Although we do more than social media marketing, it plays a large role for all of our services. Social media is challenging in many ways, but most business owners approach digital marketing platforms with an oversimplified view. Understandably so…if your kids are using something, how could your business use it for serious client acquisition? There isn’t a simple answer to that question. Nor is there an easy way to explain the why or, for that matter, the who. Since the speed of the internet (and all things associated with the online world) change on a moment’s notice, it’s nearly impossible to answer these questions once and move on. Rather, they are questions you must address for your business on an ongoing basis.
We know your time is limited. And, our lofty “dig into the question more” answers are tempting you to abandon this post. BUT WAIT! Don’t go just yet. We have some solid advice on how you can use social media to grow your business, who needs to be hired as your digital marketer, and how you can ensure you are getting value for your efforts. (You can also hear me talk about this topic here.)
How Digital Marketing Grows Your Business
It really depends on what you lay out (or what your agency drafts) as your digital marketing strategy. For example, social advertising will likely have to be a part of your plan on any chosen platform in order to see encouraging growth in audience size or to reach your target persona. Speaking of chosen platforms, you will need to be able to identify (through strategy and planning research) where your client demographic is most active (hence where your business should also be present). You also need to have a solid outline of how and when to publish digital content. What tone will best represent your brand and stand out from your competitors? More importantly, what will spark engagement from your ideal customer and encourage discussion and digital word-of-mouth marketing? No matter the business, goals, or industry, it really all comes back to strategy.
Pro Tip: Don’t let 5 common content mistakes hold your business back from overtaking your competition online. Sign up for our FREE lunch & learn to overcome these common errors.
Who Should Do Your Digital Marketing
Quick answer: not you. Business owners should rarely, if ever, be the brand voice online for the business. You know your business inside and out, which is precisely what disqualifies you from being the best candidate. Chances are you are too busy, or perhaps too disinterested in social media, to keep up with Facebook’s latest changes or Instagram’s latest drama. So that leaves you with hiring an internal marketer (or team) or securing the services of a digital marketing agency. If these 7 benefits to hiring an agency don’t have you convinced to hang up the phone with the intern you’re currently interviewing, here are a few additional points to consider:
- One of the most obvious benefits to retaining an agency is the vast skillset you add to your marketing arsenal. An agency will be staffed with content writers, strategy planners, graphic designers, videographers, photographers, experienced account managers, project managers, web designers, and SEO experts. No one person hired internally will be able to perfectly fill all of those positions. While you might find someone who is well-rounded (meaning they have some skill in most of those areas and are proficient in a few of those areas), you will be missing key elements offered by a larger team.
- Agencies are also experienced in a variety of industries, types of marketing, and offer a wide range of digital services (even if some of it is through curated partnerships). Make sure you talk to your agency about what type of retention rates they have with their clients, how many industries they work with, if they have any standards for unique businesses within an industry, and how they add value to their client relationships. If they can’t answer those questions, or seem uncomfortable doing so, it’s time to talk to another group.
- You don’t have to have a large amount of digital marketing knowledge to hire an agency. The responsibility for providing education is on them. If you hire an internal employee, you will be the only oversight for that person or department. That means you need to carve out the time and interest to stay up-to-date on best practices, standards, and your competitors’ digital footprints.
Why Digital Marketing Grows Your Business (Understanding Value)
Whatever route you choose- inhouse marketer or digital marketing agency- make sure you set expectations from the beginning. Platform monitoring should be done daily; ad testing and monitoring should be conducted hourly; community engagement should be done 2-3 times per day per platform; content planning and curating should be done weekly; strategic reporting should be done monthly; and campaign planning and reporting should be done (at minimum) quarterly. Make sure that your social strategy includes tangible goals for your online marketing efforts that you can hold your marketer accountable for. If you are looking strictly for branding efforts, make sure you assign value (not necessarily monetary) to that goal. Strategy should be a fluid document that is adapted based on best practices, audience performance, and campaign response.
If you do decide to hire an agency, you need to understand what type of agency you are working with. Sprout Social outlines three common agencies:
- Strategy & Planning: These agencies are good for planning campaigns to turn over to your team, train your company personnel to implement a strategy or campaign, or consult on elements of your marketing that you might be questioning. There is typically a shorter-term relationship held with these agencies.
- Publishing: These companies will put content on platforms. Simple. They will not be thinking in the bigger picture or consulting you on identified opportunities. They will keep your company active on the chosen platforms & will be up-to-date on platform best practices. They will likely also be the most affordable and least skill-diverse of the agencies.
- Complete: These agencies will do it all-strategy, curation, creation, publishing, monitoring, campaigns, analysis, reputation management, graphic design, SEO, blog writing, social advertising, and detailed reporting. These agencies will be the longest relationships because they are essentially adopting you as their own- they become your “marketing department.”
So, that’s it. Obviously, we are inclined to encourage you to hire an agency. But, the most important thing is to carefully weigh your business (and your own personality) against the pros and cons of hiring an internal or external team. The thing you shouldn’t have to question, however, is should my business be online? The answer is a resounding YES.
For more on this, watch this video from Facebook!