The decision to appoint a marketing agency is not one that should be taken quickly or lightly. For one, it will add extra costs into your business. And sometimes the idea of outsourcing your marketing effort is very attractive but there is always that temptation to try and do too much, do a little bit of everything or just put it in the pile of things to start tomorrow, next week, next month or next year.

Firstly, it’s important to take some time to review what your marketing activity actually looks like at the moment. For smaller businesses or start-ups, it might be that you’re already doing some social media (it’s free and pretty straightforward to set up a few accounts and start posting) and most likely you are getting some referrals from some of your existing clients. For larger businesses, you may have a small in-house team or someone who spends some of their time doing the marketing, but can find it difficult to focus on this more often.

If you are thinking of whether you need to get some outside help via a marketing agency, here are a few things to consider.

Marketing Supports The Overall Business Plan

If you don’t have a business strategy or at least a plan for your current business year, you may want to park marketing for now to save your time and money – and perhaps your sanity from the questions a marketing agency will want to ask you. Everything you do in marketing must be to drive the bigger picture.

For example: to grow revenue by 10%, to start trading in a new location or to win two new clients in a sector you already trade in. Marketing sits within the heart of the strategy of your business, not outside or alongside it.

Think About What Marketing Looks Like For Your Business

The marketing world is now full of different options – whether it’s pushing out marketing messages via outbound campaigns on social media, through email marketing or paid advertising on Google, Meta and LinkedIn, or by developing your Google rankings with improved content marketing.

It can be quite overwhelming to think of what needs to be done (and what will work best). Take the time to consider the following questions…

• Who are we trying to sell to?
• What problems do they have and how can we help them?
• Where are people trying to find solutions to these problems (social media, web search etc)?

Once you have started to answer these questions, you will immediately get a feel for what you need to do and what help is required.

How Do I Start?

Marketing is something that’s easy to talk about or to keep planning for. But there’s nothing like getting started to begin learning what does and doesn’t work. Plus, what’s fun and what isn’t – agencies can share some of the non-fun bit too! Whether it’s a few social media posts, changing some pages on your website or reviewing Google Analytics to see how the website is performing, there are always some easy places to just get cracking.

Once Started… Keep Going

Momentum is massive in marketing. Whilst you always hope there will be that magical moment that achieves your plan, the reality is that like all other functions of a business, marketing has to become part of your daily way of working.

To help with this, a forward-looking plan will ensure you keep on target. From planning what to post on social media, when you need to write new website copy or when you actually take time to review your recent marketing efforts, seeing what needs to get done helps you keep on track and makes it look less daunting when you see it split down by week, month or quarter.

Making The Leap To A Marketing Agency

If you have taken your marketing as far as you can or want to in-house, it might be a good time to start looking at options for getting some help with the next stage. Here are a few things to consider…

• Take the time to look at a local marketing agency and also those further afield who may specialise in marketing for the types of sectors or clients you serve.
• Request a 15-30 minute discovery call with the agency to briefly outline to them what help you need.
• Ask the marketing agency for examples of how they have solved these problems for other clients they have.
• Request they come up with any new ideas or thoughts on how things could be done differently. At the end of the day, you don’t want them doing something you could do yourself.
• Have a specific project or campaign you want them to help you with as a pilot. This gives you a great insight into how the marketing agency works and how the relationship will be.
• Expect a few questions from the agency. Remember, a marketing agency is an extension of your team and business. Working together is vital from an early stage.
• If you can (and subject to location) try and meet with the agency at their offices. This allows you to meet the people who will be working on your campaigns. Some agencies are very small and outsource the work to specialists outside of their business. There are some advantages to this but just make sure it works for you. And if you’re not sure, just ask.

If you would like to discuss any aspect of your marketing, we would be delighted to hear from you and see how we can help – you can even come and see us at our picturesque offices in the rolling Suffolk countryside! Call our Sales Director Carl on 07872 027424 or email enquiries@tridentmarketinguk.com.