Nathan Yerian
Tired of the headache of trying to develop an effective marketing strategy? Are your sales not as healthy as you would like? Is measuring the results of your marketing efforts a real pain?
Good news: the doctor is in.
The right marketing agency should help keep your company healthy, ensuring a steady flow of the leads and sales that serve as the lifeblood of your business.
In fact, there are three ways in which your marketing agency should be like a doctor:
1. By providing an expert, outside diagnosis, rather than a self-diagnosis
In the world of medicine, there is a trend of people trying to self-diagnose themselves with information they find online.
However, a single Google search does not an MD make.
Doctors are experts. They spend years of intense study and training to understand how the body works, what can go wrong, and how to fix it. Medicine is not a part-time hobby for them; it is the primary focus of their lives.
Similarly, your marketing agency should provide an expert, outside diagnosis of how to make your marketing plan better. That's what the agency does, full-time. And as an outside consultant, your marketing agency is able to look at the facts of a marketing plan without bias, with a fresh eye, and experience. Remember, you are marketing to people outside your company, so an outside agency is in the best position to evaluate your marketing initiatives.
2. By suggesting new, cutting-edge options and treatments.
One problem with trying to "heal thyself" is you don't know all of the thousands of treatment options available. You may know of one solution--aspirin to temporarily relieve a headache, for example--but a doctor will know the best solution. While you have been kept busy by continuously popping pills, perhaps someone has invented a permanent cure to what ails you.
Similarly, your marketing agency should know about all of the options, ideas, and marketing tools available for your business. Having worked on many different campaigns with many different companies, the agency will already know what works, and what doesn't. You do not have to use trial and error if you already know what will produce an error.
Additionally, as new solutions emerge, your marketing agency should be suggesting "clinical trials" for new methods that are proven to generate results. If you haven't heard anything new from your agency partner in awhile, it may be time to talk to a new marketing agency.
3. By providing measurable results.
Medicine is much more a science than an art. Go to a doctor's office, and the first thing they will do is start measuring you--temperature, weight, blood pressure, etc. The measurements help determine what is wrong. The doctor then uses a precise prescription or treatment, and later takes more measurements to confirm that the treatment worked. You'll know whether the fever has gone down, or the blood pressure has improved.
Your marketing agency should also be using tools that will show measurable results. Whereas you may have a figurative thermometer, they have a full MRI, and know how to use it. Instead of guessing whether that promotion or ad was the cause of your sales spike, you can actually, empirically know how well it worked. That knowledge provides immense power when it comes to getting the best ROI for your marketing dollar.
Consistently developing, and implementing strategies that improve your marketing results is the job of your agency partner. If they are providing services that meet the three criteria above, you are probably in good hands. If not, it's time to see what other providers are in your network.
If you are looking for a new marketing game plan geared toward results, download our inbound marketing e-book:
