Whether you are a start-up or an established company, there will come a time when you realize you need help marketing your business online. If you take an objective look at your current marketing efforts, your website, search engine optimization, and your lead generation (or lack of), you may come to one conclusion ~ you aren’t getting the results you want. A lack of leads and customers will make you re-evaluate your current marketing strategy. The logical conclusion is that you need to hire a digital marketing agency if you are going to reach your target customers online.
We have found a few reasons businesses need help with digital marketing and choose to hire an agency.
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Signs You Need to Hire a Digital Marketing Agency
You’re in Over Your Head
You know your product or service inside and out. When it comes to your product, you are the expert. The problem is, you don’t know how to market your product online. There’s a big difference between having a great product and having a great business. Product development and marketing are two very different skill sets. If you’re taking your product to market but know nothing about using the internet to market your product, you need help.
You Have Growing Pains
Once your business picks up steam and the orders are coming in, do you know how to scale your marketing efforts? What typically happens as a business grows is that a particular marketing channel is working ~ perhaps it has worked for years ~ but when the owner wants to take the business to the next level, they don’t know how to achieve that. They don’t know how to use other marketing channels ~ in this case, the internet ~ to scale their business.
Your Current Online Marketing Efforts Aren’t Scalable
Another problem we often see is business owners who simply don’t have the time or in-house staff to execute a digital marketing strategy. There are a lot of moving parts involved in online marketing. A business owner’s time is better spent hiring the right team to handle their digital marketing while they focus on other business development and financial matters.
Your Message Isn’t Coming Through Online
Perhaps your website was created years ago and no longer accurately reflects your brand. Or, maybe it never did. Your website is the face and heart of your business on the internet. You may have an amazing corporate culture, beautiful brick-and-mortar store, or a heart-centered company mission, but if your website doesn’t reflect that, you’re missing a huge opportunity to make a connection with your audience.
We’re not talking about just branding here ~ what’s more important is the message in your content. Are your company’s values and mission coming through in your message? Your website is where you can give value to your audience through content. Using social media to promote your message and expand your reach is where you can really make an impact in getting your message out to your audience. If your content and social messaging aren’t hitting the mark, it’s time to pivot your strategy.
Your Website’s Not Getting Enough Traffic
Here’s where the rubber meets the road for many businesses. They have a website, but they aren’t getting the traffic they expect. The reason is typically a combination of everything mentioned above. Business owners frequently don’t know how to market their businesses online, they don’t have the time, and their website is missing the mark with their audiences. In addition, they lack knowledge about search engine optimization (SEO) and how to attract their target audience using SEO-friendly content. Low website traffic reflects the need for a solid strategy and a plan to carry out digital marketing campaigns.
You’re Getting Traffic, but It’s Not Converting
Are you telling your audience how to connect with you, how to join your list, or how to purchase from you? If it’s not clear from your web copy and your calls to action that you offer a valuable resource and want to build a relationship with your prospective customers, they will not convert. They may read your content, then leave and probably never return.
You Don’t Measure Results
As a business owner, you know “what gets measured gets managed.” You may measure costs, sales, profit, and loss – the usual business metrics. But, if you are doing business online and aren’t measuring your website analytics, you’re missing a huge opportunity to understand your audience and what’s working and what’s not in your online marketing. Perhaps you don’t understand the metrics and don’t know how to use Google Analytics to make data-driven decisions. However, ignoring the numbers isn’t going to help your business grow.
Do you see yourself in any of the scenarios above? If you’re at the point in your company’s growth where you realize you need help marketing your business online, it’s time to hire a digital marketing agency. Take your time and find the one that will best meet your needs and will work with you on a customized marketing plan. Every business is different, and there’s no one-size-fits-all strategy.
How a Digital Marketing Agency Helps
A digital marketing agency will work with you to create a marketing strategy tailored to your business goals. Conversions, in the form of new contacts, leads, and purchases, are the ultimate goal of your website. A digital marketing agency will thoroughly analyze your website to determine the gaps in your site’s content, SEO, and calls to action. They will then add the missing pieces and adjust any elements that aren’t working.
Here’s what you can expect when you hire a digital marketing agency:
- In-depth analysis of your current marketing strategy and development of a new strategy.
- Creation of a buyer persona to make sure your content is attracting the right audience.
- An SEO audit of your website to detect technical errors hindering Google’s ability to crawl your site.
- A content marketing audit.
- Adding lead generation and marketing automation to your content strategy (sales funnels, opt-in content, email marketing).
- Social media strategy to promote your content on the best channels for your ideal customers.
- Search engine optimization of your website and content.
- Analysis and reporting of your website’s traffic and visitor behavior.
- If necessary, design or re-design your website, adding site elements that encourage conversions (page navigation, contact forms, calls to action, landing pages).
- Digital advertising audit and strategy.
Digital Marketing vs. Internet Marketing
Digital marketing and internet marketing are terms often used interchangeably, but they are distinct digital marketing strategies. Digital marketing encompasses all digital channels, such as websites, search engines, social media platforms, email, and apps. Internet marketing focuses on online digital channels such as websites and search engines to optimize for visibility and traffic.
Digital marketing is the umbrella term for all digital strategies, from content marketing to digital advertising. It can involve making a website more interactive, optimizing content through SEO, using social media platforms to engage with customers, and utilizing digital marketing tools. Since digital marketing takes place on digital channels such as websites and search engines, digital marketing teams must be skilled in web design and development, as well as digital media.
Check out this video with tips for successful digital marketing.
Internet marketing is a digital strategy focused solely on optimizing websites and digital channels to generate traffic and visibility. It involves creating content that targets specific keywords, utilizing SEO techniques such as metadata optimization, link building, and running digital campaigns for lead generation.
Digital Marketing Frequently Asked Questions
If you’d like to dive deeper into how a digital marketing agency can help you, check out these frequently asked questions.
What Does Digital Marketing Do?
Digital marketing is promoting products and services via digital channels to reach potential customers cost-effectively. Using content marketing, SEO, digital advertising, and social media, digital marketing helps build customer relationships while driving engagement and conversions. Digital marketing can also help generate leads, increase sales, build brand loyalty, and measure the success of campaigns, making it an invaluable tool for businesses of all sizes.
Why Is Hiring a Digital Marketing Agency Important?
Hiring a digital marketing agency can be essential to a business’s success in reaching potential customers and growing its brand visibility. In today’s digital world, companies must have a strong online presence and utilize the latest tools and strategies to reach their target customers. However, digital marketing can be a complex and time-consuming task for businesses. Hiring an experienced team of professionals can help ensure that your strategy is implemented in the most effective way possible.
With the vast range of digital marketing services available, from SEO and PPC to social media marketing and content creation, working with an agency can help you maximize your reach across multiple channels and provide valuable insight into the latest trends and technology. In addition, a digital marketing agency provides invaluable insights into current trends and best practices to help you stay ahead of the competition. Furthermore, by outsourcing your digital marketing tasks, you free up time to focus on other areas of your business that need attention. Ultimately, a great digital marketing agency can provide various advantages to help your business become more successful and profitable.
What Are the Benefits of Hiring a Digital Marketing Agency?
Hiring a digital marketing agency can provide numerous benefits for promoting and growing your business. A digital marketing agency provides expertise in a range of areas, such as social media management, search engine optimization (SEO), website design, and copywriting.
Hiring a digital marketing agency can save you time and money. They are experienced professionals who understand what needs to be done to get the most out of your marketing efforts. With their expertise, they can create campaigns that target specific audiences and help you reach your goals faster. Additionally, they have access to the latest tools, tactics, and technology and can implement more effective strategies than you could do on your own.
Having a digital marketing agency on board gives you an outside perspective on your business. They bring new ideas and insights to the table, which can help drive growth in unexpected ways. Additionally, they have access to analytics tools, which enable them to track what works and what doesn’t, giving you valuable feedback on successful strategies.
Finally, a digital agency can help you create a unified brand identity across your marketing channels. They have the expertise to create consistent and engaging content to help your business stand out from the competition. This consistency helps build customer trust, giving them a positive first impression of your business.
When you’re ready to work with a digital marketing agency that will help you attract the right customers and reach your target audience online in an authentic way, contact us. We’d love to help you put the power of the internet to work for your business.
Editor’s Note: This article was originally written on January 24, 2018, and has been updated with fresh content.
