The first step to choosing a marketing agency is to understand what type of marketing agency you need. There are many different types of agencies, and each specializes in a different area of marketing. Before you embark on a marketing agency search, consider this:
- Who is in your target market?
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How do your buyers make their decisions? Is your product or service an impulse buy that could be influenced by a flashy or emotional ad, or do your prospects prefer to see cold hard data and spend time weighing the pros and cons of your solution?
Next, gain a firm understanding of what differentiates one type of marketing agency from another. Agencies specialize in many different things, but most fall into one of these four categories. Learn what each type of marketing agency does to see if it is the right fit for your goals.
What does a digital marketing agency do?
Digital marketing agencies focus on finding effective ways to market your products and services online. Digital marketing agencies offer expertise in social media, digital advertising, website development, and search engine optimization, among other things. If you are looking to focus most of your efforts on social selling or online advertising, a digital agency is a good choice.
What does a content marketing agency do?
Content marketing agencies create marketing content like videos, whitepapers, eBooks, infographics, blogs and even special tools like calculators and quizzes to engage prospects in learning more about your product or service. More than ever before, brands must continuously churn out quality content to get noticed and push prospects toward purchase. If you are looking to build a sustainable content engine backed by a strategy that moves your prospects through the marketing funnel, a content marketing agency is your new best friend. Content marketers create well-researched, well-written, superbly-designed content that engages audiences and leaves them wanting to know more. They also bring solid strategies for launching content into the marketplace.
What does a PR agency do?
PR agencies are marketing-adjacent. PR agencies don’t directly advertise your products or services, rather they position your company and its offerings positively in front of journalists and media outlets to get positive news coverage or product placements. If you are looking to get press coverage for your company, launch a newsworthy product or place your products in front of the eyes of an audience that consumes a particular form of media, a PR agency will help get you just what you need.
What does an advertising agency do?
If ad agencies make you conjure images of Don Draper, you aren’t wrong. Advertising agencies are some of the oldest in the marketing mix and still offer many of the same services today, except now they have many more outlets and tools at their disposal. Unlike Mad Men, modern ad agencies are less about three-martini lunches and more about building creative campaigns, purchasing media slots and collecting data to optimize them. An ad agency can help your brand get noticed on TV, radio and streaming services worldwide. If you are ready to make a splash with a catchy media campaign, an advertising agency is the right choice.
Marketing agencies vary greatly in type and size.
Marketing agencies can span a wide spectrum of talents, specialties and levels of expertise. That’s why it’s important to start your marketing agency search with a good idea of what you are looking for. To narrow it down, it’s helpful to think about what you need from an agency and also what type of relationship you’d like to have with your outsourced team.
How to determine the right type of marketing agency for your business
When choosing a marketing agency, it’s important to know what you need and what services the agency can provide. Here are some questions to ask yourself:
- What is your budget? Marketing costs vary widely depending on your industry and goals. Smaller businesses may be able to get by with a more a la carte approach, while larger companies might require you to sign up for more extensive services.
- What is your timeline? Agencies have varying levels of turnaround time when it comes to proposals and delivering results. Some agencies may offer small projects with quick turnaround times while others are better suited for long-term projects that require more extensive planning.
- What do you need? There are dozens of types of marketing tasks and strategies that an agency can offer. These include everything from content creation and social media management to SEO advertising campaigns. Make sure that the agency has experience with the type of work you need to be done so they can give you an accurate estimate of how long it will take them to complete the job and how much it will cost.
Content is the backbone of most marketing plans. But without the right agency in your corner, your content can also be your Achilles heel.
At Content Matterz, we act as part of our client’s internal team. We’re not just writers, we’re strategists, researchers and analysts. We take the time to understand your brand, your audience and how they interact with each other. Then we write compelling content that helps you connect with them in meaningful ways.
Great content needs a strong strategy. Connect with us today to get a content strategy session in the books!