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Many business owners handle their marketing efforts in-house, wary of the costs of outsourcing to a marketing agency. But in reality, outsourcing marketing services can save you a lot of money and free up the time you need to focus on other critical aspects of your business. In fact, cost reduction is the top reason why 70% of companies outsource their marketing. 

Wondering whether this is the right time to hire a marketing agency? Keep reading to find out.

10 Signs It’s Time to Hire a Marketing Agency

Examine the following signs to determine whether or not it’s time to outsource your marketing efforts. 

1. Stagnation

Have you noticed any stagnation or a decrease in sales? If so, the issue might be a lack of effective marketing. When your marketing strategies are not aligned with your sales strategies, this often reflects in the sales numbers, as the two have a codependent relationship. 

A good marketing agency can help your company maintain a working relationship between marketing and sales, helping to improve the latter. Some of the ways to achieve this include developing a more effective marketing strategy, targeting new customer segments, and creating content that resonates better with your audience. Moreover, the digital marketing company is likely to have better skills, expertise, and resources than your in-house team and can help you achieve the needed results quickly.

2. Failed Internal Efforts

If your in-house marketing efforts are not producing the desired results, you may have come to the conclusion that marketing doesn’t work for your business. But have you considered that the blame could lie with your shot-in-the-dark marketing strategies?

The fact that you’ve failed to market your product effectively doesn’t mean that the product has no potential. In most cases, this indicates you haven’t communicated the potential of the product well enough to those who would benefit from it the most. Thankfully, digital marketing agencies excel at communication. Having worked with a variety of businesses and industries, they know how to tell your story in a way that delivers results. The right digital marketing agency can also objectively analyze your current marketing campaign to identify where you’re going wrong and then scope out more effective ways to market your business. 

3. Lack of Hours

A lot goes into running a successful business, and it’s understandable that you don’t have adequate time to design and implement an effective marketing strategy. Besides, marketing isn’t one of those jobs you can complete in just a few minutes per day. It takes a significant amount of time and effort to run a successful marketing campaign. 

If you’re short on free time, hire a marketing agency. You can focus on your core business activities while the marketing experts do what they know best. And because a marketing agency focuses solely on marketing, it can take the burden off your plate and run a successful long-term campaign.

4. Inability to Track Results

Marketing involves collecting, analyzing, and interpreting a large amount of data. This data can include information on buying habits, consumer demographics, and responses to previous marketing campaigns. Unfortunately, your in-house marketing team may not have the expertise or tools needed to collect, analyze, and interpret the data. 

Marketing agencies have specialized software and systems to track and analyze data. They can use the data to make informed decisions about how to market your products or services. Without proper data tracking, it’s almost impossible to develop and execute an effective marketing strategy. 

5. Impending Product Launch

Product launches are a critical moment for any business. Apart from developing a comprehensive launch plan, you need to effectively market the new product and create an environment that encourages customers to buy it. 

A marketing agency can develop a comprehensive marketing strategy, create promotional materials, and execute campaigns that make your product launch a big success. It can also provide valuable insights and analytics to measure the success of your launch and make adjustments as needed.

6. Inaccessible Marketing Strategies

Some high-tech marketing strategies can be difficult for your in-house team to execute on its own. But the same cannot be said of a specialized marketing agency. Depending on your needs, you can hire an agency to implement advanced marketing strategies, such as local search engine optimization, search engine marketing, content marketing, and social media marketing. 

In addition, a marketing agency has access to cutting-edge technology, such as automation and advanced analytics software, to track and optimize the performance of your marketing campaigns in real time.

7. Persistent Brand Inconsistency

Persistent brand inconsistency shows your company lacks a cohesive brand strategy or message. If this problem is not corrected early enough, it can negatively affect customers’ trust in your brand and eventually lead to a drop in sales. 

A reputable marketing agency can help you establish and maintain a consistent brand image across all of your marketing channels and customer touchpoints. This will, in turn, improve your brand recognition and trust, leading to more sales. 

8. Heavy Competition

If there are many businesses within your field or industry vying for the same market share and target audience, you cannot afford to slack on marketing. You need an effective marketing strategy that differentiates your company from your competitors. 

With a marketing agency by your side, your chances of excelling despite the heavy competition are higher. Marketing specialists can conduct thorough market research to understand your competition, identify opportunities and threats, and develop a unique value proposition for your company. 

9. Misunderstood Niche Product

It takes careful marketing to explain a niche product to potential customers. That’s because niche products often have unique features, benefits, and target audiences that require specific marketing strategies. Besides, niche products may not be well-known or understood by the general public, meaning more effort is needed to educate potential customers about the product and its benefits. 

To market your niche product to potential customers, seek the help of a marketing agency. It can create compelling messaging that conveys the value of your product and explain how it addresses specific needs that aren’t being met by similar products on the market. 

10. Missed Growth Opportunities

Almost every business owner or entrepreneur starts their business with the hope that it will grow. Business growth often translates to better performance, more assets, more customers, more sales, and, of course, more profits. However, growth doesn’t happen overnight; you need to prepare for it. For example, you need to scale your marketing efforts so your products or services can reach more potential customers.

If you don’t have adequate knowledge about marketing, don’t worry. The right marketing agency will handle all of your marketing needs, allowing you to focus on other critical areas like financial matters. 

Tips for Hiring a Marketing Company

Hiring a marketing agency can be a daunting task. Remember, you’re letting a third party manage your brand and communicate with your audience. The agency you choose will either make or break your business. 

However, finding the right marketing agency doesn’t have to be difficult. Consider these tips before hiring a marketing company. 

Identify Your Exact Goals

Before hiring a marketing agency, you have to be sure about what you expect to gain. You can’t expect to find an agency that meets your needs if you don’t know what your needs are in the first place. Having clear goals will help you narrow your choices to agencies offering services that will benefit your company. 

Also, when you’re setting your goals, be specific. Instead of saying, “I want to boost sales,” be more specific and say, “I want to reduce customer churn by 15% in six months,” or “I want to increase the number of leads generated by 15% in three months.” 

If you’re unsure of whether the marketing company can meet your goals, schedule a call or meeting with its team to get answers to your questions. 

Consider the Types of Marketing Agencies

Marketing agencies employ different strategies to promote products and services. To determine the right agency for your company, you need to understand the different types of marketing, as shown below.

Digital Marketing

Digital marketing refers to marketing strategies that utilize digital channels and platforms, such as social media, websites, mobile apps, and email, to reach and engage with customers. 

So why hire a digital marketing agency? A specialized agency will take care of all your online marketing needs, including web design and redesign, pay-per-click ads, content creation, lead generation, data reporting, and other related tasks, to build an online presence for your brand

Print Marketing

Print marketing utilizes print media, such as newspapers, magazines, and brochures, to generate brand awareness. It can be useful at both the local and national levels. For example, print ads in a local magazine can help promote your products within your region, while an ad in a nationally distributed newspaper can promote your product across wider markets. 

Direct Marketing

This marketing strategy involves communicating directly with your target audience. While this approach may not be effective at reaching a wider audience right away, it’s relatively cheap compared to options like digital marketing. 

Industry-Targeted Marketing

This marketing strategy focuses on a specific industry or group of industries. It involves identifying the unique needs, pain points, and buying behaviors of the target industry and tailoring your messaging and tactics to address them. 

Marketing and Engineering

With this approach, agencies leverage data analysis and other forms of technical expertise in their marketing efforts. For example, an agency can use the data and metrics tracking the performance of a product or service to create technical content that supports sales, segment target markets, or gauge the effectiveness of marketing campaigns. 

Look for Case Studies and Reviews

Before hiring a marketing company, look at what its past clients have said about their experiences. Reviews from previous clients will provide insight into how the agency handles its customers and the results it has achieved. You also get to see how the agency dealt with some of the problems its clients faced in the past. 

Similarly, case studies provide essential information about the strategies the agency used to achieve specific goals for previous clients. This will give you an idea of how the agency might approach your business. An agency with no recent case studies isn’t a good sign, and you should think carefully before approaching it. 

Interview With Intention

When it comes to interviewing marketing teams, don’t conduct interviews just for the sake of it. The interviews should be targeted and intentional. This is your chance to ask about their marketing team’s experience, past successes, and capabilities to see if they are a good fit. If an agency doesn’t have a vast amount of experience, inquire about whether they have worked on any successful projects that are relevant to your industry.

Look for a Cultural Fit

The marketing agency you choose should understand you, your business, and your culture. This helps the agency create marketing campaigns that resonate with your target audience and accurately reflect your brand. It also helps the agency understand the sensitive aspects of your business and tailor your messaging accordingly.

Consider Your Short and Long-Term Goals

When looking for a marketing company, you have short and long-term goals that you want to achieve. Ask prospective companies how they can help you achieve these goals. Also, don’t just take the agency’s word for it. The company should tell you the specific strategy or approach it intends to employ to accomplish these goals.

Work With a Trusted Hiring Partner

If you want to avoid the headache of trying to find the right marketing agency on your own, consider working with a hiring partner like Credo. You’ll get access to a vetted network of marketing agencies that are perfect for you based on your budget, your industry, and your needs. This means you don’t have to waste your valuable time and effort sifting through hundreds of online reviews to find the perfect fit.

Partner With Credo To Find The Right Agency

If you’re looking for a reputable marketing agency, Credo is ready to connect you with highly vetted agencies that are handpicked for your needs. We also provide support throughout the entire process of working with the marketing agency to ensure you’re getting the most value out of your partnership. 

Get started today!