How Agencies Can Help Your One-Person Marketing Department
The wearer of hats, the can-do gal, the jack of all trades—these are the employees of your company who fly solo, often heading up an internal team of one. As a business owner, you rely on them to complete their functions and anything in between. We know them, and we love them.
When you own a small to mid-size business, every decision must be well thought out, strategic, and practical. It also needs to work with your bottom line. At one point in time, you most likely asked yourself, do I invest in another full-time employee to handle my marketing needs, or do I outsource?
Listen, there’s no right answer.
Someone internal holds the power to know your business from the inside out, while an agency partner likely brings a fresh perspective you’ve never thought of.
So, what if you brought the two together? As your business grows, you may find room for both, and this, my friend, is where the magic happens. Full-service marketing agencies like Moxie Creative exist to help internal teams like yours. The key to success here is collaboration, and that is something our team gets so damn excited about.
Let’s dive a little deeper, shall we?
1. Mind the Gap
One of the biggest perks of working with an agency is that it allows you to fill the experience gap. At the top of this post, we touted the phrase “wearer of hats.” In an internal marketing position, these hats may include graphic designer, copywriter, content creator, social media manager, email marketer, webmaster, paid ad specialist, and more. If you can show us a person who is a certified expert in all of these areas, never let them go – they are a unicorn.
However, chances are high that the individual filling your marketing role is an expert at one or two things, and they know enough about the rest to get by, but not be dangerous. And that’s okay! This is where an agency partner can help.
When we work with internal teams of one or more, we consider the gaps. Our team comprises a great mix of experienced marketing professionals with unique talents. You may have a social media guru in-house, but they lack the skills to create captivating graphics and videos—que our award-winning illustrators and designers. Or, perhaps they don’t have the specialist skills to launch an integrated campaign; our marketing strategists can be their right hand.
When using an agency, there is no downside for your team; your success rate only goes up. Like Batman and Robin, your company can reach new heights when the two work together.
2. A Fresh Set of Eyes
In business, perspective is everything. But when you’re doing the damn thing day in and day out, the end goal can get a little lost – that’s where an agency can help.
As the owner or a valued employee within a company, your superpower is knowing your business inside out. From the product to the process, you are an expert on how to get sh*t done. However, when immersed in your business, it can be hard to take your rose-colored glasses off and see things through a customer-focused lens.
For example, you may loathe social media and feel that it’s a waste of resources, such as time and money, since you don’t use it. If this is your mentality, you would be wrong.
While social media may not be for you, it could very well be for your customers. After all, statistics show that upward of 75% of consumers make purchasing decisions after seeing something on social media. So, while you might feel like we’re talking gibberish, we think it’s safe to say your customers are hanging out there.
An agency partner can help you see past your roadblocks. They’ll come in with fresh, non-biased eyes to show your customer’s perspective. From there, you’ll work together to create opportunities for conversion around what your customers want and need.
If you’re working with a good agency, they’ll use data, research, and experience to bring you creative ideas that help your business grow.
3. Checks and Balances
One of the greatest things that can come from an agency partnership is checks and balances.
Your internal team will guide the ship, and an agency partner will ensure it gets back to land. One without the other, and you could end up adrift. Often times when we partner with internal teams, we are inundated with great ideas but no execution, or a lot of execution with no clear strategy. We come in and fix that.
A partnership of this nature ensures that your marketing efforts are both well-planned and well-executed. The agency provides a layer of accountability, while your team providers the expert insight. This collaborative effort creates a dynamic where each party keeps the other in check, leading to a more effective and efficient marketing operation.
Team work makes the dream work, baby!
4. Power In Numbers
Having an agency partner adds to your strength and capacity, providing the additional expertise and manpower that can take your marketing from good to great.
To be a marketing powerhouse, you have to have creative, strategic, and technical know-how. No matter how talented your marketing lead is, that’s a lot of pressure to put on one person. But to combine the powers of many? Well, that’s a different story.
By partnering with an agency, you gain access to a whole team of specialists who can handle everything from social media management and email marketing to search engine optimization (SEO) and website programming. This not only lightens the load for your internal team but ensures that each aspect of your marketing is handled by an expert.
Together, you can tackle larger projects, explore new marketing channels, and innovate in ways that might not have been possible alone. After all, one is the loneliest number.
So, now you have to ask yourself this simple question: is a partnership with an external marketing agency right for you and your business?
We think the proof is in the pudding.
At a fundamental level, a marketing agency is a team of experts specializing in various areas under the marketing umbrella. They work together to help businesses meet their goals through different marketing strategies and tactics.
But no two agencies are the same, and you shouldn’t treat them that way. Take your business, for example. Is someone out there doing the same thing? Do they do it better? Or differently?
Take that same logic and apply it to agencies. Find one that understands your business, shares your vision, and can complement your internal efforts. In doing so, you’ll turn that lonely number of one into a powerful partnership poised for success.
Ready to see how a full-service marketing agency can transform your one-person department? Let’s talk.
