Adam Marquardt
We’ve seen some desperate CEOs and CMOs in our line of work. Like, the kind of desperate with wide open, bloodshot eyes and gnawed-upon fingernails.
Yeah, that kind. They’re desperate because they figured they could handle the company marketing on their own, only to realize that their competition was running circles around them and business was tanking. Yikes!
The good news is the symptoms of this ailment are obvious and you can start vetting agencies before you get to this point. Let’s look at a few of the most obvious signs that you desperately need a marketing agency.
1. Your marketing is failing to produce new customers.
You’re dropping Benjamins faster than a trailer trash lottery winner and it’s yielding up… Nothing. What gives? It may be that you’re thinking too traditional in your marketing approach—focusing on trade shows and print ads getting lost mid-magazine when you should be spending on digital.
Maybe you’re too focused on mass market tactics when something more targeted is needed—trade journals for instance, or Google ads targeted on specific websites. Whatever the case may be, bleeding revenue on marketing is sure sign you need expert help.
2. Your In-House marketing team doesn’t know what SEO stands for, or your website looks like it’s straight out of the '90s.
It’s easy to become complacent in your marketing and forget that digital exists, especially if you’re in B2B markets. Traditional methods still work, and if your local competition hasn’t shifted gears to spend more on digital, why should you?
We can think of one reason: watching a perfectly good business fade into obscurity is a sad thing to watch. According to CMO survey, “by 2018, internet advertising will be poised to overtake TV as the largest advertising segment.” Meanwhile, U.S. newspaper print ads and other mass market outlets have been seeing gut-wrenching drops like this one:
If you’ve been reliant on traditional media to get you through, it’s only a matter of time before reality catches up with you. Consider hiring an agency focused on digital, or expand your in-house team to meet the new reality!
3. It’s been forever since you did something different
If you’ve been advertising in the same places, during the same time of the year, for years on end, it’s time for a fresh, outside perspective. This is where adding to your current in-house team just doesn’t cut it. The new guy will be assimilated into the Borg-like hive mind before a fresh new idea pops into his head, leaving you no better off than you were before.
4. You have this stomach-churning feeling every time you sit down to do marketing work.
Hey, not everyone likes marketing and advertising! If you’re a business owner or solopreneur that can’t stand the idea of hiring another in-house team member, outsourcing your marketing needs to an agency may be the best way to go. Your talents can be put to good use elsewhere, while your agency handles the rest.
5. You have zero idea what’s working and what’s not working.
Marketing blind scares the hell out of us in the same way that driving down a dirt road with no headlights would. You need insights, you need analytics, you need metrics. Without these things you’re effectively marketing blind. It may not get you killed, but it could kill your business off pretty darn quick.
Unfortunately, measuring what does and doesn’t work can become a pretty involved process. Hundreds of tools exist to measure a thousand different variables. The marketer’s job is to figure out which variables matter for their company, and then test different marketing platforms and techniques until they land on the Holy Grail of campaigns.