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The dominance of print, radio, and television advertising has been over for some time now, but a surprising number of businesses are still only just learning about the power of digital marketing. Search engines and social media are the new ways to get your company noticed and your customers hooked.
Digital marketing is able to be a lot more efficient than older methods of advertising. This is because it allows a greater degree of control over who sees ads, as well as when and where they see them. You could say that it’s like using a harpoon rather than casting a wide net, which is how many traditional marketing methods have worked. Digital marketing is also like the former in that it takes skill and experience to do it well. That’s why many businesses outsource their digital marketing to agencies.
This article will explore the benefits that digital marketing agencies offer in more depth, but first it will look at the different types of digital marketing agencies and what they do.
Types of digital marketing agencies
Digital marketing is an umbrella term that encompasses a wide range of tactics. It basically refers to any way of communicating with customers that can be done online. That includes emails, advertisements, influencer reviews, social media, SEO, and more.
Most companies employ a mixture of tactics when they run a digital marketing campaign. They may let an agency handle everything on their behalf, or just some of the tasks. As such, there are some agencies which offer a broad range of services and some that specialise in a single area. Some common agency types include:
Full-service agencies
These help companies with everything from researching and developing a digital marketing strategy to implementing and monitoring it.
PPC/Digital ad agencies
These create the sponsored results that you see at the top of web pages and the adverts that you see when you use social media or browse blogs. Some digital ad agencies specialise in crafting ad campaigns for a single platform. For example, most PPC agencies focus on Google, while a Meta advertising agency would focus on Facebook and Instagram.
SEO agencies
These specialise in search engine optimisation, a longstanding digital marketing strategy that boosts where company websites appear in search engine results pages without directly paying the search engines.
Inbound marketing agencies
Some modern consumers prefer to discover and research products themselves rather than have companies reach out and try and persuade them through advertising. Inbound marketing agencies help businesses reach and appeal to this kind of customer.
Web design agencies
Most digital marketing methods focus on getting potential customers onto business’s websites. This can cost a lot of money, so it’s important to make sure that they follow through and actually purchase something. That’s where web design agencies come in. They know how to well-designed websites that consumers will buy from.
The benefits of digital marketing agencies
Now that you’ve got an idea of the scope of digital marketing, here’s why hiring an agency is often the best way to put it into action.
1. It’s cost effective
The number one benefit of outsourcing marketing for most businesses is that it’s cost-effective. Hiring, training, and compensating in-house marketing staff is expensive, and by working for only one client they are not going to be as productive as they could be. With agency staff, businesses only pay as and when they use their services.
Agencies are also in a stronger position to negotiate lower advertising rates with online platforms, because they can offer them ads for many clients in bulk.
2. Allows access to the latest technology and techniques
The online marketing landscape is constantly evolving and can change in a heartbeat. New methods of running and monitoring campaigns to help keep on top of it are regularly released. It would cost businesses a lot of money to keep upgrading or investing in these new solutions themselves, but agencies with many clients can quickly make back any money they spend on tech and training through client fees. Meanwhile, their clients benefit from the latest solutions without ever paying the full price.
3. They possess greater expertise
Because they work for a range of different clients, agency staff end up with a breadth of knowledge and expertise that cannot be matched by in-house marketing teams with only one client. This allows them to respond more quickly when problems arise, and they have more experience to draw on when crafting new campaigns.
4. It’s more scalable
If you want to scale up in-house digital marketing efforts, your only real choice is to hire more people. This is costly and it can be difficult to dial your efforts back down again if you need to. Agencies are better prepared to increase and decrease efforts.
Conclusion
Taking digital marketing seriously is crucial for every modern business. However, it can cost a lot of time and money if it’s not used effectively. Agencies can help by offering greater expertise and access to the latest tools at lower prices.
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