There are a number of ways agencies build and structure their teams. There are also many reasons they may or may not have someone in charge of marketing. If your agency does not have a designated marketing manager, whose focus is branding your agency and driving leads to the sales team, now is the time to change that. With the industry’s landscape changing dramatically and digital marketing infiltrating itself into every corner of our lives, your agency can’t wait any longer. Here are just three of the many reasons why:

1-Building your brand takes time, energy, and skill

Consumers emotionally connect with the businesses they patronize. There are many components that contribute to the overall connection with a brand, including interactions with employees, quality of products and services, social media interactions, sales tactics, public relations efforts, and community involvement, to name a few. Companies that have built a strong brand equity and have created a powerful relationship with their customers have done it with marketing.

Think of a company that you shop at on a regular basis. As soon as you think of it, what happens? My guess is your mind fills with thoughts and emotions about that company. Maybe it’s Starbucks where you get a coffee each morning, and you were filled with a sense of warmth, community, and energy. Or did you think of Google? You think speed, strength, power, with a friendly smile. This doesn’t happen by chance; it is the work of these companies’ brand marketing departments laying the groundwork for the brand and building upon it with public relations, sales, and customer service teams. Everything must be cohesive around a singular brand to ensure consistency.

What emotions does your agency emit? Are your CSRs using the same tone and language as your sales representatives, and does it align with the tone your agency is using on Facebook and LinkedIn? Is there a consistent look to agency marketing materials, using the same typeface, logo, and design elements? You might have a few billion dollars less than Starbucks and Google’s marketing departments, but channeling their approach and aiming for consistency by hiring a marketing manager will result in success.

2- Lead Generation

Your sales representatives can sell to a prospect using a variety of approaches to close the deal. Just because someone is a top producer, it is not implied that they can fill the top of the sales funnel with qualified leads. Sales and marketing are two very different components of your agency’s growth strategy, even though they work closely together. Having a marketing manager in charge of branding your agency and driving leads will allow you to hold producers accountable for that they should be doing: selling, not marketing.

3-Strengthening Your Team

Without a sense of purpose and an understanding of where an agency is heading, it is easy for employees to feel discouraged. Having a marketing manager who is crafting the plan for growth will have a ripple effect throughout your agency. Employees need to know how what they are doing is impacting the agency at large, and whether or not they are contributing to the success. A marketing plan will allow that to happen.