Should you utilise the services of marketing agencies?

Many companies are hesitant to seek the services of marketing agencies, based on the premise that if we have internal marketing capability we ‘should be able to do it ourselves’. In addition, when thinking of marketing agencies, large global ad agencies and large $ signs may spring to mind.

However, agencies often have a breadth of skills that in-house marketers don’t have and even seasoned marketers can’t possibly hope to know every facet of marketing to the degree that a team of say 20 people at an agency may collectively know. When hiring a marketing agency, it is safe to assume that you are getting both senior-level marketing professionals plus a wide-range of more junior skills.

In my previous blog I discussed the changing face of marketing, understanding how to effectively leverage digital marketing and more specifically in-bound and content marketing. These are not skills that are learnt overnight and the likelihood of needing expert help becomes more likely, at least in the short-term, in order to learn how better to not only create content but also how to effectively utitlise digital mediums through which to share content with potential future customers.

Hiring a marketing agency doesn’t mean that you should eliminate in-house marketing skills as in-house marketing staff act as a primary interface with agencies on messaging, value proposition and ensuring that marketing remains ‘on brand’ for the partner organisation. Often the result of in-house marketing working with an agency produces a better outcome than that of either party working in isolation. A good marketing agency can often bring out the best in in-house marketing if the two parties ‘gel’ well.

As well as adding marketing skills and ideas on how an organisation might better market its products and services, agencies can help you scale your marketing by looking after some of the more mundane aspects of marketing such as list building and production, thus enabling the internal marketer to focus on how to drive the overall marketing strategy for their business.

When choosing an agency, it is worthwhile to select one that has experience in the IT industry, to save yourself hours of having to explain concepts and why they are important. The agency does not necessarily have to have specific product knowledge, just sufficient knowledge of IT in general.

If you missed my previous blog, please find it at: https://blogs.msdn.com/b/auspartners/archive/2015/03/16/the-changing-face-of-marketing.aspx