What have you done this month to improve your agency’s marketing strategy? Oftentimes agency owners think that marketing is static, hoping that they can launch a campaign, set up a Facebook page, or blast out an email without the need to return to the creative drawing board. If your goals are to stay engaged with your clients and attract new business, you have to adapt to changes in technology, advertising channels, and consumer interests.
In this last post of our agency marketing strategy series, we explore two additional areas of focus when building your own strategy.
1. Control your digital marketing presence.
Aside from your agency’s website being responsive, as we discussed in part 2 of this series, there are several other things to consider in terms of a digital marketing presence. How does your website rank in popular search engines? What are you doing to improve that ranking? If your agency does not have a blog integrated into its website, and you’re not posting unique content on a regular basis, then you are missing out on an opportunity to increase your search performance. This is also a great opportunity to take a proactive sales approach by educating your customers before they buy. Does your agency have well-branded Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and LinkedIn accounts?
It may seem overwhelming to manage all of these digital channels, but a solid understanding of how each online community uses the different platforms, and a clear plan on how your agency plans to engage on them, will yield success. There are also opportunities for strategic online advertisements, like banner ads through search engines, local media websites, and more. Looking for metrics before you purchase any advertisements is important. How many views are these websites getting? Where are the views coming from? What do you know about the people going to these websites? If the answers to these questions lineup with your target demographic, then purchasing advertisements on the web might be a good idea for your agency.
2. Don’t run away from traditional marketing and advertising channels.
While the industry of advertising is certainly changing, you shouldn’t throw out all of things that have worked for your agency in the past. Print advertisements in newspapers and magazines can, and do, still get you new clients and increase brand awareness. Radio and television spots are still seen by thousands of residents in the given coverage area. Direct mail pieces are still making their way into the homes of potential customers.
The key to using these channels effectively is to take a targeted approach, changing up content and messaging based on the demographic. The Yellow Pages are still being printed, and some people are reading them. Though, if your ad in the Yellow Pages is talking about your Facebook page and is targeting someone under the age of 65, you’re not thinking things through. Keep your efforts targeted and local. Make sure that the money you are spending can yield measurable results. But, also understand that not everything you do can be tied to a direct sale. Sometimes branding alone is worth the spend.
It’s never too late to sit down and analyze your agency’s current approach to marketing. When doing so, use our six areas of focus as a starting point. Remember, be clear, define your goals, and get input from people who know this industry the best, your employees.