14th Aug 2015

The Online Marketing Agency Age

Have you ever felt that online marketing has moved, and continues to move, at light speed? Whatever was ‘in the now’ last week is now ‘old hat’ and more than passé. Sometimes it seems like digital marketing whooshes past you and all you can do is sit and watch it fly by. Did you ever stop and wonder what happened?

The explanation can be summed up in two words – social media. The ‘good old days’ (read into that 2009) the only main stream social media that marketing companies focussed on were Twitter and Facebook where online marketing was channeled into freebies and competitions. It was very effective, until Facebook and marketing became a cat and mouse game of efficacy – sometimes the marketers won, and sometimes Facebook. What these two social medias did accomplish that lit marketing the touch paper was show other social media platforms the value of online marketing. Marketing companies quickly jumped on the initiative and YouTube, Google+ and then later on, LinkedIn and Pinterest joined the ranks of effective online marketing.

From the moment the value of social media as a successful marketing vehicle became known, marketing agencies began to ride the wave and reinvent themselves as online or digital marketing agencies and take a new direction. If you start any search for digital marketing companies you will see that they have become a rapidly growing phenomenon, increasing in efficacy and pushing the boundaries of marketing in new directions.

There are many reasons why online marketing agencies are booming and you need to understand why so that you can leverage their success.

SPECIALIZATION

Have you noticed that everything is becoming specialized? There are no longer generalists in medicine, computing, law, education, etc. – all of these influencing professions are working much more effectively by specializing in one area, working and ‘owning’ that subject until the competition is thin. Marketing is no exception.

Today companies are looking for email campaigns, slideshare, SEO, webinars, PPC, SEM, coverage on all social media channels, daily deals, infographics, inbound marketing third party content, etc. No ‘one’ marketing agency can be an expert in all these channels and the industry is naturally becoming specialist-driven to make sure they are at the crest of the wave, and the strategy works well – very well.

LEVERAGING THE NICHE NATURE

Online marketing agencies are booming because it is extremely difficult for a company to become proficient at everything it needs to generate headway in the modern marketing arena. It also takes a vast amount of resources to get proficient in one marketing media, so as marketing agencies concentrate their talent and experience in one niche they offer a service that is cheaper to employ that to compete with.

By honing their skills, a professional marketing agency knows which niche is important for your industry, and how to leverage it. They know how to prioritize objectives and select channels that they can focus on for maximum effect. By employing the help of an agency you are leaning on all the past campaigns they have created and they generally have a lot of knowledge on a nurture path or methodology that works for a particular industry and can easily prioritize the right media to use so that campaigns are quickly effective.

LOCATION LOCATION LOCATION

With the rise of the internet in every industry, the world has gotten smaller. Location is no longer a barrier for business competition. Your competitors used to live across the road, now they can live across the world. ‘Big businesses’ can now easily focus on any geographic location and gain a strong hold from their corporate offices.

By focussing your marketing through a digital marketing agency you stand a better chance of matching up to the competition and pushing past them. Marketing agencies make a profession out of competing in the sales arena – use it!

ACCOUNTABILITY

One thing that you need these days is to know how you are performing – in everything. If you had to prove how effective your email campaigns are – could you? Do you know where your customers are pooling? Is your marketing aimed at the right persona? How do you know?

The only way to know where to market, how to market and when to market is to know the market. The only way to know the market is to track the metrics that matter. Online marketing companies have been using this information to its best advantage and basing their campaigns around it. It takes a lot of time and experience to collect, interpret and leverage the right information to fine tune a campaign from the start and make a bigger impact. A good marketing agency is accountable for collecting, interpreting and strategizing from essential metrics.

PART TIME AVAILABILITY

One thing that makes digital marketing companies a very attractive addition to any brand development or marketing campaign is that you get professional expertise on an ‘as needed’ basis. It may seem like it would be cheaper to do it yourself, but factoring all the that you don’t know about marketing media along with what you do, purchasing the needed equipment and programs, then considering the time it will take you complete – then complete again when it goes wrong – it may be more economical to employ an online agency when you need it.

Whether you are using a digital marketing agency or currently considering it, the fact is, whatever happens in the future an online marketing agency is a must. The market will continue to get more and more niche as the industry becomes increasingly complicated and employing an agency will take much of the guess work out of your marketing campaigns. Keeping your company ahead of the curve will become much more difficult as each strain of social media becomes more sophisticated and trying to keep control of it in house could become a time and money drain. That’s’ when a marketing company steps in and proves its worth.

Given the strength and increasing power of effective marketing companies they will feature in every companies brand development future. Start the future today! Get to know your options and start to work with potential agencies. If they’re good, they will tell you what you need to increase your market share – and your return on investment.

 

Resources:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/brentgleeson/2015/01/13/3-digital-marketing-mistakes-to-avoid-in-2015/

http://blog.hubspot.com/agency/digital-marketing-skills-clients-want

http://arcreactions.com/the-people-who-put-social-media-on-the-map/

http://streetfightmag.com/2013/09/10/5-things-smbs-can-do-to-optimize-for-mobile-search/