WHAT IS A DIGITAL AGENCY AND HOW CAN IT BENEFIT MY BUSINESS?

When it comes to digital marketing, you can decide to manage it in-house, outsource to an agency or take a hybrid approach and do both. If you want to remain competitive in today’s constantly evolving digital marketing industry, it’s important to make the choice that’s right for your business. 

If you have an in-house marketing team that’s equipped to take on the challenge, that’s great! If not, you might want to consider working with a digital agency that offers the services you need to stay ahead of the curve and grow your business. In this article, we take a look at why outsourcing digital marketing efforts is an effective choice for businesses of all sizes, as well as what services to look out for and factors to consider when selecting the best agency.

WHAT IS A DIGITAL AGENCY?

Put simply, a digital agency is a business you hire to carry out essential digital marketing tasks on your behalf. 

There are many types of digital agencies that offer various services. Some specialise in certain areas of digital marketing, such as search engine optimisation, whereas others, referred to as full-service agencies, can manage your entire online presence.

Agencies generally work with a number of clients. They might focus on a particular industry or work across different verticals. However, their goal is always to provide tailored services that align with the client’s business objectives.

WHAT SERVICES DOES A DIGITAL AGENCY OFFER?

A digital agency is made up of a team of experts with specialised skills in various aspects of online marketing and advertising. 

Their services are geared towards growing your business online through the use of modern digital marketing techniques and technologies. A great agency will offer multiple services that allow clients to find exactly what they are looking for and need in order to meet their goals. 

Here’s a selection of digital services that a stand-out agency should offer. 

Creative services

If you want to get your business noticed by your target audience and do something different from your competition, choose an agency that offers creative services. In a competitive business landscape, creativity can give you the edge you need to stand out from the crowd. 

Whether your goal is to develop a winning content marketing strategy, you want to create an unforgettable video campaign or you’re seeking to expand your digital assets – a digital agency can help. 

Here at Axonn, we offer a huge selection of creative services that can help you to grow brand awareness, boost traffic to your website, increase lead generation and much more. Here’s a look at what our creative services include:

• Content marketing: Website copywriting, blogging, SEO content, digital PR and much more.
• Video production: Corporate, brand, documentary, social media, and product videos, as well as TV advertisements, animation and live streaming content. 
• Digital assets: Graphic design, infographics, whitepapers and ebooks, case studies, podcasts and webinars. 

Campaign services

Targeted digital campaigns allow you to achieve specific objectives and reach particular segments of your audience through your marketing efforts. However, implementing campaigns can be challenging for businesses and require careful planning, managing and measuring. 

Digital agencies generally offer campaign services that busy businesses can take advantage of. This means they’ll handle the entire project from start to finish, so you can sit back, relax and watch the results roll in. Whether you want to provide a general outline or you want it to do the ideation for you, an agency can bring years of experience and skills to any campaign you have in the pipeline. 

At Axonn, we offer a variety of campaign services so you can rest assured that no matter what goal you may have in mind, we’ll help you make it a reality. 

• Social media: Content creation, management and advertising.
• Digital campaigns: B2B lead generation, product-specific campaigns, brand awareness, email marketing and more.
• Digital advertising: Develop strategies and boost ad return on Google, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn and other display advertising platforms. 
• SEO: On and off-page, as well as technical SEO.
• Development services: Website development, design and build, CRM integrations and interactive web applications.

WHAT MAKES A DIGITAL AGENCY STAND OUT FROM THE CROWD?

Choosing the right agency for your business can be challenging. With so many options out there, how do you know whether it can deliver on its promise and – most importantly – if you’re both going to get along?

There are certain factors you should look for when selecting the best online agency to work with. These are the esoteric elements that don’t necessarily relate to skills, but make all the difference in terms of forging a strong and fruitful partnership that can, ultimately, lead to the best and most rewarding results. Factors to look out for include:

Open communication

This one’s important. Both parties need to be open to feedback and ensure clear lines of communication to prevent problems occurring later on down the line. Your digital agency should keep you involved throughout the whole process to ensure that what it’s doing aligns with your business objectives. 

Trustworthiness

Does it have a good reputation? Can you rely on it to meet deadlines and act with your business’s best interests at heart? It’s important that you can trust the agency you decide to work with.

Flexibility

The agency you choose should be flexible and able to adapt to the needs of your business and your customers. Moreover, you need to be able to trust that it’s there to explore new marketing opportunities that you perhaps haven’t tested out before.

Relevant experience

If you operate in a specific niche that requires more refined marketing skills, you may want to ensure the agency has worked with clients with a similar business model to yours before signing any agreements.

A culture you can vibe with

When working with an agency (providing all goes well), it’s likely that you’ll be doing so for an extended period of time, particularly if it’s managing full campaigns on your behalf. It has the skills and experience you’re looking for, but what are the team like as human beings? Do they seem like they enjoy what they do on calls? Do they make an effort with friendly chit-chat before getting down to business? This may be more subjective, but it’s no less important.

BENEFITS OF WORKING WITH A DIGITAL AGENCY

Now you know all about what an agency does, you might be wondering why you shouldn’t just manage your digital marketing in-house. Let’s see if these advantages are enough to convince you. 

You’ll be working with the experts

When you work with a digital agency, you can rest assured that those in charge will be experts in their field. Whether it’s social media, SEO strategy or web development – they’ll know exactly what to do and how to do it well. 

With an expert team in your corner, you can take advantage of years of experience and refined skill sets to achieve whichever digital marketing goals you may have. The agency can advise, strategise, plan and execute services and campaigns to attract, engage and delight your target audience.

Save yourself time and money

Businesses have a lot on their plates. Managing day-to-day operations, handling admin, dealing with clients, providing exceptional customer service – the list goes on. 

Even for small businesses, digital marketing can be expensive, time-consuming and may not yield the results you expect. 

Working with an online agency saves you valuable time and resources, and ensures you’re putting your money where it counts, so you can focus on other aspects of your business.

Access ongoing support

Once you sign up with an agency it’ll continue to monitor the progress of your content and campaigns throughout the year. The strategy team will be able to make sense of all the numbers and analyse performance metrics to ensure their work is delivering the desired results. If it isn’t, they’ll be able to pinpoint what’s going wrong and find a solution quickly.

Offers scalability

Another benefit of working with a digital agency is that it can scale to meet your developing needs. 

For instance, you may set out with one goal in mind that only requires content marketing services. But as your business grows, you may want to explore other aspects of digital marketing such as video production or SEO to stay ahead of the curve. 

Once you’re in with an agency, it can offer various services and expertise to enhance your digital strategies as you grow and develop. Moreover, it’ll already be familiar with your business, which lends itself to more cohesive marketing. The opportunities are endless when you work with a digital agency.

Be ‘in the know’ on marketing trends

To stay competitive and keep bringing in clients, agencies must ensure they don’t fall behind on the latest marketing and technology trends. The same goes for your business. 

Consumers are more selective than ever before and they have the ability to choose from a huge selection of brands that offer similar products and services. For this reason, it’s important to ensure that your marketing is just as current and cutting-edge as your competition’s.

It’s an agency’s responsibility to stay abreast of new trends and technologies as they emerge in order to offer the most in-demand services to its clients. If a new social media feature is suddenly all the rage, you can bet that the agency will already know how to leverage it to get results.

CHOOSE THE RIGHT AGENCY FOR YOUR BUSINESS

Once you’ve narrowed down your search, have a look at the services the agencies on your shortlist offer, as well as their client testimonials page. This will help you get an idea of the kind of things they do, their style and whether or not they’re what you’re looking for. You may not be in need of every service immediately, or even more than one, but keep them in mind for the future. 

Before making a final decision, reach out to them and set up initial calls. You’ll be able to discuss what you hope to get out of working with them and any specific goals you want to achieve. They can provide a more in-depth overview of their services and work ethic and answer any questions you might have. First impressions matter, so these calls are also a great opportunity for you to see what they’re like as people. 

Axonn is made up of a team of skilled, experienced and unique individuals. We all bring something different to the table when it comes to marketing, and, combined, we know how to plan, create and execute digital marketing services that get results. Whether you want to boost your website traffic, increase your social media presence or delve into paid advertising – we can help. 

We love to chat, so get in touch today to find out more about the extensive range of services we offer and how we can work together to grow your business.