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Gone are the days when a few bright people can single handedly execute all aspects of their company’s brand and marketing efforts.
The world today is far more competitive, fast moving, fragmented and specialized.
The average corporation now requires an ever growing support team to manage their website, internal CRM systems, integrated marketing campaigns, social media channels, mobile strategies and paid/organic traffic generation programs. They must watch industry trends and understand how each new technology can be utilized for their purpose. That’s a lot of full-time employees juggling a lot of specialized responsibility.
Historically, only national consumer packaged goods corporations could enlist an “agency of record”—it was a luxury that few could afford.
That’s not so in today’s environment.
And as the effort required to support effective brand and marketing programs increases exponentially, so does the attractiveness of partnering with an agency. There are a host of benefits:
1. A large “as needed” team with diverse specialties. Need a developer one day and a brand manager the next? No sweat. With an agency, all your required resources are just a phone call away. Plus, your marketing department will never shut down because your web guy is home with the flu.
2. Lower overhead. Greater proficiencies. You don’t have to pay the full-time salaries of a dozen people or hire a single (mythical) über multi-tasker to get everything done. Find a good agency willing to work with you. They will do the rest.
3. Ongoing, iteratively improved results. Since this is what agencies do all day, every day, they learn from other projects and clients, letting you reap the benefits of other people’s success.
4. Better doesn’t have to mean more expensive. Pay a few people full-time salaries and benefits every day regardless of their workload, or have a monthly bucket of hours at your disposal to use however you like, with the ability to roll unused hours into the next month (it’s more flexible than your cell phone plan!)? You do the math.
So ask your friends, do some searches and set up a few agency reviews. Get to know who is best at what and how each approaches partnership, projects, branding, marketing and design.
Or better yet, save yourself some time and just contact us.
