Many small businesses assume the only option is to keep everything in-house despite the benefits of hiring a marketing agency—because of the assumption of lack of funding or choice.
According to analysts and experts, companies should spend between 7-12% of revenue on marketing.
Most small businesses spend less than £10,000 on digital marketing, regardless of what analysts and experts say, showing low or nonexistent budgets to grow.
Even though in-house help is the most common marketing resource, industry experts believe small businesses opt to handle everything in-house and are overextending themselves.
So, what can a digital marketing agency do differently from an in-house team/solo?
In this post, you can explore digital marketing agencies and what they can do to help small businesses reach optimal success.
Understanding Small Businesses and Digital Marketing Agencies
Managing a successful marketing department in a small business or startup is challenging. For instance, deciding which tasks should be managed in-house, and which marketing providers should handle them, makes it much more difficult.
However, looking deeper into it, working with a reputable agency will allow you to receive projects from many people specialising in specific tasks.
Working with an agency on a campaign that spans many channels (social, web, video, etc.) can save you money by bundling these services and directing them to the individuals best suited to deliver excellent results.
Going Through the Selection Process
Each agency has its own style, tone, and marketing approach.
With so many options, it may be difficult to decide.
Still, the biggest problem is finding the right small digital firm that reflects your business.
This firm will collaborate with your team throughout the production process. It will basically become an extension of your company.
You should ask some questions to decide whether the agency is a suitable fit. You need to assess if they’re experienced enough for the job.
How to Assess a Digital Marketing Agency’s Competence
Various techniques decide whether a small business creative firm is skilled or suitable for your company.
You can inquire about their well-written material for small business strategy. Copywriting is a service digital marketing organisations offer to small businesses to help increase search engine optimisation (SEO). Requesting a sample of their most successful posts is a helpful way to see if their writing style is right for your brand.
Ask them how their search engine optimisation works, and how the team optimises their content. Your aim with this enquiry is to get the firm to talk about their process and how their team conducts search engine optimisation.
It would be helpful to inquire about the metrics of their team monitors. Whether the company is a newer digital marketing agency for startups, it should explain the key performance indicators (KPIs) it measures, like bounce rates, cost-per-click (CPC), conversions, and return on investment (ROI).
If the company you’re hiring does not provide reports on how your pay-per-click ads perform.
Finally, get an estimate of when the campaign’s results will be available. One of the disadvantages of SEO or PPC for small businesses is that companies cannot guarantee a specific date when you will see results. These programmes take time to work on, but you should see benefits within 3-6 to 12 months, or even up to 24 months. But in the meantime, work with the agency on ad campaigns for quick wins and generate leads and sales, while SEO services tick over.
Your Small Business Marketing Budget: Experiment, Evaluate, and Scale
In addition to doubling down on marketing channels that drive positive ROI for your business, strategic experimentation can also lead to further growth. Small business owners should allocate new marketing dollars to additional customer acquisition channels, without detracting from existing marketing initiatives.
To do this right, follow these simple steps:
- Take small steps. Piloting a new marketing campaign shouldn’t cost more than a few hundred pounds. Don’t spend thousands of pounds unless you can prove you’re going to, and you will get a return on this investment.
- Identify your goals. Establish what your campaign budget should achieve in terms of generating leads, converting leads, or increasing sales for your pilot project. You should have specific, measurable goals, no matter what, regardless of what your metrics are.
- Keep track of your results. Analyse the ROI of your campaign using analytics and dashboards provided by your marketing software or marketing agency. Data should be relied upon.
- Determine what needs to be done next. Investigate the campaign if it proves ROI-positive. What made it so popular with your customers? Then find ways to increase your investment. The experiment should be paused, reevaluated, and something else should be tried if it doesn’t meet its goals.
The ultimate goal is to curb underperforming spending. However, you should also be aggressive in the implementation of new initiatives. You may not reach new audiences with your existing marketing budget, but there are always new opportunities.
Conclusion
Ask questions about the agency, previous work, collaborative methods, or anything else you need to feel secure. There is no trivial question, especially when deciding where to spend your marketing budget. The agency you choose will be an extension of your company, so spend as much time as possible getting to know each team during the selection process.
And regardless of your budget size, or doing the marketing yourself or with an agency, you should be experimenting, evacuating and scaling your campaigns.
Dynamics Tech is here to help you if you need small business digital marketing consulting services. We help small-sized businesses improve their business efficiency, sales, and marketing with technology, support, training, and consultancy services. Check out our services to find the perfect solution for your marketing needs!
