5 Benefits of Working with a Digital Marketing Agency

In previous articles we've talked about what Digital Marketing is and its benefits. We have also talked about how this new type of marketing can be financed and used by medium and small companies to compete with large companies and not be left behind in the market. And in these articles we've mentioned that the support of a Digital Marketing agency is always very helpful, since the company can rely on the know-how of the agency and therefore, decrease the learning curve that this new process could imply for the company.

We now need to specify, how exactly can an Inbound Marketing agency support your company? What services are offered?

First of all, the services that a Digital Marketing Agency can offer, are very varied and will depend on each agency. You will usually be offered from a simple consulting service, to the training for your marketing and sales teams or to working together throughout the entire project.

The first two options, consulting and training, are specific practices that are repeated only if necessary or requested. You go to the agency and are given these services as a "one-and-only service" (as many times as you need it).

In this article we will focus more on the third option, in working together with the agency throughout your Inbound Marketing project. By the way, an Inbound Marketing project covers much more than just social networks, hence the support can be very useful.

Broadly speaking, we can point out the following:

5 Benefits of working with an Inbound Marketing agency

1.- GamePlan

A GamePlan is the base document that is generated when the agency and the company work together before starting the strategy. It is the map that will guide us along the way, so as not to get lost. This document defines both the general work strategy as well as more specific aspects of it. It states, for example:

• To whom is your product or service aimed? So you are able to offer content that really is useful to them.
• What goals do you hope to achieve? They should be measurable and of course, achievable.
• What resources do you count with and how can you put them to work? Material, economic and human resources.
• What role will each area play in supporting the strategy? Marketing and sales teams will have to learn to work together.
• A general content map that will be your broad strategy to design content in all formats.

2. Timely analysis and strategic decision making

This GamePlan is a map and as such, it offers us the route to follow. Now, sometimes we are on the road and come across jams or accidents, so we must take a different route, which is a very good decision; in the end, what we want is to reach our destination and, if we find surprises along the way, it's always a a good idea to think of a different route to get there. This of course, following a strategy, a guide, it's not about making wild detours with the hope of magically reaching our destination.

Therefore, another benefit of working with an agency is that a constant and updated evaluation of the implemented strategy is made. If the strategy is working then go ahead and keep following the same route, but if it's not providing the expected results (marked in the GamePlan), then you must decide to strategically change the route. The agency with which you work has the experience and knowledge that your company needs for this evaluation and for the strategic change of direction.

3. Support with your content strategy

We've mentioned in previous articles that content is key in an Inbound Marketing campaign. In fact, everything works around offering to your website visitors an appropriate, relevant, timely, useful and interesting content. With a good content strategy, you achieve that:

• Your customers get to know your product or service in depth and thus, can recognize the real value of it.
• You can accompany your visitors along their buying journey, which is based on the content that they've requested, according to their particular needs.
• They give you their contact information in exchange for more information that is useful to them, building a relationship of trust with your clients.
• Google or any search engine, recognize your page as a reliable one and offer your content (your brand) as one of its best answers.
• You get positioned as an expert in the knowledge of your industry.

4. Production of videos, podcasts, photography

You can offer this content to your visitors in a written form, with audio or with videos. Ideally, under the three formats, since each one of us has different ways of consuming content: Offer a blog or an ebook to those who like to read; an audio or podcast to those who like to listen to something while say, driving or cooking; a video to those who like to watch and listen at the same time.

An agency should be able to offer the production of the content in all the formats that are needed. You don't have to hire photographers, designers, screenwriters, editors, musicians, directors, or any other professionals that are needed to produce content in all formats. The agency has the necessary professionals and coordinates the work of these professionals with the needs of your company.

5. HubSpot's CRM

An Inbound strategy is based on the change that we as consumers have experienced thanks to the Internet: we are active buyers rather than passive recipients of messages that mean nothing to us. We nowadays look online for information about the problem that what we want to solve, we no longer wait for a commercial to offer something to us, superficially and ambiguously.

Therefore, even if you have a well designed web page, which offers all kinds of appropriate and relevant content, if you don't have direct contact with your customers, all the effort made will be useless. Communication is key within this strategy. If you only send messages outwards, but have no direct communication with your customers, you will be using digital media, yes, but your strategy will be closer to that of the traditional means of communication, with which customers can't communicate with, with which they are only passive recipients of messages. New technology gone to waste.

Make sure that the agency with which you decide to work with, offers you a tool like HubSpot's CRM, a tool that helps you personalize the relationship that you have with each of your clients, that opens communication channels with them in a personal and organized way.

DataBranding

As we mentioned before, each agency will have different offers and within them, different ways of managing things. We have based this article on the support that DataBranding offers to its clients, on our way of working. If you want to learn more about us and about how we can help you design and execute an Inbound Marketing strategy for your company, contact us. We'll be happy to answer all of the questions you may have, so you can make the decision that best suits you.