Know the Advantage of Having a Digital Agency
If you’re like most businesses, you’re buying at least one, probably multiple, digital marketing services — often from different vendors — and one of your biggest challenges is getting those services to work TOGETHER; and that’s the advantage of having a digital agency that knows what it’s doing.
Gordon Borrell and his media consulting company have long been thought leaders and the “best in class” researchers in the media space, and they’ve done a great job of evolving from the world of legacy media (radio, television, print) to digital media. In a recent episode of his podcast, Gordon and his co-host Corey discussed the pros and cons of local media companies selling digital services. In fact, most either don’t, or don’t do it well.
78% of Advertisers Buy at Least One Type of Marketing Service
According to Borrell’s podcast, 78% of advertisers like you buy at least one digital service. In our experience, you’re typically buying 2-3 or even more, and you’re buying them from different vendors (because many vendors tend to specialize in one vertical service). We’re talking about services like SEO, directory management, reputation management, and more.
And in our experience, most business owners complain that it’s too hard to coordinate these various vendors. This one does that. That one does this other thing. And we spend a lot of time trying to get them on the same page and keep them there. All too often, the left hand has no idea what the right is doing, and doesn’t care. And this is all so new, we as business owners don’t know what we don’t know.
That problem is the essence of the advantage of having a digital agency. And, in particular, an agency like us.
Advertisers Spend Twice as Much on Services as They Do on Advertising
Borrell’s research also shows that advertisers like you tend to spend twice as much on services like this as you spend on advertising. The example they examined in detail is auto dealers; who are spending twice as much on SEO as they spend on television advertising. Wow!
These auto dealers are on to something. They have learned that making sure their inventory is “findable” on-line generates more trackable, actionable leads than television advertising. Truth is, organic leads aren’t free — they’re EARNED. And auto dealers are using SEO to earn their “unfair” share of organic leads, which will go to the dealer with the best SEO. This is critical, especially for used inventory because the used vehicle you want could be at any dealership, not just the one that sells that particular make and model new.
From our perspective, spending money on SEO with a vendor who only focuses on SEO doesn’t get you the most bang for the buck you’re spending. And here’s another advantage of having a digital agency! In fact, our approach to SEO is INTEGRATED with your blog, social media, and directory strategies so the effort that goes into SEO does quadruple duty for you. Here’s how we visualize that difference:
Advertisers Tend to Turn to the Service Provider for Advice on Marketing
Borrell further points out that advertisers tend to turn to these digital services providers for advice on marketing. This can be good or bad. Too often, it’s bad.
Because most service providers specialize in just one aspect of digital marketing, they’re pretty much useless for anything else. And their perspectives are far too narrow to be useful to you as the business owner.
Our unique approach, and what we believe is your best advantage to having a digital agency, is that we’re looking at the totality of your marketing. We often refer to this as having one butt to kick. With services spread across multiple, disconnected vendors — it’s too easy for them to pass the buck. And that’s the frustration we often solve by taking full responsibility for your marketing, end to end.
When IBM Stopped Making Computers, They Focused on Making Computers Work Together Better
After making things for decades, beginning with the IBM Selectric typewriter and ending with the full spectrum of PCs, servers, and other computer devices, IBM sold its manufacturing to what is now Lenovo and focused its full energy on being a services company that provided the expertise of making computers do what you want them to do.
IBM realized that it wasn’t about the computers themselves anymore; businesses needed the expertise to get the computers to accomplish their intended tasks more seamlessly. And that’s exactly the tact we’ve taken at Source Local Media. Among our founding tenants is the idea that local marketing has gotten too complicated for the typical small business to handle alone, and it’s our job to make all the pieces work more seamlessly. We coordinate the various services that are essential for every business on-line. We call it Digital Footprint.
We created our Digital Basics service as the minimum every business needs to be doing on-line to be found and successfully:
- Create Awareness
- Engage Interested Buyers
- Create Actionable Leads
- Track Results & ROI
The unique advantage of having a digital agency like us is that everything gets coordinated from a single, unified strategy and you get the most bang for every buck you spend.
Get a Free Digital Audit & See the Obvious Advantage of Having a Digital Agency
You don’t have to take our word for it. We invest in you long before you ever invest in us.
Get a free digital audit of your business today. We’ll assess what’s going well and what needs work, and we’ll listen to your frustrations. Then we’ll show you an integrated plan that finally gets you moving in the direction you really want to go.
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