Written by Rose Souders
When you’re asking yourself “why hire a digital marketing agency?”, there are the obvious benefits like strategy, campaigns, and content, not to mention the money saved on payroll, benefits, etc. These are all expected deliverables and probably the reason why you’re considering hiring an agency in the first place. However, there are quite a few hidden values that you might not have considered.
They can set up your Facebook Business Manager assets for you.
Facebook Business Manager
Facebook Business Manager is not intuitive and in most cases causes a lot of headaches and wasted time. Rather than spending the time learning how to manage it, add your assets, connect them, and adjust settings, your agency can guide you through how to set it up, provide them access, and then get the settings right for you.
Facebook Pixel Installation
While it depends on the skill level of the agency you’re hiring, most have the chops to install your Facebook pixel on your website for you, along with the Pixel events that are required for conversion tracking. You won’t have to worry about guessing how to set it up.
Ad Audiences & Campaign Setup
An honest marketing agency will set up your ad campaigns and audiences on YOUR ad account, not theirs. This means that if you do ever separate from them, you’ll still own the work that they built in your account. This is incredibly valuable. It takes hours of work to research audience volumes, find relevant interests, and save those options and settings into viable audiences.
They CARE about efficiency. Your projects will move fast(er).
Remember, time is money, for both you and your agency. It’s in an agency’s best interest to move your projects forward as fast as possible. They’re likely managing multiple clients and have systems already in place to ensure that a project follows the most efficient path, not to mention produces the highest results. It’s also in their best interest to do good work so that you keep their contract ongoing.
Most agencies have a dedicated staff person to coordinate the moving pieces, keep everyone on schedule, meet deadlines, and also be your point of contact. Potluck Consulting has a full-time Digital Marketing Coordinator on staff to fill this role.
They can teach you and your team new skills.
A transparent marketing agency will inform and educate you about marketing strategies and workflows that you might not be aware of already. In the process of working with an agency, you’ll learn a lot about tactics, how to tell if a strategy is working, what useful goals look like, how to execute your marketing efforts, and even how to be more efficient.
You get access to the latest tools and software.
Software is expensive, time-consuming to learn, and you often need many to tackle your digital marketing efforts effectively. Most agencies have licenses and accounts in 5+ different top industry marketing tools and software. Usually, this includes tools for social media scheduling, listening, and reporting, content curation, data visualization, graphic design, link tracking, SEO keyword research, page rank tracking, project management, file storage, video conferencing, password management, etc. You get access to the benefits of all of these tools when you work with an agency that invests in them.
At Potluck Consulting, we pay for and use daily 10+ different tools and software that are considered top of the industry to help us do our jobs well. In many cases, we’ve spent years learning the ins and outs of the software. This is time that our clients don’t have to spend learning a new tool themselves or training their staff.
An outside perspective can move stagnant projects.
Sometimes when you’re too close to a project or business, you can’t see the opportunities or glaring issues. A marketing agency can step in with fresh eyes, ask new questions, and bring to the table (pun intended!) tactics that might not have ever been considered before.
On top of this, a marketing agency can help move stagnant projects forward by providing an unbiased opinion and providing supporting data if needed. If you’re the one holding up a project with your busy schedule, then they can take the reins and keep you from being the bottleneck.
You finally have someone you can ask those burning questions to.
Forget spending hours on Google. Having a marketing agency under contract means that you finally have an experienced person that you can ask your burning questions to. If they don’t have the answer, they’re likely willing to tap their network to find one for you.
So should you hire a marketing agency?
It totally depends on your needs, budget, and what you’re hoping to get out of it. Like any other decision, there are pros and cons. However, if you need to improve your marketing and the above points are valuable to you, it might be time to learn more about what it’s like to work with an agency, the cost of hiring a marketing agency, what you can expect in return, and then start a conversation with one.
Digital Marketing Services: An Honest Cost Guide
Most agencies wait until they get you on the phone before sharing any processes or pricing, but we’ve taken a leap and created our “Digital Marketing Services: An Honest Cost Guide”.
The guide was created to equip you with honest and reliable information about what marketing services cost so that you can make a decision that’s best for your company and your budget. We’ll aim to answer some of the most common questions we get asked and provide insights that few agencies are willing to share.
In summary.
Aside from the actual contract deliverables like content, strategies, paid ads, and reporting, there are a lot of hidden values to hiring a marketing agency. If you’re aware of them, you can get more out of your relationship with your agency and save time and money through the experience.
If you have any questions about what our agency Potluck Consulting can do or offer you and your company, reach out with your questions. We’re always available to empower you to make the right decision for you.