Many people that come to us donโt understand the difference between a web design company and what we do as a digital marketing agency. Thatโs alright, weโre here to clarify.
Thereโs a lot of web design groups and freelancers that can make you a pretty website. Some of them even do decent work and for many businesses, a functional โbrochureโ website for you to send potential customers to is all you really need. If that is the case, we recommend you work with a web design company or even better, go down to the local coffee shop and support an up and coming young web designer- just ask to see their portfolio first.
Other businesses need something more than just a pretty website hidden in the corner of the web.
They need a responsive website that gets FOUND by potential customers and generates leads that can grow their business.
THIS IS VERY DIFFERENT.
These businesses need a digital marketing strategy that drives traffic to their website all on its own. Then, converts those visitors into leads and/or sales.
Ask yourself this simple question, do you want to send people to your website or do you want your website to send people to you? If it is the latter then you need Spade Design.
If you still arenโt sure if you need a digital marketing agency check out our list:
10 reasons you need a digital marketing strategy
1) Youโre directionless
I find that companies without a digital strategy (and many that do) donโt have clear strategic goals for what they want to achieve online in terms of gaining new customers or building deeper relationships with existing ones. If you donโt have goals, you likely donโt put enough resources into reaching the goals and you donโt use analytics to determine whether youโre achieving those goals.
2) You donโt know your online market share
Customer demand for online services may be underestimated if you havenโt researched this. Perhaps, more importantly, you wonโt understand your online marketplace: the dynamics will be different to traditional channels with different types of customer profile and behavior, competitors, propositions, and options for marketing communications.
3) Existing and start-up competitors will gain market share
If youโre not devoting enough resources to digital marketing or youโre using an ad-hoc approach without a clearly defined strategy, then your competitors will eat your digital lunch!
4) You donโt have a powerful online value proposition
A clearly defined online customer value proposition will help you differentiate your online service encouraging existing and new customers to engage initially and stay loyal. For instance, if your about page is all about you or your company, youโre doing it wrong. Put your value to the client and tell your visitors what you will do for them.
5) You donโt know your online customers well enough
Itโs often said that digital marketing is the โmost measurable medium ever.โ Google Analytics and similar will only tell you volumes. It will not tell you sentiment. You need to use other forms of user feedback tools to identify your weak points and then address them. This can be both direct and indirect.
6) Youโre not integrated (โdisintegratedโ)
Itโs all too common for digital marketing to be completed in silos whether thatโs a specialist digital marketer, sitting in IT or a separate digital agency. It might be easier in some cases but itโs less effective. Everyone agrees that digital marketing works best when integrated with traditional media and all other response channels.
7) Digital doesnโt have enough people/budget given its importance
Insufficient resources will be devoted to both planning and executing digital marketing and there is likely to be a lack of specific e-marketing skills which will make it difficult to respond to competitive threats effectively.
8) Youโre wasting money and time through duplication
Even if you do have sufficient resources they may be being wasted. This is particularly the case in larger companies where you see different parts of the marketing organization purchasing different tools or using different agencies for performing similar online marketing tasks. You need to focus your efforts, get organized.
9) Youโre not agile enough to catch up or stay ahead
If you look at the top online brands like Amazon, Dell, Google, Tesco, Zappos, theyโre all dynamic โ trailing new approaches to gain or keep their online audiences. You need to be ahead of the game.
10) Youโre not optimizing
Every company with a website will have analytics and data, but many senior managers donโt ensure that their teams make or have the time to review and act on them. Once a strategy enables you to get the basics right, then you can progress to continuous improvement of the key aspects of search marketing, site user experience, email and social media marketing.
So thatโs our top 10 ways to know if you need a digital marketing agency or not.
So, do you want to send people to your website or do you want your website to send people to you?
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