5 Reasons to Hire a Digital Marketing Agency

The story is familiar. A business decides to use digital marketing to grow their brand and engage with their customers. They set up some social media accounts, write a blog, send some emails, and wait for the results to start pouring in—and then nothing happens. They then forget about updating their social media, the signups for the mailing list stop trickling in, and no one wants to take on the job of updating the blog.

So, what is the problem? For most businesses in this position, the real issue is that they shouldn’t be doing digital marketing at all. Instead, they should be working with a digital marketing agency, who understands the ins and outs of succeeding in a crowded online space and knows the strategies that work for brands across the spectrum. If you think that working with a digital marketing agency is just for big companies, think again. Many small, local businesses reap the benefits of working with a professional agency to find digital marketing solutions that work. If you’re on the fence about hiring a digital marketing agency, here are 5 reasons you should make the call.

1. You can return focus to running your business.

There is a good chance that you didn’t start your business to focus on marketing. However, to run an effective digital marketing campaign, you would need to do just that. When you hire an agency to do the job for you, your time becomes your own again, so you can focus on what really matters: running your business.

When you hire an agency, you also get to have a dedicated marketing team that is out-of-house and doesn’t need to be on-boarded to your staff. This cuts down on time spent reviewing applicants, conducting interviews, and training.

2. You can reduce the costs of digital marketing.

You may think that hiring a digital marketing agency is just an extra expense on your budget, but in reality, it could save you money. In addition to the time involved in hiring a new employee, hiring someone to do your digital marketing means taking on an additional salary, plus payroll taxes and benefits like insurance and paid vacation. Digital marketing agencies work for you as consultants. As such, you pay them the fee for the campaign, and that’s all. You make a targeted investment into your marketing campaign and save the cost of paying an employee.

Further, there are often subscriptions and paid platforms that are necessary to conduct digital marketing campaigns. These fees can add up quickly, but most digital marketing agencies already have the tools they need. Of course, digital marketing specialists already know how to use the tools as well, so you save on cost of the tools and the time spent letting employees train on them.

3. Digital marketing can’t be a low priority.

A common mistake for companies is to try to handle digital marketing in-house, without any new hires, by spreading the task across a few employees who are told to add it to their list of responsibilities. Inevitably, digital marketing is the thing that gets pushed down the to-do list or moved to tomorrow, as tasks that are more central to daily operations take center stage.

This is an ineffective strategy for succeeding at digital marketing. Digital marketing requires focused attention and careful management, especially in the midst of a campaign. Failing to give it the attention it deserves doesn’t just a have neutral outcome—it can actually hurt your brand. If customers come across social media profiles that aren’t updated or blogs that are old and stale, they will begin to see your business as one that isn’t conscientious and committed.

When you hire a digital marketing agency, you will get a team that is laser focused on your digital presence and whose only job is to help you succeed online.

4. Digital marketing agencies are experts at what they do.

Digital marketing is a complex industry. There are a variety of different tools, including SEO, display ads, PPC, and email marketing, and most brands need a combination of these strategies to crack their target audience. Similarly, the methods that are effective differ between brand to brand, and they are always in flux. As users change their online habits, which they do often, successful marketing strategies change as well.

A digital marketing agency is made up of a team of experienced professionals who know how to navigate the digital space and who have seen what works and what doesn’t. They’re constantly engaged in monitoring user behavior, and they know where your customers spend their time online. This kind of knowledge is invaluable when it comes to growing your online presence. They can help you cut down on the amount of time it takes for you to see results from your efforts, and they can help you succeed in a way that is right for your budget.

5. You will get measurable results.

What good is a digital marketing strategy that doesn’t have measurable results? With your digital marketing agency, you will determine some key performance indicators (KPIs) that you want to track to see what kind of return you are getting from the marketing efforts. These KPIs will be tied specifically to the goals for your campaign. For instance, if your hope is to have more mailing list subscribers, one KPI would be the increase in the number of subscribers at key points in the campaign and what lead those subscribers to sign up.

These KPIs will be reported to you on a timetable agreed to with your digital marketing agency. They’re invaluable tools both ROI purposes and for learning more about how your customers behave online.

When you’re looking for a digital marketing agency, choose the experienced team at Salem Surround. We work with companies across the country, from large national brands to small local businesses, to employ our strategy of surrounding your audience online. Reach out to us today to discuss how we can help build your online presence.

 
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