Have you been stressed out about growing your business? Do you need more clients? Are you struggling to create a solid marketing strategy? If you answered yes to at least one of those questions, it might be time for you to hire a marketing agency. Most small business owners spend at least 20 hours per week on marketing. That’s 1,040 hours per year! How much is 1,040 hours worth to you? At $50 per hour (for simple math purposes), that’s $26,000 per year. That’s a lot of time and money to see minimal results. Hiring a marketing agency can not only save you some of that $26,000 and 1,040 hours annually, but it can also provide a multitude of other benefits. Keep reading to learn more.
How Do You Know It’s Time to Hire a Marketing Agency?
Have you been on the fence about hiring a marketing agency? Maybe you’ve been tacklings things solo, or you’ve hired an assistant, but you wonder if hiring an agency is the right move for you?
That’s understandable.
Hiring an agency can be a significant investment, so here’s how you know it’s the right time to take that step.
Burnout
Trying to do a million tasks will lead to burnout for you and your employees.
As a mental health professional, you understand that burnout leads to poor mental health and low productivity.
Managing your marketing while staying on top of new trends, plus your daily responsibilities, is a huge task.
If you’re feeling the burnout and dealing with lowered productivity, hiring an agency could be the best solution.
You Don’t Enjoy Marketing
Maybe you’re burned out because you don’t enjoy marketing.
You already have mundane administrative tasks to fulfill, why add to your plate? Focus on the aspects of your business that you’re passionate about.
There are professionals who eat, sleep, and breathe marketing that would love to take this off of your hands.
If you simply don’t enjoy marketing your business, consider allowing a marketing agency to take it off of your hands.
No Results
You know there are people that can benefit from your services, you have great prices, and you’re in a great location, but crickets.
That could be ineffective marketing.
If you’re not seeing any new leads or clients from your marketing efforts, then something isn’t working, and an agency will be able to pinpoint the problem.
A pair of trained professional eyes over your marketing strategy could be the boost that you need.
You’re Not Measuring Success
Maybe you have seen some results, but you’re not measuring or tracking your success.
If you’re throwing darts at the board but not paying attention to the technique, how can you replicate it?
You’ve been posting on social media, blogging, and running PPC ads, but you don’t know what leads are coming from where, but an agency can save you.
The Benefits of Hiring a Marketing Agency
If you’re feeling the issues mentioned above, you could be considering hiring an agency.
Here are the benefits.
Expertise
You’ve probably watched hours of Youtube or read numerous blog posts, and you still feel like you’re struggling with digital marketing.
That’s to be expected. Digital marketing is a broad field with a lot to learn, but that’s what the experts are for.
When you hire a marketing agency, you’re hiring much-needed expertise. Marketers will be current on the latest trends and algorithms, and they will provide the necessary depth and breadth of experience and knowledge that is required to run a successful campaign.
Trained Professionals
Do you DIY legal or medical expertise? Our guess is no.
Your clients come to you for your expertise, and a marketing agency provides that same level of knowledge.
Digital marketing is an ever-changing field, and it’s an agency’s job to stay on top of trends. Hiring a marketing agency gives you direct access to a panel of trained professionals.
You can have access to an SEO specialist, social media marketer, Google Ads expert, and a content writer without hiring each person individually.
Don’t cheat your business by creating a makeshift marketing plan. You won’t see the best results.
Fresh Perspective
As with mental health, sometimes we need an unbiased and objective opinion of our issues. Sometimes it’s impossible to see what’s right underneath our noses.
Working with an agency can provide a fresh pair of eyes for your business. The agency will be able to find areas of opportunity that you didn’t realize existed and provide recommendations to help you grow beyond what you hired them to do.
Overall, an agency will be able to provide completely objective opinions and recommendations for your business, just as you’re able to offer to your mental health clients or patients.
Time Savings
“I have so much free time that I don’t know what to do with myself,” said no business owner ever.
A good marketing strategy is not a “one and done” effort. It requires ongoing management.
If you already need more than 24 hours in a day, hiring a marketing agency will save you some valuable time.
The Learning Curve
How long does it take to learn a new skill? A day? Month? Year?
The more important question is: do you have time to find out?
If you have an “I can do it all” approach, you will need to learn a variety of new skills. Graphic design, search engine optimization, social media advertising, and copywriting are just a few of the skills necessary to run one single campaign.
Overcoming this learning curve can cost you months of time and, ultimately, thousands of dollars, or you can hire a marketing agency that is ready to produce results today.
Campaign Management
Managing a campaign the proper way is not autopilot. You need to monitor, review, and revise.
For example, our pay-per-click management is continuously optimized.
We constantly tweak your campaigns to adjust to changes in your market and the Google Ads auction. We make about ten optimizations to your account per day.
Social media requires content creation posted to various platforms.
Do you have time to post on Facebook, Instagram, and Youtube while managing PPC and SEO?
Managing Employees
If you chose to hire additional team members to take on the work, now you have more employees to manage.
Expanding your team to include in-house marketing employees requires more supervision, more performance reviews, and more paperwork.
With an agency, you will have a single contract that outlines all deliverables and workflow, and you will have one primary method of contact.
Cost Savings
While you may think hiring an agency is very costly, it will actually save your business thousands of dollars.
Before you consider hiring in-house personnel, consider these factors.
Full-Time Salaries
According to Career Explorer, the average salary for a digital marketing manager is $40,000.
If you hire an in-house marketing team, you’re going to be spending at least $40,000 annually for one team member, not including benefits like insurance, training, or paid leave. You will also need to provide annual raises, increasing your costs every single year.
One team member simply can’t do the job and produce the same deliverables that an agency can, so multiply that $40,000 by 2 or 3.
See how quickly this adds up?
Tools and Technology
To launch a successful campaign, you need to create content, post it to several channels, conduct proper research, and analyze it all.
If you choose to handle the marketing internally, you will need tools like email marketing software, social media scheduler, and analysis software to accomplish these tasks.
With an agency, you won’t need to subscribe to dozens of tools, which can save you hundreds of dollars per month and offer you valuable insight at no additional charge.
Trial and Error
Do you understand SEO? How about email marketing? Have you ever reviewed your Google Analytics?
If you answered no, then an agency can save you money because learning these skills takes time and practice.
We guess that you don’t have the time or money to waste on running an ad campaign that doesn’t produce results or creating content that doesn’t generate leads.
These mistakes can cost your company hundreds, even thousands, of dollars. By choosing a marketing agency, you’re choosing a team of experts who know how to produce results.
Getting Results
The most crucial benefit of hiring a marketing agency is getting results, so let’s look at a few statistics.
- SEO has a 14.6% conversion rate compared to 1.7% for traditional outbound methods such as cold-calling or direct mail.
- Emails not optimized for mobile devices get deleted by 80.3% of users.
- The average person consumes 11.4 pieces of content before making a purchasing decision.
What do these stats mean? They show that marketing done well can produce great results, but they also show that marketing done poorly can negatively impact a business.
What if your emails aren’t optimized? 80% of users could be deleting them. What if you don’t have enough quality content pieces out there for users to digest? They move on to someone else.
What if you have a well-optimized local SEO campaign running? You can see a 15% conversion rate.
The difference lies in the marketing manager. If digital marketing is outside your area of expertise, then getting great results will not be easy.
The most significant benefit you will receive from hiring an agency is a positive ROI.
Scaling Your Business
If you’re trying to scale your business or your marketing efforts, hiring an agency is the way to go.
Under a traditional in-house operation, the only way you can increase the output of your marketing team is to hire more employees. To expand to different strategies, employees will need additional training.
Scaling your business is made easier with an agency, as they have the tools and resources to adjust to your unique needs.
How to Prepare
So now that you’ve decided to hire a marketing agency, how do you prepare to work with one? There are a few steps that will get you ready.
Know Your Goals
What are you looking to achieve with hiring a marketing agency? More leads? A new website?
If you ask a friend what they would like for Christmas, and they say it doesn’t matter, what do you get them?
Be clear about your vision.
Understand Your Clientele
No, “everyone” is not your audience.
Who is your ideal client? How much is their income? Do they have children?
Understanding your audience will allow your agency to serve you better.
Understand the Services Offered
Do you understand the services agencies are offering? If you understand them at a high level, you’ll better understand what will serve your business.
You will also be able to engage in the conversation about campaigns throughout your time working together.
Find a Firm in Your Niche
When you need heart surgery, would you prefer a generalist or a cardiothoracic surgeon? Our guess is the latter.
A marketing firm that specializes in your niche is the best. They will understand your business model, your vernacular, and your clientele.
Set Expectations
What are your expectations? How often would you like to be communicated with? What’s your preferred method of contact? What results are you expecting?
An agency can only meet and manage your expectations if you are clear about them.
Getting Started
Are you ready to get new clients and grow your business?
Deciding to work with a marketing agency is an excellent investment and will yield positive results for your business.
Schedule a free consultation today and get the ball rolling.
