A Digital Marketing Agency is an organization helping bridge the communication gap between a business and its prospective customers over digital platforms. The organization achieves that through a creative mix of artistic graphics, science, and engineering to establish a relationship between the brand and its target customers.
The ideal digital marketing agency must have a high-competency understanding of the various digital platforms where consumers interact with brands. That includes search engines, social media, websites, mobile devices, emails, and digital displays among others. It is only through a deep understanding of these platforms can the agency successfully drive a brand’s message to the market.
The digital marketing industry was necessitated by the widespread and still increasing use of the internet and electronic devices by people across the globe. Rendering traditional methods of marketing increasingly redundant, while opening a new industry with different dynamics on the cyberspace.
With such a large number of people online, businesses had to find ways to ‘go to where the consumers are,’ and digital marketing is the bridge in between. However, given the inherent nature of digital marketing, where the variables keep changing as fast as technology advances, to succeed in this form of marketing needs focused sets of skills.
Finding marketers with such a level of specialization is hard to come by for small to medium enterprises given the huge cost it will have for the business in terms of salary when they are hired full-time. The situation may be somewhat better for the bigger companies with a big financial muscle as they could afford some in-house digital marketer. Even then, it might be hard to fill all personnel needed for the various digital marketing field.
Work Outsourced to Digital Marketing Agency
A Digital Marketing Agency is a business by itself, selling its services across all the spectrum of digital marketing. Therefore, they are likely to be having a specialist for all the given field. That is experts in:
- Search Engine Optimization
- Search Engine Marketing
- Pay-Per-Click
- Social Media
- Content Marketing
- Email Marketing
- Web Design
- Graphic Design
- Videography
- YouTube Marketing.
Outsourcing work to these agencies makes a lot of economic sense to a business without an in-house marketer for the given field of marketing, At the same time providing a business opportunity to professionals who want to explore this field from an entrepreneurial standpoint.
For instance, a well-established web designer with a lot of orders in a given city may decide to scale their business by diversifying his offering. They could employ a graphic designer, content marketer, SEO & SEM expert, and Social Media marketer. Then they will have a digital marketing company able to provide several services across the spectrum. As the company grows, they could rope in more experts in other fields to widen their portfolio of services.
A small startup business within the same city, would approach them for a website and perhaps content for the website. A bigger company with in-house SEO and SEM experts could outsource the graphic design work for the artwork they need to the company. As things work out, the newly formed digital marketing company is filling a niche in the local economy, while other businesses are cutting down on the cost of hiring an in-house expert for the given digital marketing field.
A Full-Service Digital Marketing Agency
Ideally, the hypothetical digital marketing company we talked about above will grow and recruit more talents to fill the full spectrum of digital marketing fields. They will also include Affiliate Marketers, Market Automation experts, Data Scientists, Growth Hackers, and Inbound Marketers among others.
The company would become what we call a one-stop-shop for all digital marketing and advertisement. The good thing with this line of business is they are not so limited with geographical location. Such a company started in New Orleans can handle SEO work for a small business in Chicago, PPC marketing for another in Detroit, Content Marketing for a mid-sized company in New York.
All thanks to technology and the digital nature of the work involved. The company itself does not need a big office space; hell, they might not even need an office at all! Unless in special circumstances, their clients are not walk-in customers – more like click-at-the-button customers. The point we are trying to drive here is that digital marketing agency does not have a lot of overheads like other types of businesses. The cost of starting and running the business will certainly be a lot more affordable compared to starting a brick-and-mortar business that required walk-in customers.
As long as the staff is highly competent at their work, they have the prerequisite certification and experience, and the business adheres to the local federal business regulations. There is not much cost that will break your account. All you have to worry about is to deliver ROI to the businesses coming to ask for your services.
A Niche-Service Agency
There are some aspects of digital marketing that would be better served by a niche-service agency. That is a digital marketing agency specialized in a very unique field. For instance, Amazon advertising, Walmart Marketplace advertising, and voice search optimization. There are only about a handful of clients out there who will need these niche digital marketing services.
Thus, you are likely not to find that many types of such agencies serving in these niche markets. From a client point of view, it will mean having to deal with Agency X for Task A, Agency Y for Task B, and Agency Z for Task C. That cannot only get expensive but also frustrating in the event one task need to sync smoothly with another task, but since they were executed by two different entities it becomes impossible to achieve.
For such reasons, most clients prefer working with a single full-service agency. Who can handle your website, the content, the emailing, SEO, SMM, social media, and other tasks.
How Does an Agency Reach a Decision on How Much to Charge?
So let us say, you as an entrepreneur founded a digital marketing agency, and have recruited other talents for a wide spectrum of the field. A business has approached you, how will you decide on how much to charge for your services? Well, unfortunately, there is no straight answer to that question. That is because there is a lot of variables that come into play, including:
The Experience and Authority of Your Agency
If you have been in business for a long time, and have built a brand for yourself, then you will definitely ask for higher pay. That is when compared to a new agency that recently walked onto the scene. The new agency will likely charge less since they first need to prove themselves, and they might find it hard to persuade a client who has not seen or heard about the ROI of engaging their services. From this front, the question of how much you will charge depends on how much authority you command in the industry and the experience you have in the market.
The Requested Deliverables
How much you charge also depends on what you are being asked to deliver. For instance, a client asking for your graphic design services for a company logo should be charged less than a client asking for web design. Another instance is if a client approaches you asking for copywriting services for a one-time project for their website copy, and another comes asking for content marketing services for regular blog posts. The latter will be charged more than the former.
The Complexity of the Strategy Involved
If the client approaches your agency with a task that is highly involving and will commit your company for a long time. They will pay higher compared to a client whose work can be finished quickly and is less involving. For instance, a client in need of SEO services should understand that getting their website to rank high on Search Engine Result Pages (SERPs) cannot be an overnight thing. It is a long-term strategy that needs time and a highly detailed strategy in line with the prevailing search engine algorithm standards. Thus, will have to pay high. On the other hand, someone in need of a website, which is perhaps not too interactive, will have to pay less.
The Required Turnaround
Some clients come with impromptu orders — caught in a rush to beat a deadline and need the work done ASAP. Such orders will obviously strain your work schedule especially if you were currently handling other orders from different clients. To accommodate such impromptu orders, you need drastic changes in your schedule or even rope in an extra pair of hands. Thus such orders should be charged higher compared to when the turnaround was within a reasonable window period.
The Amount of Work in the Given Order
If a company approached your agency for SEO and you discovered the first problem is the coding of their website. So your work will begin much backward, with technical SEO, where you check the CSS and structure of the web design. After which you will embark on the keyword placement on the content of the website. Such work will require higher pay, than had the client come in with the website up to the standard.
The Size of Your Agency
The bigger your agency the more you will likely charge your client. That is because you are dealing with more overheads, the extra talents on your payroll, the bigger facility and equipment you require to execute your work and so forth. All factors held constant, a smaller agency should charge less compared to a bigger agency. Of course, that is not rule cast in stone, as you may very well find a very competent small agency that has decided to remain small as a business strategy.
When you engage a digital marketing agency, the work might be a one-time thing, but often it goes on for an extended period. One-time jobs include tasks like web design and mobile app development. Other critical digital marketing tasks like SEM, SEO, social media, and content marketing goes on for a long time, as the goal cannot be achieved overnight. Even when achieved, the work needs to continue to maintain the goals achieved.
The agency will rely on multiple digital channels to market the business products and services. However, the usage of those channels will be dependent on the marketing strategy employed, the budget, the type of industry, and the stipulated time frame. During the period, a business engages an agency, the agency will take over all the digital marketing tasks for the business.
The agency will then assign the work to its digital team, from which one person will be chosen as the liaison person who will keep you updated via meetings, phone calls, emails, and reports. These agencies are particularly ideal when the business lacks an in-house expert in the given field of digital marketing. Given their vast experience in the field, they may have more insight than an in-house expert who handles less volume of the work with fewer frequencies compared to such an expert working at a digital marketing agency.
Naturally, the agency will have a deeper understanding of the various channels and the work needed to successfully grow a brand through them. That is because they have dealt with different types of businesses trying to guide them through the given channel. Over time, they must have learned what works, and what doesn’t. That might give them more experience over in-house talent who only works with a single brand.
The future looks promising for digital marketing agencies if the forecast by Forbes is anything to go by. The forecast says that by the year 2021, digital marketing agencies across the US will spend about $120 billion. The observation period was between 2017 and 2021. As companies keep channeling more and more of their marketing and advertising budget towards paid search, online ads, email marketing, display ads among other digital platforms. The research further established that the digital marketing space is growing at a compounded growth rate of 11% from 2017 to 2021.
Data Science and Analytics Making Digital Marketing More Effective
Digital marketers are to a large extent, no longer spending money on anything and wait to see what works, and what does not. Rather, they are investing time and money in cutting edge technologies such as big data, artificial intelligence, robotics, and analytics, which help them make informed decisions.
For instance, using data and artificial intelligence, marketers can forecast consumer behavior patterns. Using that information, they can then direct their marketing efforts towards the fields with the highest ROI. A lot of these agencies are dialing back on uninformed marketing strategies not backed by intelligence.
In Summary…
A digital marketing agency is a marketing and advertising agency that has evolved out of the traditional sales and marketing endeavors to better serve the changing need of the industry. As consumers continue to use the internet and digital platforms for various including communication, learning, studying, research, and making purchases.
Marketers have realized the traditional channels of sales and marketing were becoming less and less effective. Necessitating the need for the marketers to go where the consumers are; on the internet and across the digital platforms. Hence a digital marketing agency is a business set up to serve the digital marketing needs for other businesses. The agency is made up of a mix of talent across the digital marketing spectrum. The agency’s core mandate is to create brand awareness, generate leads, and increase their clients’ revenues.
The digital marketing industry is poised to grow even further both across the US and around the world. That is all thanks to the increasing use of digital platforms with the proliferation of affordable smartphones, tablets, and computers across many homes and businesses. In addition to the fact that internet prices are coming down, with speeds increasing significantly.
Technology has disrupted how businesses conduct their affairs, is as much as how it has changed how consumers purchase products or services. Businesses too are being conducted online in the form of e-commerce. The cost of running marketing campaigns has also dropped significantly thanks to digital marketing. Compared to the traditional mode of marketing, digital marketing is much more affordable to businesses, progress can be measured more accurately and easily.
The future of business and consumption will increasingly lean towards digital platforms, and that often includes the use of technology. Any business wanting to remain relevant and continue making profits must adapt to the changing times.
Article provided by, The Digital Marketing Recruiter– a recruiting firm focused exclusively on filling digital marketing positions throughout the USA
We welcome your inquiries….