There is no doubt about it, the marketing landscape is changing constantly and it is overwhelming trying to keep up to date. All social media and inbound marketing needs updating regularly and creating new and varied content demands on-going attention. Should we use #instagram #periscope #whatever, it never ends!
If you have asked yourself or discussed with your team any of the following questions, then you need to reconsider your options and engage a digital marketing agency.
- There is so much info out there I have no idea where to start?
- How do you know what to blog about and who is interested anyway?
- There are not enough hours in the day as it is so who would find the time to stay on top of all this extra marketing?
- I know that others in our industry are growing online and we are not, why not?
- Our competition are ranking higher in the Google/Bing rankings than we are and I have no idea how to be better?
- We paid a lot of money for a state of the art website but it is getting no traffic!
Savvy marketers are now saying that it is no longer B2B or B2C but in fact H2H…human to human.
How to collaborate with a digital marketing agency
Here are my top 10 tips why it makes sense to collaborate with a digital marketing agency and support your inhouse team with professional and appropriate support.
- Allocate a budget and stick to it every month.
- Together with your agency you can evaluate the analysis and metrics from your marketing and this will help you to grow your business.
- By streamlining and consistently having an integrated digital strategy will ensure that all your marketing efforts are successful.
- Accurate planning and delivery of services will make your business more efficient and effective.
- You will be able to predict profits generated by marketing activities and drive successful results more efficiently.
- Working with an agency will focus your marketing efforts and increase your knowledge.
- You will spend less time hiring and outsourcing offline services that could prove inconsistent with other marketing efforts.
- Centralising all digital marketing will provide unity to your business and save time and money in the long run.
- You will receive clear and consistent reporting on a set of results and analysis that you and the marketing agency have agreed upon.
- You will have expert help on demand.
Inbound Marketing
Inbound marketing is a very powerful method of increasing traffic and driving visits to your web presence and then into your business. As in all types of marketing there has to be a strategy behind it and an awareness of who and where your market is. Working with an established agency can fast track and focus your efforts and deliver results over time.
When faced with the cost of setting up a web presence with all social media platforms integrated and the time involved in managing and maintaining your online engagement it can be prohibitive for businesses to take on board and implement. Many times clients are already spending a lot of money on outbound advertising that’s no longer getting results—such as newspapers, magazines, yellow pages, direct mail, TV or radio. It proves cost effective to engage an agency and deliver a professional service.
The more traditional interruption marketing carried out by the big household names has worked to an extent in the past but for the smaller company it’s been proven that committing to an Inbound Marketing policy will bring a far greater return on investment than ad marketing alone. A recent study into inbound marketing showed that delivering content over 3 or more social platforms increased return on investment by 68%. You need to consider merging the creative and the inbound marketing strategy together to get measurable results.
Inbound marketing also creates some additional bonuses over paid advertising the first is simply that by its very nature you will be creating an ever expanding vault of high quality content. This is great for search engines and if this content is of good enough quality and engaging enough it will get ranked well in Google and Bing as well as videos from YouTube riding high in the SERP’s (Search Engine Results Page) too.
Additionally all this content builds your online reputation and authority, massively increases your visibility across the internet including the social networks and promotes that all important engagement process that gets you talking to prospects. This relationship building is crucial in the long term as it has been shown that 45% of people who engage with you online will buy from you over time.
As you can see, Inbound Marketing, if carried out in a proven strategy, can greatly improve your traffic, increase your conversion rate and enable you to sell more product. All of this is made easier and more effective if you engage a marketing agency to streamline and develop your online presence. For about the cost of hiring an administrative assistant, you can have a dedicated Inbound Marketing team working to bring you new customers.
Inbound Marketing also builds the reputation and authority of your company. This is incredibly important for a number of reasons but the main one is simply because prospects need to know, like and trust the company and the people they are buying from. The truth is people buy from people and that trust is massively important to attain and retain. This form of marketing also increases your visibility online. Imagine building a marketing structure that enables you to dominate the niche of the industry you are in, be in front of your prospects just when they are looking for the solutions you provide and have the opportunity to get to know you and your business before they purchase.
Can your existing team keep up with the following effectively and deliver the strategy with knowledge of Inbound Marketing methods?
- Blogging
- Search engine optimization and link building
- Managing multiple social media accounts
- Creating content such as ebooks, whitepapers or guides
- Creating call-to-action graphics
- Building landing pages with lead generating forms
- Lead nurturing campaigns
- Measuring and tracking marketing analytics.
This is the foundation of all inbound marketing strategies and is fundamental to your success. Inbound brings product placement to a new level. With the use of the correct methodology you can get your site found and deliver online more efficiently than ever before. You can get eyeballs on your business and sales online by using and engaging a digital agency who will work with you and your team effectively.
In my experience working in the retail sector delivering inbound and social media marketing, the biggest challenge is educating businesses into how “Inbound” can and does work in their business. It is extremely relevant for everyone to have an online presence and to work that presence and drive traffic to their online site and subsequently in the door of their business. All businesses need increased sales, Do You?
Inbound Marketing is a proven method to deliver traffic and increase footfall and sales when implemented professionally and with purpose as my top 10 tips illustrate.
Picture courtesy of Pixabay
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