In marketing, you want to position your products and services in the best possible way. You’ve probably noticed the general trend this past decade. In the past, you may have invested all your marketing efforts into traditional marketing strategies. But with the current trend in digital technology, you may want to consider hiring a digital marketing agency to up your marketing strategy. So, why hire a digital marketing company vs a general marketing agency?
And what is there to know before you make such a move?
First, let us look at marketing. Some think marketing is all about ads. But it’s more than that. Marketing is any activity a seller of a service or goods do to promote his product.
This includes:
- product branding
- pricing based on your target market
- packaging
- promoting through ads or event sponsorships
- choosing the appropriate distribution channel
Market research and data analysis form part of marketing too. It’s about strategies on how to move a product or service from your company to the customers’ hands.
Marketing Today
According to the CMO Survey of August 2019, companies spend 12% of their budget on marketing, the highest level in history.
The top three priorities are
- search engine optimization
- other paid digital media
Statista reflects the same digital marketing edge with more than 100 billion US dollars accounted for digital ads in 2018, display advertising reaching 161 billion, and almost 106.5 billion for search advertising.
With a growing demand for online marketing providers, digital marketing agencies rose in numbers.
8 Reasons to Hire a Digital Marketing Company vs a General Marketing Agency
If we look at Forbes’ top marketing trends in 2020, all eight trends involve digital marketing.
1. Shopping on social media
Shoppable posts are trending on social media. Whereas your paid ad on a billboard or magazine will only reach customers’ consciousness, those that appear on Pinterest, Youtube, Facebook, or Instagram can get an immediate sale with a click. Digital marketing agencies can shorten the sales funnel for you.
2. AR apps for mobile
A digital marketing agency can use virtual and augmented reality in marketing products. For instance, Home Depot, Lowe’s and Ikea make use of home decorating apps to engage customers and transfers the work of marketing to technology. A mobile app with AR capability can enhance user experience.
With AR technology, the price of a stadium seat becomes a secondary factor when a ticket buyer gets to have a virtual preview of his seating view.
3. Interactive content
Another top trend is the use of interactive content. Some healthcare websites would have a checklist of signs and symptoms for the kind of disease or sickness that a particular product or service can address. This boosts the patients’ confidence in their service providers.
4. More personal
Personalized marketing is another trending thing. Most traditional ads are generic and sometimes mindless. Tons of papers clutter mailboxes that only end up in recycling bins. Digital marketing agencies can now personalize email marketing with a segmented list. Case studies show that segmentation increases open rate and reduces bounce rate.
On the other hand, traditional marketing may boast of a personalized approach whereby a marketer wines and dines with a potential customer. This high-cost approach does not necessarily convert to sales. A digital marketing agency can provide the same personalized kind of approach without breaking the bank. Private login portals can serve as personal gateways for customers to interact with their service providers and enhance the experience.
5. Google Ads
Another marketing trend that digital marketing agencies can tap into but traditional agencies would have trouble navigating is the use of Google Ads Smart Bidding. With automation and smart bidding, a company can optimize their bids on many campaigns. A digital marketing agency would also know how to write the right kinds of Google ads that would capture the target audience in a given platform.
6. Valuable and shareable content
The Forbes report would stress an ongoing trend that is here to stay. As such, content marketing will continue to rule with the new players in digital marketing strategies. Nothing beats useful and valuable content on a website. All inbound marketing using social media marketing, digital advertising, email marketing, or even a great website design will fall short if the site has a poor content.
High-quality content boosts SEO and credibility of product and services. Nowadays, people rely more and more on the information they read online. Even traditional marketing agencies realize the value of having an online presence. But creating a website that’s not search-engine-optimized, doesn’t use data analytics to track performance, and cannot be found on organic searches is a wasteful investment. A digital marketing agency would know how to use quick leads and sustained leads, how to nurture to sale, and employ other digital marketing tactics like blog posts, digests, email campaigns, and social media posts to convert prospects to customers.
7. The power of video
Video Content is trending. Traditional marketing uses multimedia but not in an efficient way that digital marketing would. Whereas TV and movie ads tend to run short, cost so much, and provide little information, video content can run as long as an hour. A live video can even engage the audience longer and provide a venue for exchange. Recorded videos are shareable. Marketed as such, the company can rely on customer loyalty to boost sales.
8. Get to the top of search results
Finally, SERP Position Zero is one of the digital marketer’s more powerful ammunition. With 81% of Americans owning smartphones, information is easily accessible using search engines. And guess what? That line of text above search results is the prime spot of SERP Position Zero, which apparently may be the only link that a viewer would click. Every day and every second, someone clicks on that SERP Position Zero. That’s the kind of advantage a digital marketing agency can have over a traditional one in terms of access to its target audience and and even local market.
And if you’re still going traditional, you’d fall behind the game. Digital agencies can give you what a traditional marketing agency could but not the other way around. The digital marketing agency still approaches marketing, in the same way, using the 4 Ps of marketing, uses a story brand in its content marketing, develops digital marketing strategy, market research, and data analytics. On top of that, it also leverages these marketing principles to adopt to current digital trends and technology. That’s how digital marketing vs a general marketing agency can work for you.
Need a concise plan to get started? Read this helpful post on How to Grow and Market Your Business in Today’s World.
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And as always, if you don’t have time to come up with these ideas or just want someone to take care of them for you, we’re here. Contact us to schedule a FREE business review and to see how we can help your business grow!
