As a small business leader, you spend a great amount of time putting out fires, developing and retaining staff, completing administrative duties, and meeting customers’ needs. Doing all of this doesn't leave much time for growing a business.

While marketing is typically near the top of your priority list, it also tends to be the first thing that gets put on the backburner when handled solely in-house. When you don’t have solid (and automated) marketing systems in place, you miss out on attracting new customers, strengthening relationships with current ones, and creating stability in a fickle market.

Most small business owners, while understanding the importance of strategic marketing, also struggle to know what will produce the best results and end up spending too much time and money on marketing initiatives that don't really work.

The good news is—there are a variety of firms dedicated to serving small businesses and their protocols have been proven to eliminate ineffective strategies, filter bad advice, free up your time, make companies more money, and help them strategically grow and thrive.

When you partner with a responsible marketing agency, they’ll know how to use your budget where it matters most—maximizing your results. Read on to learn five benefits of working with a strategic agency.

 

1. You’ll save money.

 

This may shock you—but it’s true. Many small business leaders who are looking for marketing assistance assume they’re better off adding a full-time employee. However, by the time you consider salary, benefits, and overhead costs—a full-time employee is going to cost your business a lot more than you may think.

In comparison, when you partner with a marketing agency that is focused on helping small businesses thrive, you’re almost guaranteed to get more bang for your buck. This is because you’ll have a full-service marketing department—filled with multiple professionals—at your disposal. The opportunities are endless.

 

2. You’ll benefit from a team of experts.

 

 

You've probably heard the term "Jack of all trades is a master of none" before. This is why you should be skeptical of a single person being able to do it all in advertising. No one person can understand every nuisance of marketing. Hiring just one marketing employee is rarely enough, and this is especially true for web and digital marketing.

While many small businesses are better off simply working with an agency, some companies can benefit from having a marketing employee on staff who then works with an agency. An agency can complement your marketing specialist’s skills and help him or her create and implement marketing strategies that are best for your business.

An efficient marketing team needs:

 

• A strategy lead who can look at the big picture and make a map for getting from A to Z
• A copywriter who can write on a business’s behalf
• A graphic/web designer who can create the visual elements your business needs
• A social media manager who will identify and establish the best methods for communicating and representing your brand through various social media channels
• An SEO and digital marketing specialist who works to optimize your website’s search engine optimization and develops strategies to increase lead-generating traffic through your content

 

Adding these five positions to your company will likely be costly. On the other hand, working with a marketing agency full of strategy, copywriting, design, and digital experts may be your most straightforward, cost-effective option to help you bring stability to your company.

 

3. Your company will have a professional, credible appearance.

 

When you look at a website, the design quality influences how professional or credible you think the source is. Customers agree. For example, using color in branding increases recognition by up to 80%, and customers judge a product, service, content, or website within the first eight seconds of viewing it.

If a website is challenging to navigate, doesn’t connect with the user (or solve their problems), contains little information about products or services, and isn’t aesthetically pleasing—potential customers will click away and look for something else. Customers may also think it’s risky to input payment information if a site doesn’t seem credible or well-designed.

If you want your customers to feel informed, safe, and enjoy the experience of using your site, a strategic agency who understands how to identify and talk to your best customers can help.

The right marketing agency can help your business meet the needs of your target audience and appear trustworthy by creating and coordinating strategic brand themes and messaging. The best news: studies show this consistent brand presentation increases revenue by 33%.

 

4. You’ll gain skilled, outside perspectives.

As a small business leader, you spend a lot of your time working in your business and industry—making it difficult to see how your company looks from the outside. But knowing precisely who your customers are and what they’re looking for can be more complicated than you think. This is where an outside, strategic perspective is extremely valuable.

Through research and marketing knowledge, an agency will be able to look at your current marketing tactics and determine what is and isn’t working. This will save you time and money and allow you to adjust your initiatives, which will hopefully lead to an increase in sales and better your audience’s knowledge of your business.

 

5. You’ll save time.

 

We’ve already identified how busy small business owners and leaders are—and how that doesn't leave much time for building effective marketing systems. And to be fair, most leaders aren’t passionate about marketing—it’s just something that needs to be done in order to build a stable and thriving business.

We know that your time is valuable and should be spent doing things you are passionate about—like working on our business not in it. Whether you hire a marketing specialist who partners with a marketing agency or you connect directly, the agency should be positioned to save you a lot of time, money, and effort. Not to mention, their experts will help identify opportunities you may not have thought of before or had the time to manage.

When you find the right agency, allow them to do the heavy lifting when it comes to strategy development, research, planning, creations, execution, and management. You’ll be amazed how this partnership can help you save time, stop overspending, and increase customer engagement.

 

What about freelancers?

It’s common to wonder if there’s a difference between hiring a marketing agency and just utilizing a few freelancers. There most definitely is! While you may be able to assign freelancers a few projects, like blog posts or posting on social media, they typically don’t do extensive research or become invested in your company like an agency will.

A marketing agency conducts ample research before creating an effective marketing system and strives to be part of every client’s team. As a result, they will receive focused attention from an in-house professional team of strategists, designers, and copywriters who will help with any marketing material you need.

 

No matter the size of your company—when you know it's time to take the next step to advance your organization, choosing to partner with a marketing agency that specializes in small businesses will help you reach your goals, save time, stop overspending, and deliver an effective marketing strategy.

Plus, with a team of marketing experts at your fingertips, you can remain focused on your business-related responsibilities and work on building a stable company and amazing culture.

 

 

Our proven marketing protocol helps companies make more money, save time, and plan an effective strategy.

Treefrog Marketing is an agency focused on small business and located in Lafayette, Indiana. We specialize in strategic marketing and advertising, graphic design, web design, social media, SEO, and more. For more information, please visit our website. You can also connect with us on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram.