Where Do Marketing Agencies Fit into Your Business?

In today’s competitive business landscape, marketing plays a pivotal role in driving growth and success, and marketing agencies are at the forefront of this work. Good marketing can identify new customers, engage and grow a loyal audience, or launch new products and services. And while some business owners may contemplate handling their marketing efforts in-house, seeking the expertise of an agency can make a significant difference in achieving sustainable results.

Marketing agencies bring a wealth of knowledge, experience, and strategic insights that can add substantial value to a client’s business. There are many different ways that agencies can contribute to a client’s success and why opting for professional assistance is essential.

What You Get When You Choose A Marketing Agency Over Doing it Yourself

When you work with a marketing agency instead of trying to do everything yourself, you’ll enjoy many advantages like specialized expertise, a strategic approach, resource optimization, access to cutting-edge tools, and time efficiency.

1. Specialized Expertise

Marketing agencies equip their teams of skilled professionals with specialized knowledge and skills in various marketing disciplines. From SEO and content marketing to social media and paid advertising, agencies can bring a diverse skill set that can be tailored to meet the unique needs of each client.

These marketers focus on their disciplines day in and day out, and adding their knowledge base to building your business pays off. Their expertise ensures that marketing efforts are executed effectively, delivering measurable results that align with business goals. More bang for your buck.

2. Strategic Approach

Agencies work closely with clients to develop data-driven strategies that align with their overall business objectives. By conducting thorough market research and competitor analysis, agencies identify opportunities and then craft well-thought-out campaigns to stay ahead of the competition.

A strategic approach not only maximizes marketing ROI but also enables businesses to make informed decisions for future growth. These agencies objective perspectives on growing clients’ businesses means they can make solid, research-backed decisions to build business. And then they can implement these decisions in a streamlined manner.

3. Resource Optimization

Managing marketing efforts in-house can strain resources, especially for small to medium-sized businesses. Marketing agencies offer cost-effective solutions that allow clients to focus on core business activities while leaving marketing tasks in expert hands. This resource optimization ensures that businesses get the most out of their marketing budget and manpower.

Our small to medium-sized clients benefit from Front Porch Marketing’s ability to supplement their own efforts. We work hand-in-hand with them to build their business as if it were our own, while lending expertise that clients don’t typically have in-house like website design, social media content marketing, email marketing and large design-focused projects like brochures. This leaves small business owners to focus on what they do best.

4. Access to Cutting-Edge Tools

Marketing agencies invest in state-of-the-art marketing tools and technologies to gain a competitive edge. By leveraging these tools, agencies can track and analyze data effectively, allowing for data-driven decision-making and continuous optimization of marketing campaigns. Such insights are crucial in maintaining a strong market presence and adapting to changing consumer behaviors.

It wouldn’t be cost-effective for small businesses to invest in these tools, so marketing agencies can again supplement the efforts of a business with this access to tools and the expertise to optimize their use for the benefit of a client’s business.

5. Time Efficiency

Implementing a successful marketing strategy requires time, effort, and consistent monitoring. By delegating marketing responsibilities to an agency, clients can focus on core competencies and strategic business growth. This time efficiency enables businesses to operate seamlessly while their marketing needs are efficiently addressed by industry experts.

Taking all these tasks off a small business owner’s plate gives them time to see the big picture. Then they can focus on growing their business. And they won’t get buried in the weeds of all the marketing tasks necessary to get there.

6. Reassess What Your Time is Worth, and Let a Marketing Agency Help Make Your Business Better

In conclusion, marketing agencies bring invaluable expertise and depth of knowledge. This can significantly elevate a client’s business to new heights. From specialized skill sets and strategic insights to resource optimization and access to cutting-edge tools, agencies offer an all-encompassing solution to marketing challenges.

While some clients may consider DIY marketing, it’s crucial to recognize the value that marketing agencies bring to the table. By partnering with a reputable agency, businesses can enjoy efficient and effective marketing efforts that lead to long-term success. Remember, marketing is an investment in the future, and entrusting marketing professionals can lead to remarkable returns.

We are in Q4 of 2021. Whaaattttt? Don’t panic-spend the rest of your marketing budget! Maximize your your remaining 2021 marketing budget through the end of the year by thinking smart and acting smarter. This isn’t our first rodeo, so we see this every year. And we get it: marketing is one of the first line items asked to be cut for next year. How do you combat that mindset? Spend wisely with what’s left in your remaining 2021 marketing budget because budgets are being scrutinized before being renewed. So if you’ve spent your marketing budget wisely this year – showing brand impact and growth – you’ll have a better case to make for 2022’s marketing budget numbers. How can you maximize your remaining 2021 marketing budget and get more done? First, start with the help of your marketing partner.

Where can business leaders find real value in the fourth quarter 2021?

Marketing partners. Small or large, your team can help you plan and carry out the most efficient and effective way to get the most bang for your buck when it comes to Q4 spending. Partners can help you in these 7 ways to maximize your remaining 2021 marketing budget:

First Maximize Your Remaining 2021 Marketing Budget by Using it to Set Up Your 2022 Plans and Budgets

• Forge marketing budgets and marketing plans for 2022. As objective professionals with your business’s success in mind, marketing partners will research, employ best practices and take great care in detailing your path to success. Not just for Q4 2021, but next year as well. Marketing partners tend to think both short-term gains AND long-term momentum, which ultimately means growth and sustainability for your business.

Then build a winning team

• Next, build a marketing team that is set up to succeed. From your marketing plan for next year, and your budget, identify the gaps you have needed to execute your plan. Provide resources for finding the talent and tools to fill those gaps. Whether you’ll need new team members, new tech or new skills, make sure you’ll have it covered ahead of time. Being reactive about getting things done at the last minute because of poor planning benefits no one.

Seize Opportunities for Brand Impact

• Then, capitalize on existing opportunities to shine. Q4 is full of events, inherently built into the holiday calendar. And fall is often trade-show season. And, your marketing calendar can include multiple opportunities for touch-points with your audience around the holiday season
  • Sponsor events at trade shows for exposure to a broader audience
  • Community events around the holidays are great local, grassroots places to connect with your audience
  • Partnering with a charity is a tangible way for your business to give back to the community
• Also, give direction but stay out of the weeds when it comes to social media. Maximize your time, by providing social marketing content in the form of access to your asset library (photos, graphics, brand guidelines), as well as any messaging documents, previous collateral and press releases. Your team can build successful, impactful social media and “speak as the brand”. If you are wordsmithing copy and micromanaging design from your team, you’re wasting resources, not maximizing them. One big time suck that every business owner and leader needs to take off their list – editing social media content before it is posted. As a business leader, is this the best way to spend your valuable time? Ask your marketing partner to handle this for you.

Adopt a Continuous Improvement Mindset

• Most importantly, fine tune your website. Q4 is the perfect time to assess the strength of your website. Ask your marketing partner to help you:
  • Assess your digital situation. Prune your content, evaluate and fix underperforming pages and links
  • Fine tune your SEO (search engine optimization) so that your content answers the questions that people are asking. Draw customers to you with smart, precise content
  • Update the look and feel of your website to reflect modern times and modern UX behavior (user experience). Your site should be responsive (able to change to fit desktop, mobile, ipad, etc) and use common structures to guide site visitors along their customer journeys.
  • Start content marketing. This means setting up a blog on your site, if you haven’t already. and get your marketing partner to ghost-write weekly content – which can then also be promoted on your social media channels. Content marketing, as this is called, is one of the most important ways to keep your site fresh and “indexing” higher on Google. The more you establish your voice of authority in your business space, the more your site is recognized by Google and recommended to others for that knowledge.
• Don’t forget to reward your loyal clients/customers. It’s not always about finding new customers. In Q4, make it about retaining your strong client base for 2022. Remind them why they’re with you.
  • Identify your top email subscribers, top social media followers, etc. and create a marketing campaign that is created for and target to them on the channels where they interact with you.
  • Create direct mail holiday messaging and snail mail a heartfelt message and perhaps a reward (like a gift, discount, or plus-up) just for being loyal members, subscribers, clients.

Maximize Your Remaining 2021 Marketing Budget When it Counts – The Holidays

• What is your holiday plan? Counsel with your marketing partner and then execute on holiday season activity via direct mail, email marketing, text campaigns and social media. Create a sale, a promotion, or an experiential event for your customers and invite them to experience your brand during the holidays. Introduce a simple as a holiday discount, or hold a fun a pop-up brand experience as part of a neighborhood or even city-wide event. Your marketing partner can help you discern what opportunities are best-suited for your company.

Maximize your remaining 2021 marketing budget to win, yes even in Q4

Smart marketing leaders can continue business growth during this time by working with smart marketing partners to maximize remaining 2021 marketing budgets. How do they do it? They don’t waste valuable resources – the most valuable being THEIR TIME. Spend your valuable time wisely on the big things that will grow your business for next year – and your marketing partners can handle the details for you. As we like to say “spend time ON your business not IN your business” to maximize your impact as a leader.

We were excited to meet with a prospective client partner and learn more about their branding and marketing needs. The company is in the B2B space.

Well into the conversation, my pulse began to race, my leg started to shake and my voice rose an octave.

You see, they have been meeting with several potential marketing partners and being very thorough about their due diligence in selecting the right one. One agency told them that they could … wait for it … manage and execute all their email marketing for the entire year for an annual fee if they handed over all the email content in one meeting.

Whoa! Really?!?!

It sounded good to the prospective client. This was:

• Very cost effective
• Low effort on their part
• Efficient with their time
• Worry-free. They wouldn’t have to think about their email marketing for an entire year.

Yes, friends, but this is wrong in so. many. ways. Hence, me physically reacting to this idea.

Effective email marketing campaigns are, among other things:

• Useful. If you are sending content to your audience that is several months old, you are missing the boat. “We try to include something useful in every email,” says Ben Chestnut of MailChimp. “If the announcement was totally useless, let’s at least give the recipient a case study, or something educational (even if it points to some other resource).”
• Fresh. Our world is changing daily. What is relevant or newsworthy today is not going to be tonight or tomorrow, never mind months from now.
• Personal and relevant. Your current and potential customers’ needs and businesses are constantly evolving. What they want and is the crisis du jour changes hourly. You may learn something in a meeting or on a call with them that you have never thought of before that could be a new product or service offering for your company or a nugget of wisdom for your next company email. Sorry, too late, you can only submit your content once a year … Ugh …

The reality is email marketing takes experience, work and expertise. The good news is we’re here to make it easy, effective and right for your brand.