What is a marketing agency?
Marketing agencies were created for the purpose of providing their clients with access to advertising professionals who have creative knowledge and industry expertise to create plans and execute all necessary marketing and advertising efforts. Today, advertising is more integrated into our clients’ lives than ever before, with commercials running directly in their social media feeds and others playing through their playlists. That’s why it’s so important for customers to match the right type of advertising to the right type of campaign. The types of advertising are varied, as are the types of agencies you can choose from, as each agency may specialize in certain areas such as podcasts, video, public relations, and general social media.
Why are there different types of agencies?
If your team lacks specific expertise in campaign execution and control, a marketing agency can do the job for you. When you choose an agency, you have the option of hiring industry experts to efficiently manage your advertising campaigns, leaving you to handle the more important tasks like improving your product or service. To determine what kind of marketing you need, you need to think critically about what your needs are. Only then can you really see if you need the most help with search engine optimization or social media posting; it all depends on your requirements.
What type of marketing agency should I pick?
When you work with a specialized marketing firm, you can go deeper into the areas of your business where you need assistance, ensuring that you receive the results you desire and know your product is capable of. Aim to pick the marketing agency that has the most experience in that specific niche of marketing.
Here’s a list of the types of marketing agencies
1.Digital marketing
With a digital marketing agency, the team takes care of all your online marketing needs, including pay-per-click ads, website design and redesign, content creation, data reporting, lead generation strategies, and other related tasks to create an online presence. The digital aspect goes beyond just being online, it could also include creating graphics and redesigning your logo in line with current trends. For businesses that specialize in B2B (business-to-business), you will likely focus on generating internet leads in hopes of converting them into sales leads. Therefore, your marketing strategy will focus on using your website and all other digital channels to acquire leads that will then become loyal customers. If, on the other hand, your business is a business-to-consumer (B2C) company, your marketing efforts will likely focus on attracting people to your website and turning them into customers without ever having to speak to a salesperson. For this reason, you are less focused on the traditional idea of going for leads, but instead, focus on accelerating the buyer’s journey the moment they land on your website all the way to completing a purchase. As a result, you need to place your product further down the marketing funnel than a B2B company and potentially use stronger calls-to-action to hook your clients once they have been compelled.
2.Growth marketing
As the name implies, growth marketing agencies strive to maximize profits by combining marketing and sales technologies, cross-marketing strategies, and other tactics to maximize the number of customers you have by tapping into their potential in the shortest amount of time and providing clear direction.
It’s best if you want to tap into the true potential of your business and product in the shortest amount of time. Growth hackers also focus on businesses that are experiencing incredible growth in a short period of time, so they can also help with scaling issues or strategies to handle the masses coming to your product/services.
As the father of growth hacking mentioned, a marketing agency needs different types of growth hacking depending on its current stage of growth. If your business is in an early stage, your growth hacking agency could help you validate your product in the marketplace and really see if it’s a fit. Also, these agencies could help you identify the customers that will be core to your product’s delightful experience. If this is not the case with your business and you are more in the middle of development, an agency could help you adapt to new channels through which you can reach more people. It could also clean up all the processes to ensure that all customers who have these must-have experiences enjoy them to the fullest. If you are a veteran in the game and do not know how a growth hacking agency can help you, then you might need the basics of scaling to channels that are experiencing unprecedented growth, and also expanding innovation and reach to new markets that could use your products/services.
3.Performance marketing
A performance marketing agency takes full advantage of analytics to know where to put the budget, see where the results are coming from, and highlight the customers who will continue to use the product or service. This is the type of agency you should choose if you need people who follow the numbers and are not necessarily creative or creating new content.
This is the best solution if you need new strategies to increase your profits and revenue. Performance-based marketing agencies are often able to run your A/B tests and other ad campaign experiments to make sure you are running the ads that will bring you the highest revenue ROI.
4.Creative Marketing
You should really work with a creative marketing agency that can take care of all your media needs, including videos, social media posts, good logo designs, new color schemes, and all the elements that will ensure your business is visually appealing. This will help you keep up with trends while creating a unique brand experience for your customers.
Best for any business that needs new ideas for content, logo and other graphics, brand identity and everything related to digital identity.
5.Social Media Marketing
If your business really needs help with content creation and social media presence, you should contact a social media marketing agency. For example, if your business needs to create a viral Tik-Tok with over a hundred thousand views but has no idea where to start, a social media marketing agency will help. But even beyond these big goals, SMM agencies can really help with daily uploads of content and posts that engage people.
Quickly, if your social media efforts are not the best or if you are not keeping up with what’s popular, leave it to the experts
This article from Hubspot highlights the importance of a social media marketing agency on many levels. For example, by hiring an agency that focuses on your social media, you can increase your brand awareness by generating more social engagement in the form of likes, comments, and shares. With this type of interaction on a social platform, you are guaranteed to improve your lead generation as those who are interested in your product are likely to share it with others. More engagement in the form of contests or questionnaires can also increase conversion rates and deepen relationships with your customer base.
6.Advertising
Advertising agencies create commercials that really appeal to your customers and use these strategies to create these commercials. The agency can help you produce commercials for ads on Google, Facebook, or any other media platform you want to use so that you will be able to get conversions to people who are interested in your product or service and interact with what you are trying to sell.
Best of all, if you have enjoyed your advertising efforts and need help creating commercials that convert
7.Account-based Marketing
Account-based marketing essentially means that you focus on each of your customers as if they were your own baby. That way, you know that this marketing group really cares about your customers, making sure they convert as often as possible and treating them with the ultimate care.
It’s best if you only want to have a few clients that generate the most revenue
When you choose a client-based marketing agency, you will be able to ensure that your marketing and sales goals are aligned, which can be difficult without a solid plan. You will also be able to measure your ROI and deliver consistent customer experiences, as the extra hand will allow you to take care of each of your customers. Last but not least, you’ll be able to maximize your company’s relevance with high-value customers and grow the business through customer relationships by paying close attention to each customer’s needs and responding to their requests.
8.Personal Reputation Marketing
Reputation marketing is an important tool for increasing your company’s exposure. People often think that personal reputation can be portrayed through customer reviews or word of mouth from customers. However, an agency allows you to leverage these reviews and gain more insight through them. With the right reputation agency, you can get the support you need to improve your company’s online reputation with new methods you have not used before. A PR agency is best if you are not yet using reviews to your advantage, or in the worst-case scenario if you want to clear your own company’s name.
9.Branding
The goal of brand marketing is to increase brand awareness and reputation. However, brand marketing goes beyond just putting the company name and logo on the wall in hopes that people will notice. As we all know, brands are feelings. To market your brand, you need to connect with your customers on an emotional level. Marketing your brand is also about taking your customers on a journey of building the brand you want to be. Creating a brand is not just about who you are now, it’s about who you want to be in the future, and your customers can help you with that by making suggestions.
Overall, hiring the right agency depending on your business goals is crucial to achieving your marketing objectives. Keep in mind that choosing an agency can be difficult. That’s why this Forbes article points out the importance of hiring an agency that promotes change in your business, adapts quickly in every way, successfully promotes itself, handles data, and finally, has a philosophy that aligns with yours. Keep this in mind the next time you are deciding between two agencies.
If you like this type of insightful content, check out another one of our blog posts about Customer Engagement.