2019, like every year, will be a year of ups and downs. But with Brexit on the horizon and global uncertainty seemingly reaching fever pitch, it doesn’t take a lot of thought to realise this will be an interesting year for businesses across the board.
In such an environment, brands require a well-executed digital marketing strategy. But without a properly managed online presence, even household names can quickly fall into digital obscurity. This presents a problem for brands without the resource for a dedicated digital marketing team.
The alternative is an agency, but it can be daunting putting your business into the hands of a group of people working outside your company. In this blog post, we’ll outline exactly why overcoming hesitation on that front can leave you in a really good place this year.
The most obvious reason for investing in an agency is the expertise. At Genie Goals, we have dedicated teams for PPC, Paid Social, and Affiliates. We have the time and resource to be working on your marketing campaigns all day, so you can be left to do your day job. Agencies will inform you of what’s possible, and what isn’t. As well as what you could and should be doing with your budgets, in order to achieve your various goals.
Agencies often have years of experience behind them. Often, working with brands with similar goals/customers that your own – meaning they know what works and what doesn’t work. They are often at the forefront of industry trends, with the time available to attend meetings with Google/Facebook.
Top agencies may also have access to resources which most brands don’t have access to; Google Premier Partner agencies have dedicated team members within Google who work directly within client accounts.
Handing your digital marketing over to an external agency is also a great way of getting fresh eyes on your business. Agencies have the resource to try new things. Are you utilizing the correct channels? Should you be pushing more into Paid Social rather than PPC? These are questions which can be difficult to answer without outside advice and expertise.
Where an agency can really help is during the end-of-year planning phase; especially when it comes to budgets. Agencies work better when they are told, not what the strategy would be, but what the budgets are – they can then formulate a strategy which best aligns with your goals for the year. Agencies are able to provide very accurate forecasts regarding, for example, traffic levels expected with certain investment. Involving an agency in the planning stage is essential in making sure you are on the same page, and they can also add a great deal of insights and value; helping to formulate a clear digital marketing objective, with key results and a clear roadmap for the year. Top agencies will always provide honest advice.
At Genie, we’ve developed our own tech, dubbed Clarence, to help us do our job better.
The way our tech has been built means it works best with Genie’s methodology and strategic approach to marketing. The benefit of such tech is that you gain access to automation on a raft of otherwise laborious tasks. From bid changes across time of the day at a product level to reporting with custom made reports – it’s all possible out the box with tech that would otherwise be hard to set up internally.
The world is in a weird place in 2019. While the situations we face will be new, having access to a company who are pushing the envelope in terms of best practice for multiple leading brands across the world means you’re unlikely to be one of the losing brands, through information alone.
Acting as a central point of contact between multiple companies allows agencies the opportunity to dissect and reflect on best practice going forward, having the benefit of a bird’s eye view across multiple companies.
But there are many more. 2019 presents a year of potential big winners and losers – of course we’re biased, but we think there are plenty of ways an agency can help you navigate the marketing landscape this year.
