10 Benefits Of Using An Agency For Online Marketing

Patrick Herman

If you’ve ever engaged with or thought about outsourcing your online marketing needs, you’ve probably had to wrestle with the options of keeping things in-house or hiring an agency. Because I work for one, I’m going to share from a straight-bias on why I feel it’s important to work with an agency (but not just any agency!). So get ready, sit back, grab a good drink and have a read through my list of 10 benefits of using an agency for online marketing.

agency

#1 – It’s Cheaper To Use An Online Marketing Agency

Yes, seriously and even though the agency tells you it may cost $3,000-5,000 per month (not including ad spend fees) or more to get the job done. You’re likely to have a full team at an agency working on your account, so you may have 4 or 5 staff members working for you directly. Can you afford to hire that many people full-time in-house?

#2 – Online Marketing Data

Agencies typically have a lot of clients and therefore a lot of data collected. From a technical perspective, an agency will have a lot of technical insights to work off of as well as a lot of marketing insights to share on what’s been working for other clients. This collaborative work can play a major role in your website’s digital success.

#3 – Some Really Smart People

You may think that all of the best online marketers are sitting out there either looking to do it all on their own or waiting to work in-house for a company. The truth is there are some fantastic minds out there who work on their own. The sad truth is they are both very selective about who they’ll work with and how much they cost. In fact, really good agencies attract really good people who want to collaborate with other great minds.

#4 – 3rd Party Tools

Many agencies make use of 3rd party tools that allow them to be more effective with their work. A lot of these tools cost money (in some cases big money) to use. Some tools that agencies might use are: HubSpot, Majestic, BrightLocal or Eloqua. It’s no big secret, and clients get to reap the reward of lower cost of use instead of having to pay for these tools in-house.

#5 – Communication With Co-Workers

Since we don’t all work on the same accounts, we can actually share valuable insights on our own client list. We can see what kind of messaging may be working for another client, maybe there’s a sweet spot for an ad spend or we learned a lot about a seasonal campaign that brought in some great data. Now we can apply it to other clients.

#6 – Great Digital Leadership

Great online marketing agencies also have some great leaders. Those leaders may not be working directly on your account, but they are thought-leaders and well-established in the industry. Anyone working with them will likely be learning a great amount and can apply that knowledge to you.

#7 – Online Agencies (Have) To Succeed For Their Clients

Yes, I’m sure anyone wants to succeed at anything, but agencies need to grow and to do this they have to drive real success for their clients. Otherwise word gets out about how bad an agency might be and, well, you know, things don’t proceed well.

#8 – It’s Hard To Find And Hire One All-Star

Let’s be honest, it’s hard to find and hire one really good digital marketer. There’s a lot of factors: your office location, your industry, your pay offering and more. It’s just not easy to get what you want with factors you might not be able to control. Agencies are a different breed. We like working with different types of companies. It gives us a chance to really test our mettle and gain success for different types of businesses. And it doesn’t hurt that you might work with an agency full of all-stars!

#9 – Online Marketing May Not Be 24/7 Work

Yes, it’s true. It’s highly likely that you don’t need anyone focused on your online marketing needs every single hour of every single day, but if you’ve hired in-house you’re paying that person for full time work when in fact you may only need one hour or less of work in a given day. So your full timer may likely be looking for things to do to fill up their day.

#10 – A Team Of Online Marketing Specialists

This may be the most useful piece of info I can share. A great online agency has a full team of actual specialists in what they do. While there are some ‘Jack of all trades’ who are masters of all trades, they are hard to come by. A great agency will have specialists that focus on one aspect of online marketing and therefore excel in that one arena. They have intimate knowledge of what they know and are able to produce high quality work for you.

Overall, as you can see I am quite biased when it comes to working with an agency, but I do it as an advocate for your success! If you have questions that go beyond the points above, please feel free to touch base with us! Everyone here would be more than happy to talk!


marketing expert


Patrick Herman

Patrick is the Account Supervisor and Team Lead at Spark. Heavy into data analysis and strategy you'll find him figuring out a path to success with a plate of chicken wings.

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