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2022 is coming to an end, and as a small business owner or a manager, you are probably working on your budgets for 2023 (including your marketing). You might be thinking – how can I maximize my marketing budget – stay consistent with marketing while being conscious of the expenses? And if planning your marketing expenses includes your advertising expenses and hiring costs, I think this post might be useful to consider.
Three reasons why you may want to consider hiring a marketing agency in 2023.
1. Diversification of your marketing
As a small business, you need a lot of different things. Usually at the same time. Right? You may need to improve your SEO, you may need to drive leads, and you know you need to be on social media to increase your brand visibility and reach. On top of everything, you need someone who not only will do the work but also will strategically dissect all the marketing opportunities that are coming your way. You need marketing leadership. You need someone by your side who would suggest the most profitable solution while staying within the expected timeline to reflect the seasonality and ups and downs in your business to ensure your marketing dollars are spent wisely. Sounds familiar?
How can a marketing agency help:
When you hire a marketing agency, you hire people with multiple marketing skills and disciplines, so your account is always looked at from the perspective of various marketing solutions that include SEO, PPC, email marketing or content creation. Simply put – you hire a diverse team to take care of all aspects of your marketing and communication. And even if an agency doesn’t have specific skills that are needed for a portion of your project, a marketing agency (speaking on our example here!) will always find a solution by hiring a subcontractor or temporarily expanding their team in the necessary direction to meet the needs, so you don’t have to worry about that.
2. The depth of marketing expertise
As a small business, you can’t afford to hire all the specialists listed above, so you might be thinking either hiring someone junior (who you can afford) and hoping they are a go-getter, eager to learn, who will do all the things. Or you might be thinking of hiring someone more experienced, and you don’t mind paying more, hoping that they will be more efficient and will do everything you need to know on time and on budget.
It all sounds great in theory, but in reality, the junior team members will not have the skill and the discernment (which only comes with experience!) to know which tools to use, which in the end, will take more time and trial and error on their part (i.e. money for you). The more experienced team members usually will want to have a supportive team around them, so they don’t have to be “in the weeds” as they are expecting to work on a higher level of work and not day-to-day marketing execution. So, in the end, it will be expensive for you, and you may experience a high turnaround with these people as they keep pursuing new opportunities to advance their careers.
How can a marketing agency help:
I will speak for Cucumber Marketing specifically, as I am not sure if all marketing agencies work this way, but when you work with Cucumber, you essentially get a team working for you – at least 3 people. There will be someone responsible for day-to-day management and implementation, someone who is overseeing the bigger picture and strategy and someone always available for help and a second opinion to make sure our work stays fresh. With Cucumber Marketing, even if a client faces one person regularly, there’s always a team behind the scenes. There are always reviews and discussions of the best strategy daily for every account. So you get a team of marketers for the price of one in-house marketing employee.
3. Marketing with a business focus
As a small business, you often run things on a shoestring. That includes your time. It’s a juggling act. To succeed with your direct responsibilities as a small business owner or manager, it’s important to keep the proverbial trees and the forest in perspective and keep your eyes on so many balls. When you focus on the day-to-day operations (the trees), you may miss the big-picture strategy (the forest).
How can a marketing agency help:
Again, I will speak for Cucumber. As small businesses ourselves – we understand the issues small businesses face, including marketing for small businesses specifically. So we do “get personal” with our client’s businesses. We take the time to understand their sales process and the intricacies of their operations and team dynamics, ensuring that our marketing is purposeful and connected with clients’ business goals at any given time. That’s why we have developed systems over the last 14+ years to check in with our clients regularly (weekly or monthly, depending on the business) to ensure we stay purposeful and productive.
I hope this blog helped you clarify how Cucumber Marketing can help you decide whether to hire a marketing agency or an in-house marketer.
Hop onto our Instagram or LinkedIn channel to leave your thoughts! I am curious to see what you think, and do not hesitate to reach out to our marketing agency in Vancouver if you want to talk more about this! Visit our beautiful Greenhouse in downtown Vancouver (yes, in person!) – we always have chocolate!
Thanks for reading, and keep it cool!