specialization in marketing is typically expensive. Costs from the hiring itself together with regular training, hardware and software set up salaries and benefits increase and there’s no guarantee you’ll see direct results from that hire, or even keep in touch with the employee for a long period. Employing staff is costly but it’s far more effective with lesser risk to work with an agency rather than build an in-house team for support of specialist components of the marketing strategy.
In working with an agency numerous operational costs are eliminated which means that in return you’ll get tangible outcomes for the money you invest.
2. Access specialist services
When you partner with a specialist marketing agency, you are accessing certain set of services that are not available from general marketing and communications teams. It’s rare for these teams (large or medium sized) to employ specialists in branding SEO, events as well as content, digital design as well as inbound, CRO and media planning, as an example. Working with an agency to gain access to these services will also mean that you’ll be benefiting from the expertise of the other staff members of the agency for a single cost.
When you partner in partnership with an agency you can continue to focus on your areas of expertise, while the agency can focus on those specialist services for your benefit.
3. …via experts
Agency personnel, providing these services generally specialists in their field and have experience and knowledge of strategies to market that you do not have. Experts in this regard don’t want to be a failure and will work hard to produce top-quality work that the desired results for their clients. Experts who also keep up to date with the latest trends in marketing, and these tend to be directly transferred to the work of clients.
You don’t have to worry about the abilities of the agency, its experts will already be handled.
4. Make time for yourself (and your team’s time)
When your business’s department for marketing is similar to most departments in marketing and you are feeling overwhelmed by the current activities and workload. When you collaborate with a professional agency and outsourcing some aspects of your marketing which allows you to concentrate on your main projects and not having to worry about the management of a potentially larger in-house team. Additionally, your marketing efforts will not suffer if the team member has issues or is on vacation as the agency can function as an independent entity.
If you can outsource a portion in your business’s marketing activities to an agency, you’ll be able to take this burden off your employees and ensure that the marketing activities are on course in achieving its goals.
5. Take advantage of an additional viewpoint
Since agencies work with a number of organisations and on many different initiatives, it’s quite likely that what they’re working on for your company is built on years of tested and tested methods and will provide a different perspective to your own. In many cases, agencies are able to sit in on an organisation’s marketing meetings and provide beneficial input, usually providing new insights and opportunities.
Being able to have a marketing group separate from the in-house team could give an outsider’s view and a different viewpoint can provide fresh ideas.
6. Receive additional perks
Agents have access to a large network of partners and suppliers. These suppliers will have access to a range of benefits like free placements, faster support and early access to the latest products and services from these partners. An experienced agency will give clients a wide range of benefits like these which aren’t accessible to the general public or most marketing departments in-house. Our media planning clients often receive free value-added placements through our media providers.
Other benefits can be expected when working with and developing relationships with marketing agencies.
In-house vs agency
The use of specialist marketing agencies offers many advantages, with many of them mentioned above. Of course, the partnership with an agency that is marketing can be costly and they will utilize their own internal procedures which will be different from yours.
In general, if an organization does have the money, joining forces with a professional marketing company is generally a smart idea. Know your internal strength and weakness, evaluate your marketing strategy and goals and then conduct your own research about the agency prior to partnering.
Working with a Hampshire marketing agency could be the answer to your growth and can serve as a backup to your internal team of marketing and communications. Get in touch with us to learn more about what we can do for you.
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