6 Reasons To Work With Digital Marketing Consultants

At this point in the year, you and your marketing department are likely completely immersed in 2018 planning. Ideally, you’re working closely with your traditional and digital marketing agencies to leverage their insights and ideas. And at some point during the process you may stop and think, “Why am I paying an agency instead of hiring more people to join my marketing team?”

It’s a question that has likely crossed the minds of the majority of Marketing Directors out there, and with good reason. Assuming you believe in the power of marketing, you are making a solid investment in it. Let’s take a look at the benefits of working with a digital marketing agency instead of increasing your internal team.

1. Bridging a Potential Skills Gap

Digital marketing is ever-changing. New technologies are popping up regularly. If you hire an internal team to execute your digital marketing plan, do they have time and capacity to stay ahead of trends? Digital marketing agencies do -- in fact, they have to or they become obsolete. Consider this article from Mondo: 5 Digital Marketing Skills Your Marketing Team Needs to Succeed in 2017. Most digital agencies not only have these skills, but they have numerous people with this type of knowledge who apply it daily and involved in ongoing training.

2. Expanded Capacity

Think of the last time your organization launched a new product or service, attended a trade show, or had a major announcement. This activity likely consumed your team’s energy, which meant that any other marketing activity took a back seat. Digital marketing agencies tend to have more capacity than an in-house marketing team, simply because there are more people available to work on your account. It’s also likely that your agency’s staff is cross-trained, which means more people can provide service when there is an uptick in marketing activity.

3. Fresh Perspective and Ideation

Have you ever heard the phrase, “That’s the way we’ve always done it?” Personally, I think this is an organization killer. Just because you’ve always done it a certain way doesn’t mean it works, or that it works well. Internal pressure and biases can lead to stagnation in internal teams, and digital marketing agencies can help overcome those internal biases by sharing industry best practices, examples from other clients, and hard data.

Your agency can come to the table with new ideas and then help you demonstrate to upper management why a new approach should be taken! The new ideas that come from your agency can be tested, measured and analyzed. Your agency can help you shift your marketing plan to put more emphasis on the ideas that work, and if a new idea fails, they can quickly pivot to a new strategy.

4. A Deeper Team

Many digital agencies employ a team of experts across multiple areas of digital marketing: digital strategy and analytics, web design and development, app development and immersive technology – digital agencies can build a team of experts and keep them busy because they are working across multiple clients. A diverse client roster keeps them fresh and strengthens their skills for your business as well.

5. Scalability and Budget Management

Digital agencies can scale their teams to meet your company needs and budget. If you have an important launch coming up, agencies can put more resources toward your digital strategy. By involving your agency in annual planning efforts, you can establish a budget that your account manager can work against. This means that you know how much you’ll spend on digital marketing for the year (barring any change requests or new projects), and your agency can adjust resourcing and tactics as needed.

6. Increased Efficiency

When you work with a digital marketing agency, your internal team members can focus on your main projects and immediate needs at hand – and they can really focus on them, fully immerse themselves in the project, and be successful. 

When looking at the budget allocation for your digital marketing agency, keep in mind the benefits that come from the investment (aside from the results-driven work)! Your agency comes with knowledge and undergoes constant training to develop new skills and insights that can be applied to your business. Ultimately, this experience helps you -- and your organization -- be more successful.