Tag Archive for: technology

Should I Hire an Agency?

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  1. Cost Savings
  2. Team of Experts
  3. Tools and Technologies
  4. Industry Experience
  5. External Ideas/Opinions
  6. Time and Effort

6 Reasons You Should Hire A Marketing Agency

You’ve all heard it before, especially those business owners out there. You need to invest in digital marketing, or traditional marketing, or whatever marketing is trending right now. In order for you to be successful, you HAVE to invest, but how do you know where to start?

It’s difficult in today’s market to decipher what’s real and what’s fake. Will marketing really help drive more sales? How can you determine what’s working and what isn’t? Where do I start the search for the right direction, strategy, and execution for any marketing efforts? Should I hire an in-house marketing team or go with an external agency?

The last question is what we’re here to answer.

More and more, small to mid-sized businesses are turning to agencies to help deliver a return on whatever monies they are able to invest in their marketing. As such, the number of agencies that are out there grows every day, as individuals look to take advantage of a growing industry, new technologies, and innovative solutions. It’s a difficult decision to make, entrusting your marketing efforts to some “outsiders” who might not be experts in your industry, may not know your product or your people, and might not be available to call upon every hour of every day. However, we have six reasons for you to consider as to why an agency is not only a solution to your marketing woes, but is THE solution.

  1. Save Yourself the Expense of More Staff Members

According to Robert Half, an internal Marketing Director can cost on average around $102,000 in salary for your company. That’s one person to guide the strategy, manage a team, and execute some of that direction. Often, those Marketing Directors have some specialization in certain areas, but are not able to execute on all the various spokes of marketing today. So maybe you have to hire an SEO Expert at around $60,000, then you might need a Social Media Marketer for another $50,000. If you continue down that road, you hire a Paid Search Specialist for another $40,000. All in for these four individuals you’d be spending more than $250,000 on staff members, and that of course doesn’t include benefits, equipment, utilities, etc…for these people.

  1. Team of Experts

If I had a penny for the number of times I’ve heard the phrase, “I could hire an internal resource for that much.” Often, it’s not a wholly inaccurate statement. You COULD hire ONE internal resource. However, let’s say you had $10,000 per month to invest in your marketing efforts (a very low number). You could invest that all in your one internal resource. Alternatively, you could put that money in the hands of 15 experts who work together as a team to come up with the best strategies and solutions for your brand. Each of those 15 has a different set of skills, experience in any number of industries, and familiar with a plethora of solutions that could benefit your company in ways that you’ve never seen. You get an SEO expert, a paid search specialist, social media manager, account manager, strategist, content marketer, graphic designer, and more with one agency.

Go ahead, though. Tell me more about that one internal resource you can hire.

  1. Latest Tools and Technologies

I will tell you one thing. Digital marketing tools to monitor results, look at trends, schedule and execute project, or determine A/B testing results are expensive. You could easily spend $1,000 or more per month on a variety of tools and still not have everything you need. Generally, agencies invest in these tools on behalf of their clients. They need to be able to show the return on investment, monitor goals, track progress, and make sure the strategy and direction are working. It just comes with the business, and using an agency will allow you to get the cutting-edge tools and software packages working for you at no extra cost.

  1. Industry Experience

Many agencies have team members with years of experience in different industries and fields. Often companies may not consider this when deciding to hire an agency. While every company is unique, there are always similarities to be found based on experience. It’s very possible that the agency you choose has run a successful campaign in a similar field or even in your same field! That saves time, energy, and money in planning and executing on the various strategies and goals that you have set for your company.

  1. External Ideas/Opinions

Working inside your company every day gives an individual insight into the day-to-day operations, the culture, the characters, and the products or services. However, over time those opinions and thoughts can get stale, old, and blurry. You might have the perfect solution for your current audience or market, but what about a new market? What about that audience that you haven’t looked at yet but provides a way for you to grow your market share? How do you find out about everything OUTSIDE of your company? An agency can provide a fresh, new perspective, helping you discover even more about your company but also more about your clients and prospects. Don’t sell yourself short by doing what has “worked for years.” Find something new!

  1. Time and Effort

Hiring an outside marketing agency really lets you spend your time and effort on what matters most: growing your business. With so many different solutions and tactics out there, internal resources can often get lost in the marketing forest and lose focus on what is most important. You can stay focused on the core of your business, taking the reporting and strategies provided by your agency relationship and leveraging those experts to improve your core business goals.

The other side of this is that you don’t have to spend time training and onboarding yet another internal resource. An agency already understands its role, has defined clear goals and expectations (or they should), and provides you the information that you need without the extra clutter of managing a staff member.

In conclusion…

Ultimately, you have to do your due diligence and make the best decision for your company. Whether you’re the CEO, CMO, or a marketing manager looking for a good partner, there is an agency out there that can help maximize your budget, deliver you results, and help you grow your business. That’s the goal, right? Ask the right questions and find the right partner. They’re out there!

Drone Technology – A Sign of the Times

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Yes, this photo is real.

This sign was posted on a telephone pole that is typically reserved for garage sales and missing pets. But, a missing drone. That’s a new one. I chuckled, and I wondered if this person would actually get their drone back…or if the drone is sitting crushed into pieces in the trash can of a disgruntled neighbor.

As the barriers to access drone technology by the average consumer or small business owner fall, drones are rapidly advancing a number of industries from real estate to healthcare. To sum it up, drones aren’t going anywhere. The applications seem endless, and the person with the drone can do more business for less and time money.

Get a Drone or Get Out of the Way

Real Estate – Not only do drones allow real estate agents to showcase property’s more thoroughly with drone cameras (thanks to drone camera footage and AI, you can virtually walk through your future home), but drones are making property inspections easier and more complete.

Industry and Infrastructure – Drones are being used to make sure bridges, towers, pipelines, power lines, turbines, storage tanks and more are functioning properly for less time and cost than traditional inspections. Drones are even being used for land surveys and construction project inspections.

Security – Big brother. Maybe. The Eye in the Sky. Yep. Keeping tabs on a property…and people. Insert discussion about privacy here.

Shipping – This one is sort of a no-brainer. Amazon’s been talking about this for a few years now. But, picture this. It’s February and there are 5 feet of snow on the ground (lucky you if you live in a warm climate). You have a sinus infection. You do a virtual doctor visit from the comfort of your couch, a prescription is texted in from your virtual doctor to the pharmacy, and a few hours later…beep, boop, bop, boop, beep…a drone from your local pharmacy drops off your script. What a time to be alive, people!

Drone technology, as it applies to our everyday lives is just getting started. Are you in an industry that’s part of the drone evolution? Or could be? Or, are you the person with a drone and the next great idea?

This is Just Cool

TIME magazine recently published a Special Report on drones, The Drone Age. TIME’s special edition issue cover photo is the first to be shot by a drone. Working with Intel’s Drone Light Show Team (the same team that created the drone display during the 2018 Winter Olympics opening ceremony in South Korea), Astraeus Aerial Cinema Systems, and L.A. Drones, the TIME cover used 958 drones set to display a precise shade of red, and a final drone to hold the camera that captured the epic image.

The result was one of the biggest drone shows ever produced in the U.S., so of course, it drew some attention. One Folsom, Calif., resident interviewed by a local news reporter recounted, “Up in the sky, I saw the future.”

We couldn’t agree more.