Can a Digital & Social Marketing Agency Grow Your Business?

The explosion of social media has driven companies to put a big focus on social media marketing over the past few years. As a small to medium-sized business owner, you’ve probably thought or had a discussion in your company at one point or another and said, “we need a social media presence.” The following discussion may center around which person in my business is the best at Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter. Soon, you have put up a dozen posts, and not one person has responded to what you are posting.

The rise of the internet, indexed search (think Google), and the explosion of social media networks have changed how businesses of all sizes communicate their value proposition.

Where once legacy tactics such as yellow page advertisements or print ads drove traffic to your front door, modern consumers armed with mobile technology expect real-time access to information. They tend to make buying decisions in a matter of a few keystrokes on their devices.

In an “I want it now” time era, it’s essential companies ensure that their branding messages are well executed, easily found on the web by sites that attract attention, and convert eyeballs into actual leads.

If you’re an SME (small to medium enterprise) looking to increase exposure and drive traffic to your website or premises, here are a few things you need to know about working with a digital and social media company.

There are literally billions of people worldwide using social media regularly. Therefore, its benefits as a marketing tool are indisputable.

Businesses who take advantage of this can interact with and attract new customers if they are active and participate in social conversations.

The more regularly you can post to your social media channels, the higher engagement and ROI you’ll see. Such numbers could mean dedicating around an hour each day to monitoring your social channels, posting relevant content, participating in conversations, and growing your following in the process. And there are many times when you do that for several months, and the Facebook and Instagrams of the world suddenly change their algorithms……and the rules change.

According to the 2017 Social Media Marketing Industry Report, 64 per cent of marketing teams report spending six or more hours each week on social media.

For a small business owner who is already spending most of their time on business development and operations, finding spare hours to strategize and dedicate to social media can be difficult.

That’s why outsourcing your social media management to a knowledgeable third party is so important – it can take one key business-building task off your plate.

Here are just a few tasks a social media marketing company could take care of above and beyond simply posting messages:

• Social media strategy – including posting frequency, types of content, keyword research, influencer research, etc.
• Set-up and branding of new or existing social profiles – consistent branding and voice across all your channels is crucial;
• Sharing and commenting on third-party posts that are relevant to your brand;
• Engaging in conversations with other users – be it existing or potential customers;
• Social media monitoring – keeping an eye out for mentions of your company and interacting with those posts;
• Social customer service – responding to questions or complaints from users;
• Following relevant industry influencers or potential business customers/clients;
• Content marketing – helping to develop your original images, memes, articles, blogs, and resources that can be promoted on social media;
• Newsletter marketing – a round-up of your company news and most popular social posts and interactions.

While that list is probably incomplete, it is just a sample of some things a well-round digital and social media company can do for your business or enterprise. First, ask yourself if you have the time and/or inclination to learn all of these individual elements yourself. So, often you are left with a choice: either hire an employee or hire an outside agency. In many instances, business owners lean towards hiring an employee because that has been the de-facto process in the past to solve an immediate need. Additionally, business owners may perceive that an outside agency is far more expensive than hiring in-house staff. The problem with this rationale is that owners don’t have a factual basis for comparison most of the time.

Let’s take a closer look and see what really happens when you compare the two. Disclosures: We used the job position of Marketing Manager for the comparison. Many marketing professionals specialize in marketing, like a social media marketing manager, and may not have the experience that a marketing manager could have. All salary-related data can be found on Salary.com and are based on the National Average salary for a Marketing Manager.

Essentially, the budget needed to hire the right person, purchase all the right marketing tools, and implement a digital and social media strategy designed to meet your business goals becomes too cost-prohibitive when assembling an internal team.

Hiring a knowledgeable marketing agency like Luce Media allows business owners to focus on running operations and increasing the bottom line, not messing around with Facebook, Twitter, or building a website. In the end, the bigger question maybe isn’t can I afford an experienced marketing agency, but rather how much am I costing myself in time, money, and lost opportunity by trying to do these marketing services in-house.